- Nearly one million people in the United States and more than 8.5 million worldwide live with Parkinson’s disease.
- Sports with a high risk of head trauma, such as boxing and soccer, have been associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s.
- Now, a study has suggested that American football may also increase the risk by as much as 61%.
According to the
People who play contact sports are more likely than the general population to sustain head trauma. Studies have associated head trauma with neurodegenerative disorders such as
Now, a new study led by researchers from Boston University has linked American football with an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s, with the greatest risk seen in those who played the sport for the longest and at the highest level.
The study is published in
In the new study, the researchers used data from 1,875 men who participated in sports — 729 men who played football, mostly at the amateur level, and 1,146 who played non-football sports (the control group). All the participants were enrolled in Fox Insight, an online clinical study of Parkinson’s sponsored by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Dr. Michael S. Okun, Parkinson’s Foundation National Medical Advisor, Adelaide Lackner Professor of Neurology and Executive Director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at the University of Florida Health, not involved in the study, stressed its importance:
“It is critically important we collect and publish more data on the relationship of contact sports, concussion and the later risk of Parkinson’s…
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