This information is being posted to remind our skiers and snowboarders that brain injury is a risk in snow sports. However, this risk can be reduced by following some precautionary measures, such as wearing a helmet, following the rules of the mountain and being proactive in the event of an injury. For more information on this topic, go to Snow Safety: Protect Your Head.
Two new studies, one in veterans and the other in pro-football players, find that brain injury, be it a minor concussion or a very serious brain injury can lead to dementia. With each concussion, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia later in life increases. The studies, reported Monday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in France, challenge the current view that only moderate or severe brain injuries predispose people to dementia.
Don't panic – this doesn't mean that every soldier or student athlete who has had a concussion is in danger. Pro-football players and boxers "are almost a different species from us" in terms of the repeated blows they take to the head, said William Thies, the Alzheimer's Association's scientific director. It does mean you should try to avoid one, by fall-proofing your home and wearing helmets and seat belts, he said. About 1.7 million brain injuries occur each year in the U.S.
"What the people who have had a head injury and read this should do is to exercise and eat right and take their medicines and take their aspirin and do meditation to reduce stress – reduce risk factors that are modifiable," he said. The new study is "a great start," but limitations in its methods mean that it can't prove a brain injury-dementia link, he said. More definitive studies are starting now but will take many years to give results.
To read more about these studies, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/18/brain-injury-dementia-risk_n_901512.html
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