Interesting article about concussion in rugby

[How bad boy]

Former Wales forward Andrew Coombs diagnosed with dementia at 39

Andrew Coombs, the forward who won the Six Nations with Wales in 2013, said in a statement on social media that he had been diagnosed with dementia

www.theguardian.com

39 year old with dementia. Frightening stuff.

Sexton will be lucky if he escapes trouble.

 

[Jim Comic]

Rugby league legend Rob Burrow dies aged 41 after battle with motor neurone disease

Burrow spent his entire rugby league career with Leeds Rhinos

www.standard.co.uk

 

[cactus jack]

Rugby league legend Rob Burrow dies aged 41 after battle with motor neurone disease

Burrow spent his entire rugby league career with Leeds Rhinos

www.standard.co.uk

unbelievable fund raising by his team mate Kevin Sinfield. 7 marathons in 7 days and 7 back to back ultra marathons

 

[How bad boy]

Rugby league legend Rob Burrow dies aged 41 after battle with motor neurone disease

Burrow spent his entire rugby league career with Leeds Rhinos

www.standard.co.uk

There's still a surprisingly large number of people who still don't get it.
According to a study a few years ago, going back to the early part of the last century, high level Scottish rugby players, rugby players have a 15 times higher risk of MND, usually prevalence is 1 in 300, they found for rugby players it was 1 in 20.
So if you watch a pro match at the weekend and those results replicate, between 2-3 of the players you're watching will develop MND due to rugby.

 

[greengrass]

There's still a surprisingly large number of people who still don't get it.
According to a study a few years ago, going back to the early part of the last century, high level Scottish rugby players, rugby players have a 15 times higher risk of MND, usually prevalence is 1 in 300, they found for rugby players it was 1 in 20.
So if you watch a pro match at the weekend and those results replicate, between 2-3 of the players you're watching will develop MND due to rugby.

That's unbelievable. Never realised it was that high

 

[nelly sham]

Burrows, Derbyshire, the guy in Ulster who's name escapes me, Weir, Van Der Westhuizen, Ed Slater who's currently battling it.


That's far too long a list already and it's only going to get longer

 

[How bad boy]

That's unbelievable. Never realised it was that high

Yep.

Former rugby players may be 15 times as likely to develop motor neuron disease, study finds

The risk of neurodegenerative disease among former Scottish international rugby union players is more than double that of the general population, a study has found.1 The researchers from the University of Glasgow matched 412 Scottish former international male rugby players with 1236 members of...

www.bmj.com

"The researchers from the University of Glasgow matched 412 Scottish former international male rugby players with 1236 members of the public and looked at their health outcomes over an average of 32 years from the age of 30 onwards.

They found that the risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease varied by specific condition, from just over twice as high for dementia to up to 15 times as high for motor neuron disease."

The baseline rate for the population is 1 in 350.

That said, it wasn't a huge study, 412 subjects is not a big enough population to be very certain of the effect, it's international standard players and the cohort lives a few years longer than the overall population.

Additionally, it's obvious that rugby isn't close to as unhealthy as NFL

https://www.science.org/content/article/former-football-pros-die-faster-rate-baseball-veterans-and-reasons-are-surprising

The 517 former NFL players who died during that 35-year period did so at an average age of 59.6 years.

 

[nelly sham]

Jonathan Danty says his concussion against Lensiter in the QF game has affected his eyesight. He's now far-sighted apparently

 

[longbigandjuicy]

It's no wonder they want the tackle as low as possible. It's the players knowing putting there head in the way of a in coming tackle to get the position player yellow/red card should be also penalized.

 

[poulgorm]

The GAA would want to cop on too. Most head high tackles (and those around the neck) are dealt with by giving a yellow card - which is not a serious penalty at all.

An automatic black card would be much more appropriate - 10 minutes in the bin. And, of course a red card for the more serious tackles.

A frontal shoulder charge should be dealt with similarly.