Study: Young Football Players Can Experience Brain Disruptions After One Season
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- You can suffer changes in your brain after just one season of playing football, a new study reveals.
The study, which was published in the medical journal Radiology, focused on 25 male players between ages 8 and 13 and used advanced MRIs.
"The brain is continuing to develop until we're well into our 20s, so any disruption of that makes you wonder whether we're doing the right thing," Dr. Derek Chong, a neurologist with Lenox Hill Hospital, said.
"A lot of it has to do with the attitude and teaching to protect their heads, instead of using as part of the tackling aspect. A lot of it has to do with the training."
The researcher plans to study the kids for awhile, even after they stop playing football.
"This is why I had to pull him out," said Dani Gregory, mother of a 13-year-old football player. "He has no idea, the force. He throws himself in there, he loves it. I don't like watching it."
