Bad news. (Health)

[Mick Harper]

I dozed off watching the telly this evening. I dozed off so long that the Al-Jazeera evening news had finished and the screen had returned to standby. I jolted up in alarm. I'd only been watching while my dinner was cooking on the stove. I dashed into the kitchen. Nothing was cooking. I went back to the living room. There was my empty dinner plate. I had already eaten. Worrying.

[Boreades]

Early onset?

[Mick Harper]

Pork chops, new potatoes and green beans.

[Wile E. Coyote]

I agree that your choice of Al Jazeera for a TV/food combo is defo a bit worrying.

Have you thought about Richard Osman's House of Games?

[Mick Harper]

I don't know whose senility is at fault but I find now I only watch Channel 4 News, Al-Jazeera News, Newsnight and Anderson Cooper 360 on a regular basis. Almost nothing else unless Arsenal are playing. But then, unlike some round here, I get to choose what I watch.

[Boreades]

[Wile E. Coyote]

Wiley is always exactly 300 years out, on the I Am Terrible At Dating round.

[Mick Harper]

So it's official. Professional footballers suffer three and half time more from dementia than the national average because of heading the ball. One's first reaction is to demand the end of heading in professional football but since that would lead to the end of professional football, let us apply soberer counsels.

1. Since it is professional footballers and not amateur ones--and both play the same amount of competitive football--we can safely say that it is the training that is to blame. Heading the ball in a game is not a repetitive practice. Practising to head a ball is. Professional football won't come to an end if professional footballers head the ball less well than they used to in my day.

2. Is three-and-a-half times decisive? Especially as the same research that identified the dementia also demonstrated ex-professional footballers have fewer (other) mental health problems than the national average, as well as being fitter physically. Is this a case of 'informed consent'. After all fishermen get killed at work three and a half times more than the national average (o.n.o.).

3. Do we fookin' care? Come on, you reds (o.n.o.). This is a perfectly reasonable argument when dealing with the pleasure of the many and the harm caused to the few. (Including professional footballers of course.)

[Wile E. Coyote]

I watch a lot of football (yep this means that there is no science to what I say), what I observe is lots of folks heading a ball without noticeable signs of injury, none whatsoever.

I also see quite a few occasions where footballers are concussed, these are injuries, often head to head, elbow to head, shoulder to head, chin, face, head to ground. These players show clear and obvious sgins of impairment to their brain function.

I would guess dementia is more likely a result of the latter than the former, so it's a case of strict concussion protocols. You should not be heading a ball whilst suffering concusion (that is obvious) so it's a multi week ban (at least 14 days) after any concussion incident.

[Mick Harper]

All this was taken into account. Central defenders vs wingers, stuff like that. The fact of the matter is that an individual player doesn't head a ball that much in football matches, it just looks like this to us because the ball is so often headed. One you divide by twenty it doesn't amount to much ball per head. Nevertheless this precise cause and effect is reasonably established.

[Boreades]

[Mick Harper]

Insufficient question. I listened to the dude, he satisfied me they had worked the angles. I told you it was all professional footballers, I told you they had taken position into account. I specifically excluded goalkeepers. It is the kind of narrow question academics/medicos are good at.

[Boreades]

[Boreades]

Hugh Laurie has many talents. Olympic-standard rower, musician, author, linguist, etc. He's also an Arsenal supporter. But nobody's perfect.

[Boreades]

This bit of news is deeply troubling for our local hospice, and for its supporters (like myself).