Playing football can damage your brain, research reveals.
New research has predicted that the mental health of footballers may deteriorate after the age of 65 years.
Playing sports like football involves engaging in tough physical work which often ends up in injuries. Sometimes the injuries can be serious. However, playing sports are usually considered as a stress reliver. Therefore, considered to be good for one’s mental health.
On the contrary to the common view, new research reveals perplexing future mental health of the footballers. It predicted that football players are more prone to mental health problems in old age as compared to people who do not play football. So, playing football can damage your brain
According to the research, “In the 40- to 50-year-old age group, the footballers are performing a bit better than the normal group. But when they get to 65, that’s when things are starting to go wrong. This shows us that the exercise associated with playing football is good for the brain, but the negative effects of contact sport do begin to appear later in life.”
It asserted that heading the ball damages the brain, which is not detectable at younger age, but the signs slowly appear with age. Experiments were conducted for the study in which the footballers were noticed to have slow reaction time. Moreover, their reflexes and memory loss were also noticed.
Footballers also face issues in focusing and multitasking. Furthermore, the chances of death due to dementia were also higher in footballers than in normal people.
The sports specialist Dr. Michael Grey of the University of East Anglia’s School of Health Sciences revealed, “We know that heading the ball has been associated with an increased risk of dementia among professional football players. But until now, little has been known about when players start to show signs of brain health decline. We are using cutting-edge technology to test for early signs of cognitive dysfunction that are identifiable long before any memory problems or other noticeable symptoms become apparent. This is the first time this type of research has been done and these are the first results as we follow our participants’ brain health for the next few years.”
