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NeuroShield – A revolutionary new approach to head protection

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Brought to you by Bauer Hockey, NeuroShield is the result of 10 years of research, product development and in-field studies with hockey, football, and soccer players. NeuroShield is the first technology that uses the body's own physiology to help stabilize the brain. See the science at www.neuroshield.ca

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Devices like the Q-Collar may be the answer to the problem of brain-related injuries across all sports.

While player-related safety across all sports is focused on protecting athletes' heads with better helmets, a small, almost unseen device could provide an answer on how to better prevent brain-related injuries.

The Neuroshield, as it is marketed and sold in Canada, is called the Q-Collar in the U.S. It is going through human trials while under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before it can see commercial release stateside. The device draws biomimicry inspiration from a woodpecker ,wrapping around the user's neck as a way to increase blood volume (like an airbag) in the skull to help stabilize the brain when it's impacted by sudden movement.

The idea came from the mind Dr. David Smith, and was developed with Connecticut-based Q30 Innovations after Smith spent nine months studying woodpeckeras and other animals that are capable of withstanding repeated high-impact blows to the head. Among his discoveries was that nature developed a way for certain animals to change the pressure inside of their head.

"It's just unbelievable to see what nature evolution has done to bring the tongue up over the top of its beak, up over the top of its skull back around the back underneath its ears," Smith told ESPN about the woodpecker's ability to use its tongue to change its cranial pressure.

But the device still has its detractors. Eric Nauman, a professor of biomedical engineering and basic medical science at Purdue University, has his doubts on whether or not the Q-Collar is beneficial.

"We actually did not pursue this one because we had concerns about the idea of pressing on the [jugular] vein, especially in an uncontrolled way," he told ESPN. "I would just be too nervous something bad is going to happen."

Although it has yet to see widespread use, Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly is the first known NFL player to wear the device, although given its experimental stage, he can't say much about it, according to The Charlotte Observer. Kuechly began wearing the device this season after missing six games in 2016 with a concussion. Despite wearing the device during the 2017 season, Kuechly suffered another concussion during a game on Thursday, October 12.

While football players are the most obvious sector to potentially make use of the device, it may see adoption across all sports and workplaces. NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski, for one, wants to test it out.

"If Q-Collar does what the company believes it can do," Keselowski told SportsTechie, "it will change the face of sports dramatically."

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The Q-Collar aims to save your brain from concussions, goes on sale in Canada

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Devices like the Q-Collar may be the answer to the problem of brain-related injuries across all sports. While player-related safety across all sports is focused on protecting athletes' heads with better helmets, a small, almost unseen device could provide an answer on how to better prevent brain-related injuries.

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-Imbalance
-Headache
-Confusion
-Memory loss
-Loss of consciousness
-Vision change
-Hearing change
-Mood change
-Fatigue

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The NFL ranks this state-of-the-art helmet as the safest in football

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VICIS created a helmet that flexes upon impact to help prevent head injuries. Players in more than half of the NFL teams have opted to use it this season

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Imagine a pill that could make all the NFL's concussion problems go away.

Imagine a treatment-or a battery of treatments, therapies and tools-that eradicates CTE and makes concussions only slightly more mysterious and threatening than sprained ankles.

Imagine equipment that provides swift, precise diagnoses, pills that provide immediate relief and speedy recovery and medications that can actually repair the damage that causes long-term brain damage.

Imagine wonder drugs that improve (and sometimes save) the lives of not only football players, but also of military veterans, crash victims, stroke victims, opioid addicts and perhaps even those with Alzheimer's disease.

It sounds like science fiction. Or a Roger Goodell daydream. But the race to find just such treatments is already underway, and significant progress has already been made.

The "concussion pill" may be coming soon.

"This is coming in 2025 if all goes well," Dr. William Korinek, the CEO of Astrocyte Pharmaceuticals, said of a drug that turbocharges the brain's ability to heal its own damage.

Dr. Kun Ping Lu, who's working on a medication that destroys the compounds that cause brain damage, isn't quite that optimistic but said, "I hope it should be here in 10 years."

From the sound of it, there appears to be hope for concussion victims and CTE sufferers on the not-too-distant horizon.

But right now, that hope spends most of its time running through laboratory mazes.
Of Mice and Men
If you give a mouse enough concussions, it becomes antisocial, reckless...or even suicidal.

