WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - According to a recent study, middle-aged former professional soccer players may have shrinkage in important parts of the brain, eventually leading to clinical depression and anxiety in the coming years.
'These findings suggest there may be measurable effects on brain health in former elite soccer players even in midlife, before clinically apparent neurodegenerative disease would typically emerge,' said lead author Caleigh Grace Lynch, a research technician at Imperial College London in the UK.
For the study, researchers compared 142 former professional soccer players, which included 126 men who had played professionally for at least three years and 16 women who had competed in professional soccer in the UK. The participants also included 56 people who had served in the military but had no history of repeated head injuries or participation in contact sports. All participants were between 30 and 60 years old.
The results, presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in London, showed that 31 percent of the former soccer players had symptoms of clinically significant depression, compared with 9 percent of people in the control group. Similarly, 42 percent of the former soccer players had severe anxiety symptoms, compared with 25 percent of the control group.
In addition to this, MRI scans also showed that the former soccer players had shrinkage in several areas of the brain that are responsible for memory, attention, decision-making, and emotional control. The researchers said these changes may be linked to repeated head impacts in soccer, mainly from heading the ball, where players use their heads to direct the ball during play.
'By following participants over time, we hope to better understand how repetitive head impacts may influence long-term brain health and neurodegenerative disease, and help inform strategies to make sports safer for future generations,' senior researcher Dr. Thomas Parker, a consultant neurologist at Imperial College London, said in a news release.
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