repeated head injury

Repeated Hits to the Head — Not Concussion — May Cause CTE

By SEAN GREGORY 

January 18, 2018

TIME Health

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When a football player stumbles off the field, woozy, there’s a good chance the player suffered a concussion. Often, medical professionals will converge on him, offering an assessment as to whether he can safely return to the game. These procedures are wise: Concussions are dangerous, and a brain should never be put at further risk.

But concussive episodes alone may not be responsible for the potential long-term damage to a football player’s brain. New studies from Boston University in humans and mice suggest that repeated head injury can trigger the onset of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a neurodegenerative disease associated with head trauma — independent of concussion./.../