Brain Doctor: These Popular Sports Are Causing Brain Damage & The NFL Is Keeping This Devastating Disease Quiet!

Ann McKee (0:00)

In a study of 152 young athletes, most of them had brain damage from small repetitive hits to the head, and it really destroys a person's life. That is shocking news, but medical professionals don't take it seriously. And the NFL wanted me to present my findings, but they didn't believe me. And so there was a huge effort to really discredit me.

SPEAKER_2 (0:21)

Dr. Ann McKee is the world leading brain scientist who runs the world's biggest brain bank. She's revealing groundbreaking research on the serious life-threatening consequences of playing sport.

Ann McKee (0:31)

these injuries are acceleration, deceleration very rapidly and twisting of the brain. And that frees the nerve cells. And then over time, the disease progresses. And this protein called tau, it stains brown and it starts spreading through the brain. And we have lots of evidence that this is happening in contact sports, but also in military veterans, domestic violence, et cetera. And it causes depression, personality changes, aggressive and violent behaviors, or maybe the person takes their own life. Look at Aaron Hernandez and Wyatt Bramwell, 18 years old. He was an American football player and he videotaped himself before taking his own life.

Wyatt Bramwell (1:07)

My head is pretty messed up and damaged. The voices and demons in my head just started to take over everything I wanted to do.

Steven Bartlett (1:14)

He shot himself in the heart instead of the head because it was his dying wish to donate his brain.

Ann McKee (1:20)

Yeah, I saw multiple CTE lesions in many parts of his brain.

Steven Bartlett (1:24)

Caused by playing tackle football for several years.

Ann McKee (1:27)

yes, and every time you see it in a young person you just can't get over it.

Steven Bartlett (1:32)

It's a lot for you to carry.

Ann McKee (1:34)

There are some days that are darker than others, but we're not where I'd like us to be.

Steven Bartlett (1:37)

What do we do about this?

Ann McKee (1:39)

We have to.

Steven Bartlett (1:47)

Ann McKee, what is the mission that you're on with your life and your professional endeavors?

Ann McKee (1:54)

Well, my mission in life has taken abrupt change about 17 years ago. When I first saw CTE in the brain of a football player, and I realized that the play of football was associated with a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease. So my first two cases in football players were 45-year-old men. And I was stunned to see CTE in their brains. 45 is extremely young for a neurodegenerative disease. And then my third case was actually an 18-year-old where I saw the beginnings of CTE in the brain of a high school player. And I've never looked back since then. When you talk to the families and you hear the tragedy that they experience, the heartache of living with these people who change before their eyes, their personality changes, their mood changes, they become people they don't recognize. And then they live through often an accidental death or maybe the person takes their own life. And it's the result of almost a coincidence of seeing that those changes in the brains of American football players. I immediately just wanted to eradicate this disease.

Steven Bartlett (3:09)

What is CTE?

Ann McKee (3:11)

So CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. And it's a neurodegenerative disease of the brain, which means it over time, decades usually, it gradually gradually robs you of your ability to think clearly or remember things and ultimately you end up with dementia. What's interesting about CTE is that there's a cause, an environmental cause, it's triggered by trauma, specifically small repetitive hits to the head. The kind that people don't even notice when they're playing contact sports. Some of these hits result in concussion, but actually it's more importantly, the sub-concussive or non-concussive hits that happen routinely in the play of football and very often in the play of other contact sports like ice hockey, rugby and soccer. The disease starts out as isolated areas of abnormality in the brain, sort of spots in the brain, in the cortex, usually in the frontal lobes.

And then over time, as the person ages, even if they stop playing the sport, stop getting hit in the head, the disease progresses. The tau that started very folcally in very restricted areas starts spreading through the brain. It invades the areas that are important for memory and learning. It takes over the brain stem. It causes motor problems, memory problems, cognitive problems. And it really destroys a person's life.

Steven Bartlett (4:37)

And some of those sports and lifestyle choices that are likely to encourage CTE, you mentioned the NFL sort of American football, you mentioned soccer, which is heading the ball, fighting?