While research around sports and brain impacts has tended to focus on American football, soccer players may be at risk as well. Retired professional soccer players show signs of potential neurological impacts in midlife, according to new research.

Study Findings

Former professional players were more likely to report anxiety, depression, and problems with thinking or decision-making compared to people who had not played contact sports. The research team looked at many measures of impact, including questionnaires, clinical assessments, and brain scans.

Among the 142 former players, made up of 126 men and 16 women who ranged in age from 30 to 60, researchers did not find significant impacts on cognition, which includes skills like memory and attention. However, brain scans did show lower gray matter — the brain’s information processor — in regions that affect memory, decision-making, attention, and emotional regulation among the group of players compared to those participants who did not play contact sports.

The concern is really about repeated hits to the head over the course of a lifetime, said Dr. Michael Alosco, codirector of clinical research for the Boston University CTE Center and vice chair of research for neurology. In soccer, that can come from collisions, but an important source is when players hit the ball with their head, called a “header.”

Reducing Head Impact Exposure

In the United States, efforts have been implemented to protect brain health. The US Soccer Federation banned headers in 2016 for players younger than 10 and limited how long 11- to 13-year-olds could practice them each week.

Anytime you can reduce head impact exposure, no matter the sport you play, that’s ultimately going to help you, said Dr. Steven Broglio, director of the University of Michigan Concussion Center.

Original reporting: KTVZ (Central Oregon) — read the source article.