Heading Soccer Balls Can Lead to Brain Damage

New research shows that soccer players who regularly head the ball—even just a few times a day— may be at risk for brain injury and cognitive impairment .

Using brain scans, researchers saw that players who frequently headed the ball showed brain injuries similar to those seen in patients with concussions, with researchers from New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center reporting “significant injury” in those players who exceeded 1,000 to 1,500 headers per year. The areas of the brain affected by heading include those responsible for attention, memory, and vision.

While experts say that heading a soccer ball isn’t necessarily dangerous, regular and frequent heading may lead to a “degeneration of brain cells.”

In a related study, researchers found that players who headed a ball most frequently performed worse on tests of verbal memory and psychomotor speed, a measure of hand-eye coordination.

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Source: FoxNews.com “Heading Soccer Balls Can Lead to Brain Damage, study says”