Connection Between Dementia and Playing Football

Connection Between Dementia and Playing Football

New research on ex-football stars had started recently. Its primary goal is to figure out if there are any actual connections between playing football and developing dementia.

This study, organized by the University of East Anglia (UEA), is about to involve both male and female athletes and will run a regular series of tests to determine any signs of early dementia development.

Previously Studies

In the previously performed landmark study release, presented by the University of Glasgow, was shown extremally disturbing data. It appears that the former players get 3.5 more chances to die via the development of different kinds of neurodegenerative illnesses compare to the general population.

"There is a problem for football players. We need to carry on more investigations about that," said the lead scientist of the future research of UEA Dr. Michael Gray in his latest interview for CNN sports.

How Would the Study Perform

Most of the study participants will perform simple and easy tasks via their laptops and tablets just from their comfortable homes. Tests will include several different techniques that are mostly oriented on researching the spatial navigation and cognitive functions that are suffering the most fast when the early signs of dementia occur.

"Patients with dementia, for example, are found challenging to point the right location of any objects with closed eyes," said Dr. Gray. "That's why it's extremally important to perform exactly these kinds of tests."

£1 million is the price of this research, and UEA hopes to get at least 10% of this amount as crowdfunding.