The search for a concussion pill is largely in the "mouse model" phase right now. Researchers expose rodents to tiny (for us) pressure blasts which cause major (for them) damage, then study the results, either anatomically through autopsies or behaviorally through experiments.

It turns out that mice with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) suffer many of the same symptoms which now plague former football players.

Dr. Korinek described one such test. A so-called "teenage" mouse is given five concussions within a week. The mouse is then allowed to grow to its equivalent of middle age. Then the "Three Chamber Social Interaction Test" is applied. A "stranger" mouse is placed in one section of a three-chambered apparatus, behind a glass plate. The afflicted mouse then has its run of the other two chambers.

"Mice are social creatures," Dr. Korinek explained. "The mouse is going to see that stranger mouse and check it out."

A healthy mouse will spend twice as much time in the chamber next to the stranger as in the third, isolated chamber. But the mouse who suffered multiple concussions in its youth behaves differently.

"They may check out the other mouse, but they end up spending equal amounts of time between the two chambers," Dr. Korinek explained. "They don't have the same curiosity or interaction that you see in a normal mouse who has not been injured."

The human analog is both obvious and chilling. Former football players with CTE symptoms, most notably Junior Seau, are known to isolate themselves socially, which only compounds their physical and emotional struggles.

Dr. Lu, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, described an even more revealing experiment, one in which mice with TBI are placed in mazes that contain high-elevation, exposed "arms."

"Mice are afraid of heights and afraid of open space," Dr. Lu explained. "Because in nature, mice in the open are going to get eaten by eagles."

Healthy mice instinctively avoid the high, open portions of the maze, just as they avoid scurrying across the middle of your kitchen floor in broad daylight. But the afflicted mice behave very differently.

"After traumatic injury, it doesn't matter. Open arm? Closed arm? They just do it, because they don't sense that by going out into the open arm there's a risk."

Again, the human analog is clear and frightening. Individuals who suffer CTE symptoms often engage in compulsive, sometimes dangerous behavior, throw themselves through glass doors, even attempt or commit suicide: all signs of the brain's risk-assessment software going haywire.

But these lab mice are not suffering in vain.

Dr. Korinek's research has resulted in a medication that prevents the onset of anti-social mouse behavior. "If we treat these mice within a half-hour of their concussions, then look at them again when they are "40 year olds," they don't have those symptoms," he explained.

Dr. Lu and researchers at Harvard have created a different treatment: an antibody that keeps mice from running blithely beneath the potential path of a hungry raptor. "After the antibody treatment, they're back to normal. When they see the open arm, they don't go out there."

These drugs aren't just anesthetizing the mice or masking symptoms. While the drugs work differently, they each perform a similar function: they make the brain better at healing itself.
Good Guys, Bad Guys, Helpers and Pruners
Most of the breakthroughs that led to the current race for a concussion drug occurred in the last decade or so. Neurologists still grapple with misunderstandings and emerging research. Luckily, they have come up with some analogies and metaphors to keep the rest of us from becoming hopelessly lost.

"Think of it like the police," Dr. Lu explained of his research. "The toxic proteins are the bad guys. The antibody can arrest them and not allow them to do damage to the brain."

Dr. Lu was studying the telltale "tangles" in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, the same evidence of severe damage found in the brains of CTE sufferers, and in his research discovered a toxic form of the P-tau protein labeled cis P-tau which becomes prevalent in the brain before the tangles develop. Regular P-tau is helpful to brain function. The toxic cis P-tau is devastating.

If, as Dr. Lu suggested, you think of the brain as a highway, the cis P-tau "basically makes the highway lane collapse, jams the traffic," Dr. Lu said. "Cars cannot move, the signal cannot transmit and neurons die."

So Dr. Lu developed an antibody that keeps mice from wanting to become eagle food. It's similar in principle to a vaccine, "arresting" the "bad guy" without damaging anything else. Because cis P-tau may be one of the agents which cause Alzheimer's disease, the antibody may have applications that range far beyond treating ex-football players or sufferers of TBI.

Dr. Korinek, meanwhile, focused his research on astrocyte cells, which for decades were assumed to be gap-fillers or insulators for the brain's message-carrying neurons. As it turns out, astrocytes are more than just the rubber around the wires. "The astrocyte has really emerged as the caretaker cell in the brain," he explained.

"It's the astrocytes that are helping clear away the signal to make sure it keeps functioning well. It's turning over or pruning 20 percent of the synapses at all times."

