The price of life

First soccer, rugby players diagnosed with CTE

By Stephanie Smith, CNN

February 28, 2014 -- Updated 1704 GMT (0104 HKT)

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in many athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma. Symptoms include depression, aggression, and disorientation, but so far scientists can only definitively diagnose it after death. Hall of Famer Mike Webster was the first former NFL player to be diagnosed with CTE. After his retirement, Webster suffered from amnesia, dementia, depression, and bone and muscle pain.

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Athletes with CTE

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A new study identifies CTE in soccer and rugby players
• CTE can develop from repeated blows to the head
• The research raises questions about "heading" in soccer

(CNN) -- The disease that carves an insidious path through the brain seems to be doing the same through sports.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease associated with concussions, has been identified in both a soccer and a rugby player, according to a review in the journal Acta Neuropathologica.

The brain tissue of people found to have CTE displays an abnormal build-up of tau -- a protein that, when it spills out of cells, can choke off, or disable, neural pathways controlling things like memory, judgment and fear. CTE can be diagnosed only after death.

Strange and sad news, I can’t believe it. This news talks about that many rugby and football players have CTE, a Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease associated with concussions. It’s sad hearing news like this because maybe it’s caused for the blows that live in every training and in every match. I’m not a fanatic of rugby, but I admire how they fight to win, they have to fight, run, jump, fall down and then get up off the ground.

I have seen a few matches, and when it’s raining, its amazing sees these athletes fighting and playing in mud. I suppose that these things are things of sport, like when a football player breaks a bone, or have an important injury. Like a football player, I think that all the athletes or people who play a sport seriously don’t think about what can happen in a match, they only think in practice the sport that they really like, training hard, and then plays the match. Are sad news, but I’m sure that all the things that sport gives to the people worth it, I mean, in that case it’s a tragedy, because you don’t know that you have CTE until you die, but in sport, like in life, if you want something, you have to pay a price for it, though sometimes, this price is very expensive. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/28/health/cte-soccer-rugby/index.html?hpt=hp_t3