Seau's Brain May Provide Information to Help Athletes Avoid Dementia

By Dorian Martin, Health Guide Friday, May 04, 2012

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First of all, let me express my condolences to the family and friends of former NFL player Junior Seau. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it must be to learn that someone who had become such an integral part of the San Diego community took his own life by a self-inflicted gunshot to his...

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Carol Bradley Bursack, Health Guide

5/ 4/12 1:07pm

Junior Seau's tragic death is mourned by many. It's generous of his family to try to find some good in it by helping others. NFL players have an increased risk of Alzheimer's, likely due to repeated head injuries. The fact that Seau's family will allow scientists to study his brain could result in new information about the human brain, in general, and the effect of head injuries on the brain. Sad news about Junior Seau. Blessings to his friends and family.

Carol

DrNoSA

5/ 4/12 2:01pm

Ninty percent of retired NFL linesmen have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Fifty percent of retired NFL backfield have OSA. MRI-DTI brain scans in subjects who go untreated for their OSA, reveal multiple areas of brain damage. When the area in the brain called area 25 is damaged (in the midfrontal lobes), the result is depression, sometimes suicidal depression. This can be prevented by treating OSA with a CPAP machine. (Recent recommendations are to check blood B3 and B12 levels and treat when too low because they are beginning to look like part of the problem).

Bottom line: EVERYONE should be checked for sleep apnea, low B3 and low B12 and treated when abnormal.

Carol Bradley Bursack, Health Guide

5/ 5/12 9:01am

Thanks for the update. I've read a lot about B12 and some possible connections with AD symptoms. Anything we can do for ourselves to prevent possible AD is good.

Take care,

Carol

DrNoSA

5/ 7/12 1:23pm

Oops! I should have said D3 not B3. That's "vitamin" D the sunshine "vitamin" (which is actually a hormone). Apparently a lot of us are deficient because we homo sapiens don't get out in the sun like we used to.

Seau's Brain May Provide Information to Help Athletes Avoid Dementia

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