Heading Soccer Balls Causes More Damage to Females than Males
Today, it is common to see members of a female soccer team training close to the ground that is being used by their male counterparts, and this is pleasing given how far society has come before accepting that females can participate in contact sports. However, lots of sports scientists noticed that females were complaining more about the effects of heading the ball when compared to their male counterparts. It now turns out that there is a scientific reason for that as explored below.
According to a study that was led by Dr. Michael Lipton, a neuroscientist based at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, women suffer five times the amount of brain damage as males who head the ball during soccer games. The study also found that women take longer to recover from the resultant injuries sustained during sports.
The research team used MRI scans to take a look into the brains of 98 amateur soccer players, all of them adults. Half of them were male while the other half were female. These study subjects were selected on the basis of having headed the ball multiple times within the past year.
The scans done on the female soccer players showed some structural deterioration in eight white matter regions involved in carrying signals from one part of the brain to another. However, the male soccer players only had damage in three white matter regions. For both genders, the number of affected regions increased with an increase in the frequency of heading the ball.
When the volume of damaged brain tissue was analyzed, it was found that the female players suffered damage in about 2,100 cubic millimeters of the brain’s tissues while males only suffered damage in approximately 400 cubic millimeters.
The research team wasn’t sure why these sex differences exist regarding athletes heading the ball. However, they speculate that two factors could be at play.
First, Dr. Lipton and his team suggest that since women have less muscle mass to protect their heads from cranial impacts, they tend to suffer higher degrees of whiplash each time they head the ball.
Secondly, women could suffer more inflammation in the brain if they head the ball at the time in their menstrual cycles when progesterone is low. Progesterone is known to protect against brain inflammation, so a dip in this hormone makes females more susceptible to intracranial injuries each time they head the ball.
The research team is now interested in finding out whether the damage suffered while heading the ball is linked to any long-term cognitive effects. In the meantime, experts think biomedical companies like DarioHealth Corp. (NASDAQ: DRIO) would recommend taking any protective measures necessary to avert as many of those intracranial injuries as possible during soccer games.
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the BioMedWire website applicable to all content provided by BMW, wherever published or re-published: http://BMW.fm/Disclaimer
Today, it is common to see members of a female soccer team training close to the ground that is being used by their male counterparts, and this is pleasing given how far society has come before accepting that females can participate in contact sports. However, lots of sports scientists noticed that females were complaining more about the effects of heading the ball when compared to their male counterparts. It now turns out that there is a scientific reason for that as explored below.
According to a study that was led by Dr. Michael Lipton, a neuroscientist based at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, women suffer five times the amount of brain damage as males who head the ball during soccer games. The study also found that women take longer to recover from the resultant injuries sustained during sports.
The research team used MRI scans to take a look into the brains of 98 amateur soccer players, all of them adults. Half of them were male while the other half were female. These study subjects were selected on the basis of having headed the ball multiple times within the past year.
The scans done on the female soccer players showed some structural deterioration in eight white matter regions involved in carrying signals from one part of the brain to another. However, the male soccer players only had damage in three white matter regions. For both genders, the number of affected regions increased with an increase in the frequency of heading the ball.
When the volume of damaged brain tissue was analyzed, it was found that the female players suffered damage in about 2,100 cubic millimeters of the brain’s tissues while males only suffered damage in approximately 400 cubic millimeters.
The research team wasn’t sure why these sex differences exist regarding athletes heading the ball. However, they speculate that two factors could be at play.
First, Dr. Lipton and his team suggest that since women have less muscle mass to protect their heads from cranial impacts, they tend to suffer higher degrees of whiplash each time they head the ball.
Secondly, women could suffer more inflammation in the brain if they head the ball at the time in their menstrual cycles when progesterone is low. Progesterone is known to protect against brain inflammation, so a dip in this hormone makes females more susceptible to intracranial injuries each time they head the ball.
The research team is now interested in finding out whether the damage suffered while heading the ball is linked to any long-term cognitive effects. In the meantime, experts think biomedical companies like DarioHealth Corp. (NASDAQ: DRIO) would recommend taking any protective measures necessary to avert as many of those intracranial injuries as possible during soccer games.
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the BioMedWire website applicable to all content provided by BMW, wherever published or re-published: http://BMW.fm/Disclaimer
