We just finished watching Plum on iview. Neither of us are rugby league fans, but it looked interesting, & it was. A brilliant look at masculinity in Australian sport. Written & lead role acted by Brendan Cowell, based on his novel, which I know must read.

Decades of epidemiological data have shown that infections with herpes simplex virus type 1, or HSV-1 can raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in certain people. So can a history of head injury. The new research, published Tuesday in Science Signaling, is the first to connect the dots between them, and adds to mounting evidence that this most common form of dementia can be caused by an everyday microbe.

The results suggest that athletes, military personnel, and other people suffering concussions could be triggering the reanimation of latent infections in the brain that can lead to Alzheimer’s later in life. More work needs to be done, but the proposed mechanism points to the use of antiviral drugs as a potential early preventive treatment. “The idea is if you have this sort of injury, it can reactivate HSV-1, which is present in most people whether they know it or not,” said Dana Cairns, a stem cell biologist at Tufts who led the work.

More than 80% of adults over the age of 60 are estimated to have been infected with HSV-1 at some time in their lives. It’s a virus that never really goes away, even after the immune system kicks in and the cold sores disappear. Instead, HSV-1 goes silent, burrowing into neurons and leaving behind copies of its genome with the potential to restart infections when the immune system is weakened.

https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/07/alzheimers-disease-research-link-between-herpes-virus-head-trauma-dementia/

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scisignal.ado6430
#TBI #CTE #virology #alzheimers

repeated head impacts drive brain degeneration patterns - chronic traumatic encephalopathy #SportsMedicine #neuroscience #CTE #concussion https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-impacts-brain-degeneration-patterns-chronic.html

As a teen, my mom accidentally dropped baby RFK Jr on his head.

At the time, RFK Sr assured my mom the child was ok.

CTE may possibly be caused by one instance of brain trauma.

Years ago, I knew a professional wrestler who used to come over to my place to hang out and watch movies. He did a lot of hardcore matches in the ring: fluorescent light smashing, wrestling in thumbtacks or barbed wire, and all sorts of other bouts which resulted in a lot of blood.

I love wrestling, but not that kind. This guy was all sorts of fucked up. I'm pretty sure he was a masochist and this is how he fed that need. He couldn't raise one of his arms over his head because of all the damage done to his shoulder. He also had some significant brain damage from multiple concussions. He told me this manifested in amnesia.

As an example, he woke up in bed with a woman one morning. He looked all around and saw a bedroom with evidence of them both living there. "I guess she must be my girlfriend," he figured. He had no memory of her at all, but just went with it.

He used to visit me about once a week. Then he stopped without warning. I suspect he forgot he knew me.
#Wrestling #CTE #BrainInjury #concussion #amnesia #wrassling