Amateur Boxing Induces Brain Trauma

Do you like being a tough guy?

And do you go to a boxing club to show after that how hard you hit when you're pissed off?

Well, you'd better find out that you will become like Muhammad Ali, even if you do not step on a professional arena.

A new Swedish research shows that blows to the head in amateur boxing provoke severe brain damage. "Despite the high prevalence of brain damage as a result of professional boxing, until now there has been little information on the possible risks for brain injury in amateur boxing," said study author Dr. Max Hietala, with Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Goteborg.

The researchers employed lumbar puncture to see if there were higher amounts of biochemical markers pointing to brain injury in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 14 amateur boxers. The fighters were checked after a fight and a second time three months after a pause without boxing. 10 healthy men that did not practice box were used for control.

The research team detected in the CSF high amounts of neuronal and glial markers showing brain damage after the fight. Neurofilament light (NFL), a marker for neuronal damage, was four fold higher in boxers in the first 10 days following the fight compared to control subjects.

These high marker amounts turned back to normal only after the three months pause. These abnormal levels following a boxing match were much higher among those amateur fighters who had received over 15 high impact hits to the head.

This category was found to present 7-8 times more NFL-levels post fight than their own levels after the three-months pause. "Repeated hits to the head are potentially damaging to the central nervous system, and our results suggest CSF-analysis could be used for medical counseling of athletes after boxing or head injury," said Hietala.

When the same analyses were made on soccer players, who head the ball repeatedly from long and high goal kicks, there were no raised levels of brain trauma markers in cerebrospinal fluid. "This data shows headings in soccer is not associated with any neurochemical evidence of brain damage," said Hietala.