Brain Injury Insider Episode 138: Can Heading a Soccer Ball Damage Your Brain?

Today I want to discuss a recent study with potentially wide implications for anyone who plays soccer — even at the amateur level — and even for those who have never been diagnosed with a concussion. 

Heading a soccer ball repeatedly might damage your brain, even if you never are knocked out, see stars, or diagnosed with a concussion.

In one of the largest studies yet to look at the effects of soccer headers in non-professional players researchers found:

Players who had repeatedly headed a soccer ball showed changes in a part of the brain called the gray-white matter interface, an area located in the orbitofrontal region.  An area just behind the eyes. 

When the skull is struck and then the brain bounces around the interior of the skull, this region of the brain is sensitive to injury.   

The brain changes found on testing were related to memory and learning. 

Importantly, many of these players had no history of diagnosed concussion.

Researchers concluded that the damage to the brain is cumulative and related to the repetitive hits. 

Watch this episode on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClsOESvmUcQ

Find out more about brain injury at https://brainlaw.com/brain-injuries/help/

Brain Injury Insider is a weekly podcast by The Brain Injury Law Firm ®, De Caro & Kaplen, LLP.

Host Michael Kaplen is a passionate advocate of the rights of brain injury survivors, and has been fighting on their behalf for over 40 years.

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