Fighters' brains damaged long before symptoms emerge, study hints

[bemildred]

Boxers and mixed martial arts fighters begin losing brain volume — as brain cells die — after six years of fighting, a yearlong study finds. Those who fight longer than 12 years expose themselves to an even greater decline each time they return.

A yearlong study of boxers' and mixed martial-arts fighters' brain activity has found those who fight for more than six years begin to experience damage and those who fight longer than 12 years expose themselves to an even greater decline each time they return to the ring.

"What we've found suggests changes and damage in the brain happens years before symptoms emerge," said Dr. Charles Bernick, author of the study. "It's what we see in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients."

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-boxing-medical-study-20120419,0,3555145.story