Brain Damage and Amateur Boxing

Many professional boxers, driven by fame and fortune, have entered the ring one too many times. This unfortunate situation can result in blindness, brain damage and even death. Punch drunk is a term that is used to describe the neurologic damage that professional boxers can develop following years of repeated head blows. This condition develops over a period of years, with the average time of onset being about 16 years after the start of a career in boxing. It is seen in 20% of professional boxers. Unfortunately, research published in the Archives of Neurology, suggests that amateur boxers are also at significant risk of becoming punch drunk. To perform their study, researchers studied 14 Swedish amateur boxers, who underwent a spinal tap seven to 10 days after a fight and once again after a boxing-free three-month period. In a spinal tap, fluid that bathes the brain is obtained and can be tested for proteins or cells and can help diagnose a bleed in the brain, meningitis or cancer. In this study, the fluid obtained from the spinal tap was analyzed for markers of brain injury. These samples were also compared to those of 10 healthy males. The study shows that after the boxing matches, fighters had higher levels of chemical markers of brain injury and damage to nerve cells. In addition, amateur boxers also had evidence of a protein that indicates damage to a specialized brain cell and can be seen in people who have developed severe brain injury. The levels of one of these markers was still elevated at 3 months. The study also showed that these markers where much higher in those who sustained more that 15 blows to the head, when compared to those who had less. While the results have come from a small study, it serves as a cautionary tale for amateur boxers who may believe that they are immune to brain injury.