Given plenty of time, astrocytes can prune away the damage suffered during a concussion. But repeated concussions overtax the astrocytes at the cellular level. Dr. Korinek's treatment that makes mice sociable again "helps energize the caretaker cells, recharging their batteries so they are able to function again."

Both treatments show exceptional promise so far. But mouse tau protein is not human tau protein, and the human brain is so much more complex than a rodent brain that there is no guarantee that what works in a laboratory maze will automatically work for a football player coping with CTE. Dr. Korinek's team will soon ramp up experiments to larger mammals, while Dr. Lu synthesizes a human version of the protein that's suitable for human pilot studies.

But while two teams of researchers perform miracles with mice, others are developing treatments which have gotten results...for some well-known former players.
Infusion Cocktails
Jamie Dukes, former NFL lineman and NFL Network personality turned founder and CEO of Pro-IV, rattles off a laundry list of retired football players and other athletes currently using his treatment. It's a collection of Hall of Famers and Mt. Rushmore types, as well as more recent retirees like Michael Vick, who has gone on record endorsing the Pro-IV DripFusion therapy.

"When I got my first infusion, it was great," Vick said in a radio interview on behalf of Pro-IV. "I played a flag football game that night. No stretching or anything. And I felt like I was 22 again."

Dukes isn't shy about boasting what he believes his treatment could do. "This is the lone solution to the opioid epidemic as it stands today," he said.

According to Dukes and his chief neurological surgeon, Dr. Kevin Jackson, a version of the same treatment that makes Vick feel rejuvenated can be used to mitigate the effects of concussions. And this treatment is not 10 years away or trapped in the rat race of mouse mazes. "Before the end of the year, we should have three FDA drug indications for some of our therapies: two for chronic pain and one for our acute concussion protocol," Dukes said.

Dr. Jackson based the treatment on studies which showed that concussions have an impact on micronutrient levels in the brain.

"Magnesium levels fall in the brain after a head injury, regardless of the severity," he explained. "Urinary zinc increases fourteenfold. We know that there are minerals associated with brain function that change after a head injury."

The Pro-IV treatment is essentially a "cocktail" of substances that aim to rebalance those micronutrients, with some anti-inflammatories and non-opioid pain relievers mixed in to treat immediate symptoms. All of the individual ingredients are FDA approved; hence, retired players like Vick can already receive the treatment.

Because Pro-IV reached the market before undergoing full clinical testing, both Dukes and Dr. Jackson are quick to point out that endorsements like Vick's are purely anecdotal evidence of the treatment's efficacy.

There's one clinical study underway with retired football players, another with the Veterans Administration.

Right now, Pro-IV is an intravenous treatment: patients are infused with the substance via a saline bag. It's inconvenient, not covered by insurance and involves needles. Dr. Jackson hopes to reconfigure the treatment into a pill, patch or nasal spray. He also acknowledges the need to determine ideal dosages and do all of the other nitty-gritty medical work that stands between making Michael Vick feel young again and creating a medicine that insurance carriers will cover and can be safely administered to a high school athlete who suffers a concussion.

But Dukes said that there is no shortage of former NFL players willing to take an IV full of substances that haven't officially cleared all of the clinical and governmental hurdles. Such is the fear and urgency among ex-players, due both to the ailments so many of them face and the studies which increasingly link those ailments to CTE.

Of course, there's another substance with well-known mood-altering effects which is also in the midst of a broad but not-quite clinical trial among both NFL players and the public at large.
The Whole Entire Plant
Nate Jackson played six NFL seasons filled with major and minor injuries, yet he needs no traditional medications to get through his days.

"I use cannabis when I am in pain but otherwise lead a medication-free lifestyle," he said.

To be clear: when Jackson says "cannabis," he is not referring to some specialized strain of marijuana biologically engineered to treat pain symptoms without the other lava-lamp-and-cookie-binge effects.

"When I say cannabis, I mean the whole entire plant," he said. "Cannabis, marijuana, weed: It's all the same plant."

Jackson is abreast of the research which separates the cannabidiol (CBD) substance in hemp plants, which may have both anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective elements, from tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the substance that gives marijuana its notorious kick. But in Jackson's estimation, both CBD and THC may have a role in healing the many ailments ex-football players suffer from. "But we're learning that feeling might be helping to heal your body."

The University of Miami received a $16 million grant last October to determine whether CBD mixed with an "NMDA antagonist" (a type of anesthetic) can be used as an effective treatment for concussion and traumatic brain injury.

