UFC donates $1,000,000 to Ruvo Center
UFC Chief Operating Officer Ike Lawrence Epstein has announced that the league will contribute one million dollars to Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, over five years.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease found in people who have suffered repetitive brain trauma, including sub-concussive hits to the head that do not cause immediate symptoms. The disease was previously called dementia pugilistica, and familiarly as “punch drunk.”
Formerly believed to be limited primarily to boxing, its high rate in the NFL is now being acknowledged. It has also been found in soccer, ice hockey, professional wrestling, and other contact sports who have experienced repetitive brain trauma.
The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas has been studying CTE in combat sports since 2011. It now has more than 600 participants, including 44 female fighters.
UFC Chief Operating Officer Ike Lawrence Epstein has announced that the league will contribute one million dollars to the Center, over five years. The grant will be in support of the center’s Professional Fighters Brain Health Study, which seeks to understand the long-term effects of brain trauma in mixed martial arts and boxing.
Pashtana Usufzy has the story of the LVRJ.
The goal of the study is not just to gather data on trauma but also to determine if brain damage can be detected early enough for intervention, Ruvo Center Associate Medical Director Dr. Charles Bernick said.
So far in the study, scientists are seeing changes in the brain that correlate with differences in testing performance, he said.
Researchers also believe they’ve developed a way to use PET scans to detect tau, a protein involved in chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
The UFC is not only helping fund the Ruvo Center study; it’s actively recruiting participants.
“We’re really pushing all of our athletes to make sure they come to this facility and get tested and be part of this study because that’s the key to all of this,” Epstein said.
UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin went through testing. He said he hopes the results of the study won’t push athletes away from the sport but instead give them insight into the best ways to train.
“There’s a level of danger to it,” Griffin said. “Let’s not hide from that. Let’s look and see what can be done, how risky is this and what we need to do about it.”
