Beverly Hills , Aug. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Christopher Nowinski is the Co-Founder & CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Boston University School of Medicine. He is also the author of Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis in 2006, where he emphasizes the goal to change sports and save brains.
Personal experience has shaped his social entrepreneurship and life’s mission to change the public health problem of sports related brain injuries. After his All-Ivy Harvard football career, he became a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) superstar performing on Monday Night RAW. A concussion in 2003 changed the trajectory of his life resulting in retirement from professional wrestling. On this episode, you will hear about Nowinski’s co-founding of the non-profit Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF). He will also discuss his partnership with Boston University and the Veterans Affairs (VA) to create the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, the world's leading resource for CTE research.
Listen to the full episode with host Bruce Parkman and Dr. Christopher Nowinski here.
Change is Challenging
“People don’t change as quickly as science changes,” said Dr. Nowinski. He explains that in his view, there is only a small percentage of the population willing to change their minds about the long-term health risks of concussions and sports. While society has seen cultural shifts with things like seatbelts, Dr. Nowinski believes reaching younger generations will be the key to creating a shift in generational thought about repetitive head impacts that will lead to safer practices to lower CTE risks.
“There has been a robust effort to make us forget about the damage [that concussive trauma has caused],” said Dr. Nowinski. He further explains that historically we have accepted sports and head related injuries as part of the game. Downplaying these outcomes has let to past silence and head traumas as an afterthought.
“If you were brain damaged from playing sports, or having dementia… everybody hid it….so we didn’t have these examples. It’s taken 15 years of courageous families and individuals coming forward to say, ‘I am the evidence.”
‘Flag Football Under Fourteen’ Program
Dr. Nowinski’s foundation firmly supports the mission to design contact sports that do not allow for repetitive hits to the brain. Flag Football Under 14 is part of the Foundation’s Don’t Hit Kids™ Initiative. After studying the brains of nearly 800 football players, Nowinski confirms that “there is a relationship between the number of years played and CTE…The best way to prevent CTE is to limit the number of years you play. And modify the game while we do it.” He stresses that players need to be a certain age to take a certain risk.
Sharing data and the real-life experiences about the consequences of repeated head injuries is the primary goal of the program. Although, educating parents and the groups that support children playing football may not be enough to make lasting change. “Legislation is the next place to approach,” said Dr. Nowinski. In a recent study that he conducted, there now seems to be a growing awareness about brain injuries caused by high-impact sports. “80% of Americans support that kids should not play before 14,” Nowinski shared. So, why are youth sports industries so slow to adopt safer practices? Kids Brains Matter will continue to find the answers and promote the urgent need to educate and advocate to limit hard and repetitive impacts to the developing brains and bodies of young athletes.
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