Head hits by soccer players are associated with sleep disorders and dementia

A study by the Hospital Clínic has associated the fact that having been soccer player professionalism is a risk factor for developing, decades after withdrawal, sleep disorders in REM phase and dementia due to repeated blows to the head during the game, which advises implementing preventive measures, especially from an early age.

The study, published in the Journal of Neurology, was coordinated by Dr. Álex Iranzo, a neurologist at the Hospital Clínico and head of the clinical neurophysiology group at the IDIBAPS research center, and consisted of studying the data of 228 male patients treated for suffering REM sleep disorder.

Under normal conditions, in this phase the person does not move or speak, but those who suffer from this disorder, who are mainly men over 50, make sudden movements, talk and have recurring nightmares.

Scientific evidence has already shown that this type of disorder ends up leading to dementia with Lewy bodies or Parkinson’s disease.

The Clínic study analyzed 228 men diagnosed with REM sleep disorder between 1994 and 2022 and observed that six (2.63%) had been professional soccer players 40 years earlier, with an average career span of 13 years.

Of the six retired footballers, five of them went on to develop Parkinson’s or Lewy body dementia four years after the REM sleep disorder, 44 years after leaving football.

The data was compared with another group of 228 men with other sleep disorders than REM sleep and none of them had been soccer players (0%), whereas, in the general population, the percentage of men who were professional soccer players for the 60s and 70s of the last century turned out to be 0.062%.

In this way, the researchers found that, although the soccer players who ended up with REM disorders and dementia were a minority, they represented a higher percentage compared to the general population.

So, “REM sleep disorder is statistically associated with having been a soccer player and later with developing a neurodegenerative disease and, although we don’t know why it happens, one hypothesis is head injuries”Iranzo has indicated.

The Sports Medicine consultant doctor at the Gil Rodas Clinic has remarked for his part that this and other studies on contact sports corroborate the need to apply preventive measures to reduce blows to the head.

Six days before returning to competition

Rodas has indicated that, in the case of head trauma due to the collision of two players during the dispute for a ball, a period of six days should be respected, if no complications are observed, before returning to the competition.

In this gradual recovery, you must wait 24 hours and, if there are no symptoms, start from the second day with only aerobic exercise (such as cycling) and gradually increase physical activity.

protect children

Rodas has highlighted that women and children are more at risk of suffering concussions from blows, so “You have to take more care of them.”

In this sense, it has valued initiatives such as those already applied by the English football federation to limit head butting in minors during training.

Other studies have observed that the incidence of head injuries is lower in sports in which players wear helmets, such as American football or ice hockey, although experts rule out that this or similar protection measures may be applicable to soccer.

“It is more a question of education to avoid crashes and promote ‘fair play’, although muscle physiotherapy strategies can also be applied that strengthen the neck and reduce the traumatic impact on the head”has highlighted Iranzo for his part.

Source: EFE