The Miami study is expected to last five years. Researchers are not yet ready to report any significant results.

"We're doing some basic testing of the properties of the compound in model (i.e. mice) format, in preparation for designing something for human use," Miami researcher Dr. Michael Hoffer said.

Dr. Hoffer's team has had more immediate success with a concussion diagnostic tool: virtual reality goggles that monitor eye movement when a potentially concussed patient tracks a series of moving targets across a virtual field. The goggles have a 95 percent diagnostic rate, according to Dr. Hoffer, and can be used to gauge the severity of the injury and provide feedback during treatment/recuperation.

Diagnostic goggles don't sound like much of a consolation prize when pursuing a marijuana-based concussion cure. But the devices could help take the guesswork out of a medical diagnosis still fraught with subjective elements.

"The pill can't be effective for concussions if you can't diagnose one," Dr. Hoffer said.

While marijuana is regularly prescribed by physicians in some states, its federal status as a Schedule 1 narcotic has slowed study of its medical value..

But Jackson is among many who feel that "weed" could hold the key to a better quality of life for many ex-players.

"I played six years. Chances are that my brain has been altered by the game. But I am not feeling symptomatic. Why am I not? If I do, when will it happen? Did the cannabis I used when I was playing help protect my brain? Is it helping me now? A lot of us say it is helping, but that's just our hunches. We don't know for sure."

"You have athletes who are hurting, who have pain and brain damage, and this plant seems to be something that can help them all."
Urgency and Skepticism
Astrocytes. Tau proteins. Micronutrients. CBD and THC. It can be a lot to sift through. Especially for someone who already fears or is starting to cope with the symptoms of traumatic brain injuries or CTE.

Some potential remedies sound too good to be true. Jackson said that former players aren't always equipped to tell the difference between a treatment with real scientific merit and a patent medicine that is formulated solely to separate them from their remaining NFL dollars.

"Football players have fallen prey to all kinds of silly science," Jackson said. "Snake-oil salesmen, not just with medicine but with business practices, all of that stuff. We have a very bad real-world sense. We've been coddled. We tend to not look really skeptically at people when they offer to help us."

It's hard to be skeptical when you're desperate for a cure. Dr. Lu says that he receives calls and emails from people with TBI affliction who are ready to take his protein antibody. They don't care that it's not human protein; they'll take their chances with mouse protein. Naturally, they are turned down. "That's not ethical and probably will not be effective," Dr. Lu deadpanned.

"Right now, there are no treatments," Dukes said. "What they consider a treatment is: Go in a room, turn the lights off, have everybody whisper to you. That's treatment by definition."

Most current CTE research (as well as the money that fuels it) still focuses on prevention and diagnostic tools like the University of Miami goggles. But "we're going to quickly be at the point where we know concussions are very bad and we can diagnose them accurately, but you can't do anything about it," according to Dr. Korinek.

Soliciting NFL dollars to conduct research, meanwhile, can be a double-edged sword. "They just don't have the credibility in the area," Dukes said, "because when they do anything, it's always viewed as being tainted."

The most encouraging component of concussion "pill" research right now is not any particular breakthrough; it's the fact that so many researchers are making so much progress along so many vectors.

Not all of the treatments will ultimately prove to be safe and effective. But more potential solutions increase the chances of success. "You need a lot of shots on goal in this space," Dr. Korinek said.

Players will be waiting, even if it takes years for those shots to reach the net. "Whenever that comes, it will be helpful," Nate Jackson said. "Guys will hold on. They are all very tough, very stoic."

"We will lose some guys, but we will have some guys who will really benefit from it."

Researchers, meanwhile, are well aware that while their first priority is saving lives, they may also be saving a sport.

"I have two sons who are eight and 10," said Dr. Korinek. "I told them they can't play football until dad's medicine's on the market."
Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeTanier.

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The Race Is on for a 'Concussion Pill' as New NFL Season Begins

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Imagine a pill that could make all the NFL's concussion problems go away. Imagine a treatment-or a battery of treatments, therapies and tools-that eradicates CTE and makes concussions only slightly more mysterious and threatening than sprained ankles.

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-Alzheimers
-Dementia
-Depression
-CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy)

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CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains the causes and symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, more commonly known as CTE.

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It's become a common line of questioning among fans who feel left in the dark: What is the NFL concussion protocol? When does it end?

