NSAC to require fighter participation in brain study
The NSAC is requiring all licensed mixed martial artists and boxers to undergo regular brain health testing.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is one of the biggest issues in contact sports. The condition has been recognized for generations in boxing, where it was inescapable the some fighters developed a loss of cognitive and/or motor function, and became “punch drunk.”
Precious little is understood however. It is an accumulation of minor shots to the head that causes it, or a few massive knockouts? Does head trauma in youths speed the process? And perhaps above all, why do some fighters get CTE while others are immune?
Why does George Foreman retain all of his intellect and wit, while Fernando Vargas is slipping away?
The largest study of its kind began in April 2011 at Cleveland Clinic’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. Researchers led by Charles Bernick, MD, MPH, are working with the Nevada Athletic Commission, and leading boxing and MMA promotions to try to learn why.
Early last year an extension site of the Las Vegas study opened in Cleveland, helping to reach the pool of East Coast based fighters.
Now in a major step forward, the NSAC is requiring all licensed mixed martial artists and boxers to undergo regular brain health testing, using an iPad app. The new protocol will begin in June or July.
Pashtana Usufzy and Adam Hill have the story for the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Nevada has always been at the forefront of fighter safety, and we’re proud and excited to be implementing this policy, Nevada Athletic Commission Executive Director Bob Bennett said before the official announcement. It’s not going to cost the fighters anything, and it takes 15 minutes.
The athletes will be required to undergo assessments using the Cleveland Clinic C3 application, an iPad-based testing tool in the Ruvo Center’s Professional Fighters Brain Health Study, Bernick said.
The health study, established in 2011, uses C3 to assess brain health and function in about 650 participants, all of whom are active or retired fighters representing sports from boxing to Muay Thai.
We’re extremely pleased by the commission’s decision to require regular brain health testing using the C3 app in Nevada, which was a decision influenced largely by data collected from the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study, Bernick said in a news release.
Bernick also said he hopes other sports commissions follow Nevada’s lead.
Among the findings of the Ruvo Center study so far are brain changes that researchers say correlate with differences in testing performance.
Researchers also believe they might be able to use PET (positron emission tomography) scans to detect the protein tau, which builds up during progressive degeneration of brain tissue and appears to be involved in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, according to Bernick and Boston University’s CTE Center.
Confirmation of the progressive brain disease for now is done only after death.
