Page 327 - Memory Problems News Today

His brain on the left side and for me to please get it to the nfl. >> reporter: duerson asked his brain be examined for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or cte, a degenerative disease often found in those with a history of concussion. >> football players are at a very high risk because they take, studies show, about a thousand hits to the head each fall, some at least 20gs, which is like a small car crash, so essentially your brain actually starts falling apart. 10 or 20 years later you start g...

Of your enemies. guys go to great lengths to hide injuries. >> reporter: turns out hiding has consequences. first seen at the nfl level. retired players consumed with depression, rage, memory problems. their symptoms associated with a mysterious brain disease called chronic traumatic encepolopathy. it look s like dementia. >> the reality, we have cases of teenagers having the disease. primarily football players. some played multisports, but they all had brain trauma. >> its brain damage. thats w...

Consequences. first seen at the nfl level. retired players consumed with depression, rage, memory problems. their symptoms associated with the mysterious brain disease called traumatic -- it strikes players in their 30s, 40s, 50s. sometimes younger. >> the reality is, we have cases of teenagers having the disease. some play multisports, but they all had brain trauma. seasoning how can you want that for any child. >> does your head go up or down? >> up? >> head go up or down? >> up. >> a team of ...

About. what they found is by doing a spinal tap they get really important clues. this is a model of the spine. this is the back of the spine here. a spinal tap involves -- somebody usually hunches over, bend their back out. put a needle right through a couple of bones over here. and right through the spinal sack and take a little bit of fluid from that area. >> have you done that before? did somebody else do that before you take a look at the -- >> no. i have done this procedure. a lot of people...

People ask me this more than anything else. im having memory problems. im having a hard time finding something. normally its memory problems, but for a small percentage, its alzheimers. >> its hard to see a healthy person and their mind isnt there and they know its coming. its awful. >> it is. hopefully well have more positive nous report. >> thank you. its a story so bizarre and unsettling that it has many people in small towns looking twice at strangers on the street. a 95-wielding man may b...

>> we hardly ever get to report something positive or big in the world of alzheimers, as much as weve tried. but this idea that you really couldnt be sure if someone had alzheimers until the time of death. that could be changing. were talking about a spinal tap. its a study that just came out today, taking a little bit of the cerebrospinal fluid. theyve looked at people with mild memory problems and the people who had alzheimers, this test came back positive most of the time. the people who had ...

Where you take a little bit of cerebral spinal fluid from someones body and analyze that. take a look at it. and what researchers were focusing on, proper two proteins. they are sort of a signature for alzheimers disease. here is what they found that was so interesting and exciting as well. they looked at three groups of people. people with all timers and people that had mild memory problems and people that had no memory problems. the people that had known alzheimers almost with 100% predictabil...

Memory problems. could this be alzheimers? the medical establishment could not convincingly answer that question. this study is a big step in that direction. spinal tap is -- >> commonly used for a lot of things. >> commonly used. still involves a procedure where you have to put a needle in someones back. a woman whos had an epidural, thats similar. it is a procedure, not as simple as a blood test. but collecting that fluid, if someone has mild memory problems, every single one of them, it was p...

Proteins, whether its an oxidation effect in the brain, who knows but its also in the spinal fluid along the cord and thats where it can be measured. >> what can we do with this information now? do you have to develop a way to try to prevent it from going into the spinal cord fluid? this is the hard question in medicine. now you have the test. what are you going to do with this information exactly? >> right. >> how would it affect you if you get this information? there is a certain amount of dat...

Tap, you put a needle in the back of the spine and take a little spinal fluid out. theyre looking for a couple of proteins. you dont need the names, but heres the point, when they took this and examined it, people who already had alzheimers almost all had these abnormal proteins in the cerebral spinal fluid. people with abnormal proteins, all of them went on to development alzheimers disease. there was a percentage of people who had memory problems, and they werent sure, would this turn in alzhe...