I read the sad story of Penn football player Owen Thomas’s recent suicide and its possible connection to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, is a degenerative brain disease brought on by repeated concussions. It can lead to a host of mental issues: depression, memory loss, aggression, confusion, and dementia. There is evidence that Lou Gehrig died of CTE and not Lou Gehrig’s Disease. I hadn’t heard of CTE before yesterday’s article.
Kelly and I are convinced we’re both on the fast track to dementia, thanks to a history of concussions. As a kid, I routinely received concussions from falling out of bed, and to protest being left in my crib I would repeatedly bang my head against the wall. I like to think I got smarter and less destructive as I grew older.
I do have days when little details don’t come to me the way they should, but I’m sure everybody experiences that once in a while. The question I want to know is whether CTE can be diagnosed without a peek at brain tissue as I’m still using my brain, addled as it may sometimes be. Regardless, I’m happy to see that knowledge about the brain is progressing so rapidly.