Concussion guidance for sports sidesteps brain-disease link — critics are baffled

But some researchers have criticized the authors’ work. “Their refusal to acknowledge a causal relationship between contact-sports participation and CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] is a danger to the public,” says Chris Nowinski, a neuroscientist and chief executive of the Concussion Legacy Foundation in Middletown, Delaware, which supports athletes and veterans affected by concussions and CTE.

“I think it is a legitimate criticism of many of the case series studies that they didn’t look at other confounding factors,” says Cantu. These include a broad range of considerations from a person’s educational attainment, socioeconomic status and diet to whether they have cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

Nowinski says that the link between CTE and concussion is evident. “CTE is caused by repeated head impacts and most frequently seen in the context of contact sports participation,” says Nowinski. “The majority of individuals being exposed to repetitive head impacts are children. We encourage sports organizations to listen to the independent experts and begin to aggressively take steps to prevent CTE. Failure to act will cause more athletes to develop CTE, and more families to suffer,” he adds.

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Experts say influential group’s guidance on CTE is too weak | CNNIn a statement Wednesday, the Concussion in Sport Group, a panel of the world’s leading experts on concussion and head trauma, stopped short of definitively linking the brain disease CTE with repeated head trauma.
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