In November 2022, retired Australian Women's Rugby League (AFLW) athlete Heather Anderson committed suicide at the age of 28. Her family donated their brains to the Australian Sports Brain Bank.
Brain bank researchers learned through a diagnosis that Anderson had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). She became the first female professional athlete to be diagnosed with CTE.
Professor Alan Pearce, a clinical neurophysiologist at La Trobe University in Australia, co-authored the study with the Motor Brain Bank. People also wondered: Is the athlete's suicide related to the brain damage caused by contact sports?
This diagnosis from the Sports Brain Bank has significant implications for women's sports and highlights the serious lack of research on female athletes in sports science and medicine.
What is chronic traumatic encephalopathy?
CTE is a highly devastating form of dementia that causes decreased brain function and an increased risk of psychiatric disorders. There is growing evidence of an association between chronic traumatic encephalopathy and athletes who practice contact sports such as rugby, boxing, and martial arts.
At present, it seems that CTE cannot be cured and can only be diagnosed after death. In addition to AFLW's Anderson, several former football stars (males) have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy after their deaths.
Heather Anderson scientists in the race have long known that concussions that occur in contact sports are associated with long-term neurodegenerative diseases; Of course, not only academics, but also the public is well aware of the health threat of a serious concussion. And the latest scientific findings tell us that while a brain blow is terrifying, low-intensity, repetitive brain trauma that accumulates over time, even seemingly minor head impacts or sprains, is definitely worth paying attention to, because they have been shown to be the biggest risk factor for chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Players who have been involved in contact sports for a long time, especially those who have been in these sports since childhood, are at very high risk of CTE.
Athletic career
Heather Anderson started playing rugby at the age of five and entered Australian Rules rugby as a teenager. In 2017, she entered AFLW through the draft and began her first season.
Anderson spent a season with the Port Adelaide Ravens and helped the team win the championship that season. Sadly, AFLW's first year was also her last, with Anderson ending her career with a shoulder injury. She then returned to the Australian Army, where she had served, as a medic.
Anderson's family donated her brains to find out if repeated head trauma throughout her life had contributed to her death.
Are women more likely to develop CTE than men?
There is growing evidence that women are at significantly higher risk of mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) than men, and that more severe symptoms may occur.
Concussions by themselves do not cause CTE, but the number of concussions suffered by athletes is a reliable indicator of cumulative trauma, which is the most important predictor of CTE.
From left to right, the brain imaging researchers on PET scans, CTE patients, and Alzheimer's disease patients proposed a comprehensive physiological and social explanation for the increased risk of concussion in women:
Brain microstructure, hormone levels, coaching system, player experience level, injury management, etc., may all affect the risk of concussion and CTE in women...
We need more research to understand exercise-induced brain injury, particularly in women and girls. Women are increasingly participating in sports and their risks are increasing, but they are underrepresented in concussion research.
This means that sports science research ignores women – whose bodies are considered more complex than men and therefore more difficult to test and analyze.
A disease that is not sexist
This world's first CTE report of a female athlete proves that the disease is "male and female" and non-sexist, and it also makes scientists realize that we urgently need to increase the representation of women in brain injury-related research.
To reduce concussion accidents in women's sports, the imbalance in resources between men's and women's sports must first be addressed. Solutions include giving women access to high-quality training and coaching support, as well as more attention to sports science and medical research.
Only when researchers, policymakers, and sports governing bodies ensure that attention and resources for concussions and brain diseases are not focused solely on men, will the health of female athletes be assured and women's sports progress.
资料来源：Australian researchers confirm world’s first case of dementia linked to repetitive brain trauma in a female athlete
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