The first question is far easier to answer than the second. The protocol is a five-step return-to-play process that starts once a player has been diagnosed with a concussion. In short, a player enters protocol, which immediately removes him from a team setting with steps in place to work back into it. He leaves the protocol when he clears all the steps.

The length of the protocol can vary greatly. Some players enter after a game and are able to clear it in time to play the next week. In the case of Packers cornerback Sam Shields, who suffered his fifth diagnosed concussion in the season opener, the protocol can last more than five months.

The severity of concussions can vary greatly, and science is still developing ways to better understand them. Brain injuries are so much different than setbacks that carry general timeframes for recovery like wrist or foot injuries. It's why teams give them their own specific name -- "concussion" -- while listing everything else on the injury report by the body part.

Here's a look at the steps the league has in place to diagnose a concussion and then work the player back to the field:
In-game diagnosis: Four steps
1. When a player shows signs of a possible concussion, he must be immediately removed from the game. Each game has team physicians plus a neurotrauma consultant split between the field and booth levels to watch for and identify signs.

2. The physician and the consultant review film of the play and perform a test of the symptoms.

3. If suspicion of a concussion continues, the player is escorted to the locker room for a full examination.

4. If the player is diagnosed with a concussion, he is out for the remainder of that game. If he passes the exam, he can return but will be monitored for additional symptoms throughout the game. The league identifies seven of these:

Loss of consciousness

Blank look

Slow to get up after a hit to the head

Clutching head after contact

Motor coordination or balance issues

Signs of displacement, like unawareness of surroundings

Visible facial injury as a result of one of the above

Return to play: Five steps
The protocol officially begins when a player has been diagnosed with a concussion. This can happen in-game, as detailed above, or if symptoms show up in the days after a contest, which does happen with concussions. Lions center Travis Swanson, for example, played all 70 snaps of a Week 12 win over the Saints and then entered the concussion protocol the next week.

1. Rest and recovery: A player is removed from all team meetings, electronic devices and social media, focusing instead on simple physical activities like stretching and balance work. He leaves this phase when he returns to the "baseline" of signs and symptoms.

2. Light aerobic exercise: This includes riding a stationary bike or working on a treadmill without resistance. The NFL recommends 10 to 20 minutes of this per day, monitored by a trainer to see if concussive symptoms appear.

3. Continued aerobic exercise and introduction of strength training: The cardiovascular work increases in length and intensity, and strength training is added, with a trainer still monitoring for behavioral signs.

4. Football-specific activities: The player can return to non-contact football activities for up to a full practice.

5. Full football activity/clearance: Once the team and an independent neurologist clears a player to return, he can regain all the former responsibilities, including playing a full game.
Enforcement
The 2016 offseason brought punishments for teams that don't properly enforce the protocol. Any violation of the in-game evaluation or the return-to-play steps could result in the loss of draft picks or a fine.

The protocol is detailed, but it has gaps that face criticism. The in-game evaluation does not extend to the practice field, for example, where concussions can also happen. It also relies on a judgment call by multiple people who might not agree, which introduces an element of politics.

These concerns reached a peak in the 2016 NFL opener, when Panthers quarterback Cam Newton took numerous hits to the head from Broncos defenders, clutched his helmet while lying on the turf and was not checked for a concussion. Critics cited the elements in play -- the league MVP playing in a tight game against the defending champions on national TV -- as possible influences in the decision to leave him in the game.

Concussions continue to be difficult to identify in the fast pace of a game with 22 players on the field at the same time. It isn't enough to zero in on collisions to the head because they are routine in football. Symptoms sometimes don't emerge until hours or even days after an injury takes place.

But what the NFL has shown is that the concussion protocol is a constant work in progress. From banning same-game return to play for players with diagnosed concussions in 2009 to drafting league-wide protocol in 2011 to placing spotters the booths in 2012 to requiring independent neurologist reviews in 2013 to drafting up punishments in 2016, the league has found ways to constantly tweak a system in hopes of keeping players with concussion away from the risk of further damage.

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Here are the steps of the NFL's concussion protocol

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It's become a common line of questioning among fans who feel left in the dark: What is the NFL concussion protocol? When does it end? The first question is far easier to answer than the second. The protocol is a five-step return-to-play process that starts once a player has been diagnosed with a concussion.

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Researchers studying the link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy found that 99 percent of the brains donated by families of former NFL players showed signs of the neurodegenerative disease, according to a new study published Tuesday.

In all, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System examined 202 brains that belonged to men who played football at all levels and were later donated for research. They found CTE in 177 of them - 87 percent.

