CTE and Traumatic Brain Injuries

During Dr. Kmiecik’s presentation about traumatic brain injuries, I became interested in a topic in sports. I was intrigued by the concept of CTE and how they would relate. I went on to ask Dr. Kmiecik about how they relate, and he said he was’t quite sure due to him looking only at one time injuries. This led me too look into it a bit more and found an article on New York Times written by Kim Tingley titled “Do Brain Injuries Affect Women Differently”.

In the article, it talks about the reasons the NFL started looking at brain injuries. Many of its players were retiring with concussion related issue like headaches, vertigo, and personality changes. Dr. Valera, a woman, was confused to as why there was no studies focusing on the violence that occurs the home with women. In her study all the woman had recurring mild brain injuries while a few a TBI’s. She continued investigating and found that women have recurring TBI’s at 100x the rate of NFL players. 

Later in the article Tingley goes on to talk about a major issue. This issue is the defunding of studies that show that less impactful hits can still have a major detrimental effect on brain structure. She goes on to relate this to the underfunding of women studies in this same category. It is completely unfair to have less resources given to a gender use because they aren’t famous. 

To wrap up the article, she states the other issues surrounding the brain. She invites us to look at the disservice that has been given to studying brain injuries. Being able to study CTE and it effects on brain structure could eventually lead us to understand more intricate brain issues. She talks about Alzheimers and how increasing the funding in studies regarding women and TBI’s could possibly give insight into that diseases who affects women much more than men. Unfortunately, CTE research is at a stalemate and really only happens to benefit men, primarily those that are rich and famous.

Citation:

Tingley, Kim. “Do Brain Injuries Affect Women Differently?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 June 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/06/26/magazine/do-brain-injuries-affect-women-differently-than-men.html?searchResultPosition=4.

Link To Articles:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/26/magazine/do-brain-injuries-affect-women-differently-than-men.html?searchResultPosition=4

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hdluh1vfs2cphhz/AADkUGenmJTHeCqBGMv8n-yLa/(03.10.20)%20-%20Matt%20Kmiecik?dl=0&preview=Kmiecik-2018-Hayling.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1