From Part One: While the NHL has yet to conduct its own independent study or even release its own statistics, data gathered by various outside sources have revealed an upward trend in the number of concussions in the league since 2006.
“[It has] definitely [been frustrating]. It’s tough, because obviously we all love sports, but to know what comes of it is very frustrating.”-Sydney Wojtowicz, research assistant at Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy
Since he took over in 1993, commissioner Gary Bettman has attempted to make the NHL more marketable in the US by speeding the game up. (Photo: Stephen Chernin-Getty Images via Sports Illustrated)
“The NHL has a really big problem and it’s been happening for a while,” CBS New York hockey columnist Brian Daniel Gallof said. “Since Bettman took charge [in 1993], they’ve tried to make it a more palatable game for the US market. By doing so, they’ve sped it up…the problem is the speed of the game is also causing much more head injuries. I’ve spoken to people from the NHL; I’ve spoken to people from the team. They will all say, off the record, that that does have an effect to it.”
While the speed of the game has increased, the equipment, specifically the helmet, has not kept pace. Unfortunately, the primary purpose of headgear is to protect the skull, not the brain itself.
“Helmets are not designed to protect against concussion,” Dr. Ruben Echemendia, founder of the Clinical Neuropsychology Laboratory at Penn State University, said in an interview with Patty Satalia for Conversations from Penn State. “Some would argue that the weight of the helmet actually makes it worse because it creates more of a pendulum swing, if you will, to the head.”
Image via Fred Thornhill-Reuters
Echemendia added that the biomechanics are worried that a helmet designed to protect against concussions would leave a player more susceptible to skull fractures and other traumatic injuries that have almost been completely eliminated.
Sydney Wojtowicz, a research assistant at the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (BU CSTE), echoed Dr. Echemendia’s sentiments regarding helmets, adding that the directional force of most hits would render the extra padding useless.
“Obviously, the helmets help,” Wojtowicz said. “As far as extra padding goes, I don’t think that would help, because it’s more of the rotational force than how hard you’re hit or how you’re hit.”
As one would expect, the amount of time lost due to head injuries has increased with the number of concussions in the league. However, this surge in the length of time lost due to head injuries, hearkens to a larger problem according to Gallof.
“Basically, when you see these guys get hit and they’re out for a long time, it is because of a conglomeration of how many head hits and how many concussions they’ve had in the past,” Gallof said. “These players who you’re seeing out for a long time have probably had undiagnosed concussions in the [American Hockey League], maybe even in Pee Wee hockey, and the effects of it are much more long-term and they’re much more susceptible to getting it again.”
Researchers at BU CSTE found evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease which many believe to be linked to repeated head trauma, in NHL enforcer Derek Boogaard. (Image: Timothy Ludwig-US Presswire via Grantland)
A potentially major consequence of repeated head trauma presented itself last May when New York Rangers forward Derek Boogaard was found dead in his Minneapolis apartment at the age of 28.
Boogaard, who inked a four-year, $6.5 million contract during the 2010 offseason, played just 22 games in his only season with the Rangers due to a concussion he sustained during a fight with Ottawa’s Matt Carkner on Dec. 9, 2010. Prior to signing with New York, the Saskatchewan-native spent six seasons with the Minnesota Wild.
While the official cause of death was attributed an accidental overdose of the painkiller oxycodone mixed with alcohol, researchers at the BU CSTE found evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated brain trauma. This trauma triggers progressive degeneration of the brain and a buildup of an abnormal protein called tau, which appears as dark brown spots on the victim’s brain.
According to Wojtowicz, CTE was first described in boxers in the 1950s. However, it has become more relevant over the past few years due to an increased focus from researchers.
Boogaard participated in about 174 fights and suffered at least three concussions over the course of his NHL career. (Image: Jimmy Jeong-The Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail)
Currently, CTE can only be diagnosed post-mortem, making it difficult for researchers to pinpoint its exact cause or any potential warning signs.
“We don’t have any clinical biomarkers to diagnose it in someone who’s alive,” Wojtowicz said. “So, the way we diagnose it is, when we get someone’s brain we run some, for lack of a better term, tests. We take some stains and we look for the biomarkers that you can see neuropathologically.”
In the case of Boogaard, who participated in approximately 174 fights and sustained at least three concussions over his professional career, the buildup of the tau protein in his brain was startling.
“To see this amount? That’s a ‘wow’ moment,” BU CSTE brain bank director Dr. Ann McKee, the doctor who examined Boogaard’s brain, said in an interview with John Branch of the New York Times.
According to the official release from BU, the degeneration in Boogaard’s cerebral cortex was “more advanced than most other athletes of similar age with CTE examined by Dr. McKee.”
Despite strong evidence from researchers suggesting a connection between repeated head trauma and CTE, the NHL has been quick to downplay their findings.
“There isn’t a lot of data, and the experts who we talked to, who consult with us, think it’s way premature to be drawing any conclusions at this point,” Bettman said in an interview with the Times. “Because we’re not sure that any, based on the data we have available, is valid.”
For researchers, like Wojtowicz, the NHL’s response is aggravating.
“[It has] definitely [been frustrating],” she said. “It’s tough, because obviously we all love sports, but to know what comes of it is very frustrating.”
"In both sets of photographs, above, the brain tissue has been immunostained for tau protein, which appears as a dark brown color."-Click the image above for more information on CTE from Boston University
[...] Part 2: The Double-Edged Sword [...]