Professional boxing can be brutal on the brain. Repeated blows to the head can result in severe speech problems, tremors and loss of motor control, and has had devastating effects on boxers, such as Muhammad Ali and Jerry Quarry.

 

Amateur boxers are believed to be at considerably lower risk from dementia pugilistica, or punch-drunk syndrome, because they wear protective headgear and shock-absorbing gloves, and they go fewer rounds. Yet as this niche of the sport grows, especially among white-collar types looking for a workout, a study of amateur boxers has found evidence of brain trauma.

 

"The brain is not made for hitting upon," says study author Dr. Max Albert Hietala, a neurologist with Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden. "And it's not protected well enough, even if you have headgear."

 

The research, first published in Archives of Neurology in 2006, was presented recently at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Boston. In the study, 14 amateur boxers' cerebrospinal fluid was taken via spinal tap.

 

"The brain swims in cerebrospinal fluid, it's there to protect the brain," Hietala explains. When neurons — nervous system cells that transmit information — become damaged, they can die, releasing proteins, including neurofilament light protein, the building blocks of neurons, into the cerebrospinal fluid.

 

Because that process can sometimes take several days, the spinal tap was done about a week after the boxers' matches
In examining the spinal fluid of the 11 men and three women, average age 22, researchers found it contained markers for neuron damage when compared with a control group of 10 nonathletic, nonboxing men.

Among those boxers suffering fewer than 15 blows to the head, levels of the neurofilament light proteins were four times higher than a control group of 10 nonathletes.

 

Among those suffering more than 15 blows, levels were seven to eight times higher. None of the boxers showed any outward signs of cognitive damage or head trauma, such as confusion, dizziness or slurred speech.

The AAPRP will be reviewing this and other studies at our upcoming conference in November.