sullydnl
Ross Kemp's caf ID
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2012
- Messages
- 34,063
That's part of the current problem, there isn't enough research. So they're calling for more funding for research and measures like reduction of headers in training and restrictions for children in the meantime pending further evidence. In fact in the case of children those restrictions already exist (guidelines are that under 12s shouldn't be heading the ball) but the calls from the likes of Geoff Hurst are for an actual ban.How accurate is the science? There are a lot of people that play football globally, I find it hard to believe that dementia can be linked directly to football. Something wrong with the model they've used, must contain bias. Remember most people that develop dementia are old. How long have they been running the study? What is the sample and population data?
As it stands the best research so far on football specifically was a 22-month research project by the University of Glasgow that looked at the cause of death for 7,676 ex-pros versus a population average. It found that the ex-footballers were three and a half times more likely to suffer from dementia. There was also a five-fold increase in the risk of Alzheimer’s, a four-fold increase in motor neurone disease and a two-fold increase in Parkinson’s.
There was still a lot of work to be done in confirming that heading in particular was the issue, as well assessing the effect changes in equipment and/or in the way the game is now played (with much fewer headers in a game) has already had. However, there are also studies from other sports from which you could conclude that the impact of even a modern football repeatedly hitting your skull is unlikely to be irrelevant.