While they found evidence of the disease across all levels of play, the highest percentage was found among those who competed at the highest level; all but one of the 111 brains belonging to ex-NFL players were diagnosed post-mortem with CTE.

"Obviously, this doesn't represent the prevalence in the general population, but the fact that we've been able to gather this high a number of cases in such a short period of time says that this disease is not uncommon," said neuropathologist Ann McKee, the researcher credited with some of the most high-profile CTE diagnoses. "In fact, I think it's much more common than we currently realize. And more importantly, this is a problem in football that we need to address and we need to address now in order to bring some hope and optimism to football players."

The study drew the immediate attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill who have been monitoring the issue.

"The time for denying facts and looking the other way is over," Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in a release. "We must now actively seek out ways to protect the health and [well-being] of players from Pop Warner to the NFL and every league in between."

In addition, four Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce committee called the study "a heartbreaking reminder that we must continue the fight to protect current, former, and future NFL players from CTE."

"We know that there is a direct relationship between football and CTE, and we cannot afford to wait to take substantive action to protect players of all ages from the risks of head trauma in contact sports," read a statement, signed by Schakowsky, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), Rep. Gene Green (D-Tex.) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). "This study also demonstrates the importance of continued scientific research on CTE, which is why we must continue to support the important work carried out by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in this area, including on the relationship between this degenerative brain disease and contact sports."

McKee cautions that the study, which was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has some limitations and doesn't attempt to pinpoint a CTE rate. The brains studied were mostly donated by concerned families, which means they weren't random and not necessarily representative of all men who have played football.

[Remaining claims dismissed in ex-players' drug lawsuit against NFL]

"A family is much more likely to donate if they're concerned about their loved one - if they're exhibiting symptoms or signs that are concerning them, or if they died accidentally or especially if they committed suicide," she said. "It skews for accidental deaths, suicide and individuals with disabling or discomforting symptoms."

While the study isn't focused on causality, McKee says it provides "overwhelming circumstantial evidence that CTE is linked to football."

The NFL pledged $100 million for concussion-related research last September - $60 million on technological development, with an emphasis on improving helmets, and $40 million earmarked for medical research - and in a statement a league spokesman expressed appreciation for the latest study.

"The medical and scientific communities will benefit from this publication, and the NFL will continue to work with a wide range of experts to improve the health of current and former NFL athletes," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "As noted by the authors, there are still many unanswered questions relating to the cause, incidence and prevalence of long-term effects of head trauma such as CTE. The NFL is committed to supporting scientific research into CTE and advancing progress in the prevention and treatment of head injuries."

The study marks the largest CTE case series ever published. The research was drawn from a brain bank established and maintained by the VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston University School of Medicine and the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

The 177 brains found to have CTE belonged to former players who had an average of 15 years of football experience. In addition to the NFL diagnoses, the group included three of 14 who played at the high school level, 48 of 53 who played in college, nine of 14 who competed semiprofessionally and seven of eight who played in the Canadian Football League.

"To me, it's very concerning that we have college-level players who have severe CTE who did not go on to play professionally," McKee said. "That means they most likely retired before the age of 25 and we still are seeing in some of those individuals very severe repercussions."

[Matt Hasselbeck, Leonard Marshall pledge to donate brains to concussion research]

The researchers distinguished between mild and severe cases of CTE, finding the majority of former college (56 percent), semipro (56 percent) and professional (86 percent) players to have exhibited severe pathology.

The impact of concussions and head trauma meted out on the football field has been an active area of study in recent years. And while much of the research has highlighted the potential long-term dangers posed by football, JAMA Neurology published a study this month that showed not all former players suffer from cognitive impairment.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania looked at Wisconsin men who graduated high school in 1957, comparing those who played football in school and those who didn't. The men were assessed for depression and cognitive impairment later in life - in their 60s and 70s - and the research found similar outcomes for those who played high school football and those who didn't.

That study also had its limitations, and the authors noted that the game 60 years ago is different in many ways from the present-day high school football experience, from playing style to equipment to the rule book.

The Boston University study doesn't necessarily reflect the same era of football. According to the researchers, the vast majority of the brains studied belonged to players who played in the 1960s or later. In addition to examining the brains, researchers interviewed family members and loved ones of the deceased former players and found that behavioral and mood symptoms were common with those who suffered from CTE, including impulsivity, signs of depression, anxiety, hopelessness and violent tendencies.

