Ten years ago, we featured boxing legend Muhammad Ali on our cover. The former heavyweight champion, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1984 and died on June 3, worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the condition and inspired the public with his courage and generosity. Soon after his diagnosis, while speaking at a benefit, Ali reportedly estimated he had taken 29,000 blows to the head during his career.
For almost a century, boxers have been known to experience neurologic effects from the trauma of the sport, including confusion, unsteady gait, and slowed movements. Although originally attributed to damage after repeated concussions, these symptoms are now believed to be due to multiple subconcussive impacts to the head—that is, injuries that don't cause symptoms but cause cumulative damage.
Since our story on Ali, attention has focused on the long-term effects of repetitive blows to the head, in particular, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition in which athletes who box, as well as those who play other contact sports, develop progressive problems with mood, judgment, impulse control, depression, parkinsonism, memory, and eventually dementia, years after they've stopped participating in sports.
Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic neuropathologist featured in Concussion, the 2015 movie starring Will Smith, first reported CTE while conducting an autopsy on a former NFL football player. Examining brain tissue is currently the only way to diagnose CTE definitively. Subsequent progress in this field is credited to research institutions such as the CTE Center at Boston University School of Medicine and the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, which collect and study human brains and spinal cords to understand the effects of trauma on the nervous system. People who want to donate to a brain bank provide a comprehensive medical history, including information about concussions; educational level and occupation; as well as cognitive, behavioral, and mood symptoms. For more about brain donation, visit ninds.nih.gov.
Another Neurology Now cover subject, NFL tight end Ben Utecht, received the American Academy of Neurology and American Brain Foundation 2014 Public Leadership in Neurology Award for his efforts to raise awareness about traumatic brain injury. After five major concussions, he is now losing his memory. His recent biography, Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away: A Love Letter to My Family, chronicles his story from his early days throwing a football with his father to testifying about the long-term effects of concussions before Congress.
No one knows for sure what caused Ali's condition, as his family has not donated his brain, but Ali's contributions to Parkinson's disease through outreach and the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at the Barrow Neurologic Institute are undisputable. As his daughter, Rasheda, told Neurology Now, "Maybe his purpose in life was not to be the heavyweight champion, but to be so much more..."
When heroes like Ali and Utecht use their prominence to be so much more, we at Neurology Now are proud to share their stories.
Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN
Editor-in-Chief