While the disease can only be diagnosed post-mortem, the researchers urge for a wide-ranging longitudinal study to better understand the impact head trauma has on football players across all levels.

In the meantime, the brain bank has about 425 donated brains at its disposal, including those from men and women who played a variety of sports, as well as military veterans, with many more pledged.

"It's not an inert study," McKee said. "This is a very large resource that will advance research in many directions. . . . The whole point is to advance and accelerate our knowledge of CTE in order to aid the living people who are at risk for it or who have it."

More coverage of football and concussions:

The NFL acknowledges a link between football and CTE, or does it?

Sally Jenkins: The NFL dodges blame on concussions

Retired hockey players sue NHL over concussions

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The latest brain study examined 111 former NFL players. Only one didn't have CTE.

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Researchers studying the link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy found that 99 percent of the brains donated by families of former NFL players showed signs of the neurodegenerative disease, according to a new study published Tuesday.

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-More protective helmets
-New technology --> test helmets after hit
-New rules to protect players
-Consequences for teams who don't take concussions seriously

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For more than half a century, football helmets have done a great job of preventing skull fractures, but they've been ineffective when it came to preventing concussions and protecting the brain. They just weren't meant to do that.

But now there's a new helmet that's been designed to protect not only the skull, but what's inside it.

It's called the Zero1 and it's ranked No. 1 on the NFL/NFLPA 2017 Helmet Laboratory Testing Performance Results. VICIS, the Seattle-based sports equipment company that makes the Zero1, says 25 of the NFL's 32 teams bought the helmets before spring practice, and the company hopes many NFL players - and players on at least 20 NCAA teams - will be wearing them during the upcoming season.

Doug Baldwin, a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks who is working with VICIS, said participation in football nationwide has diminished because of fear of concussions and their link to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) - but the Zero1 helmet should change all that.
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"We take significant hits on the football field. Football is a violent collision sport," Baldwin said. "A product like this can give you that confidence of safety. It can boost your performance. I think it's going to save the game."

Dave Marver, VICIS' co-founder and CEO, said the Zero1 has four protective layers that "are designed to work together to provide outstanding fit and mitigate impact forces or slow them before they can reach the head and brain ... better than any helmet ever made":

The outermost layer deforms like a car bumper, yielding when it's hit and slowing impact forces.

Right below that is a second, reflex layer of columns that "bend and eventually buckle upon impact."

The third layer is a very thin hard shell that protects against skull fractures.

The fourth, innermost layer is the form liner, which conforms to the player's head.

Marver said traditional helmets have a hard outer shell that makes a "crack" sound on impact. The Zero1, on the other hand, goes "thump."

"The sound of the game is going to change," Marver said. "It means that players are going to be better protected."

Dr. Sam Browd, a pediatric neurosurgeon and co-founder of VICIS, said no helmet will fully eliminate concussions from football. But he said the Zero1 should prove very effective in reducing them.

Browd teamed up with Marver and VICIS' chief technology officer, Per Reinhall, to create the Zero1 because he had treated many teenagers who had to quit football because of repetitive head injuries.
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"This was sad," Marver said. "So Sam wanted to do something about that, and he brought Per and me together and we started the company."

A Zero1 helmet costs $1,500, much more than others, "because it's a more sophisticated design," Marver said. Besides the potential to reduce concussions, the helmet provides better peripheral vision, so players can see more of the field and opponents coming at them.

Reinhall said VICIS' technicians "torture the helmet" extensively, using a linear ram machine and a pendulum that hits the helmet at different speeds to judge its performance in the company's "smash lab."

Browd said a lot of players who have test-driven the helmet, linemen in particular, have said they "don't feel the impact as much" when they are tackled.

"It's really encouraging," he said.
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Added Baldwin: "There's a lot of concerns out there amongst parents and adults about their children being safe on the football field. We [have] introduced a piece of equipment that is going to make the game safer, make their youth safer, prolong their careers in the NFL, in high school or college or wherever it may be.

"Then you have something sustainable ... that's going to bring back the attention to the fun of the sport, and not necessarily the risks of the sport. It's going to help prevent injuries."

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Revolutionary new ZERO1 football helmet may help NFL players reduce concussions

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For more than half a century, football helmets have done a great job of preventing skull fractures, but they've been ineffective when it came to preventing concussions and protecting the brain. But now there's a new helmet that's been designed to protect not only the skull, but what's inside it.