The team now on your Saturday
morning and this week we learned
more details about the death
of former Broncos star Demarius Thomas.
Researchers who studied his brain
found after he died, that he had CTE.
So this morning we have Doctor Eric
French from mind Spa joining us now
to talk a little bit more about CTE.
We were talking about that.
We think that these are
going to be 3 letters.
We hear a lot more of as it
studied a little bit more as
it screened a little bit more.
But I think right now it's a
good opportunity for us to get a
firm grasp on what CTE even is.
Yeah, and it's and it's really something
that happens slowly over time, right?
And so we we have a lot more
focus these days on concussions,
but CTE is really that cumulative
sequelae from multiple head
traumas over time, and seeing how
that that causes brain changes,
you know. And they think this was
something that we only really ever
heard of happening with boxers.
Of course with professional
football players as well,
but we are seeing this a little bit more,
but you were talking about the fact
that this is pretty hard to diagnose.
Yeah, absolutely. In fact,
it's it's really only something.
Currently that you can diagnose
postmortem so when they do autopsy,
there are certain things that they
can see in cerebral tissue that
are indicative of the process,
but you know beforehand we're still
working on finding diagnostic indicators.
I'm curious about those indicators.
What would CTE even look like in a person?
Yeah, that's a great question,
so with repeated head trauma there are.
There are axonal neuronal injuries,
and so when the neurons are
injured they start to have plaques.
They call them tauopathies,
neurofibrillary tangles.
All of these signs that the
neurons have been injured and
it's kind of like building scar
tissue and cerebral tissue.
Essentially,
how would you even begin
talking to somebody about CTE?
Because this seems like a
really complicated subject.
Yeah, it's a it's a broader concept,
I think, but really, if you were trying
to talk to somebody about it that you
were concerned might have some symptoms,
you would focus more on the
actual symptoms themselves than
to really try to go deep into CTE.
So and and that's kind of how it's
treated right now is is sort of
symptom and a lot symptom illogically.
Some people have some mood symptoms.
They'll have memory issues.
They'll have. You know,
angry outbursts you know and and later on,
as this develops further.
Unfortunately,
as it is degenerative,
you start to see more dementia
signs and and even some motor.
Some movement issues like Parkinson's
and you bring up a really good point because
there are actually different stages of CTE.
Of course they were talking about demarius.
Thomas was diagnosed with stage two CTE.
How do you even break that up?
You know it.
It seems to me more so that there's a.
Spectrum because there's involvement
in things like motor and mood and
multiple elements of the stages.
But you know it starts with some
simple post concussive symptoms,
headaches, memory issues,
people kind of asking the same
question or not remembering the chatter
conversation about something yesterday,
possibly some depression,
maybe some anger outbursts and we
see that this progresses over time
to incorporate more of the memory,
more behaviors,
a lot more confusion and and like
I said then it's you know by
the time you get to to stage 3.
About 75% of them,
it's pretty clear have dementia.
You talked about the fact that this is
mostly diagnosed or entirely diagnosed
after somebody has already died.
You know there might be a lot of people
now and we're going to have research.
Probably going forward where
people are questioning.
Am I living with CTE, you know,
and and do you think that's ever going to be?
There's ever going to be an opportunity to
know that somebody has it before death.
I certainly hope so. I mean,
they're looking at biomarkers right now,
and certain types of imaging.
That can sort of attach ligands to to
various proteins that are more common
with CTE than other forms of dementia,
and so as they sharpen that technology
and get a better handle on exactly which
biomarkers are very specific for CTE,
we might be able to pick
this up a lot sooner,
and doctor French.
Unfortunately, I feel like I.
I know the answer to this one,
but this way we like talking to
you so much because you can tell
that this is your wheelhouse.
You get excited talking about this
when it comes to CTE and it comes to
somebody having it do treatments.
That exist for it at this time
yeah, and and they are mostly symptomatic,
so I think that what we're seeing is
a is a deeper push to understand this.
And there's a lot of emerging technologies.
Things like hyperbaric oxygen therapy
are becoming a lot more commonplace.
You know, there's immunotherapies,
and so I'm I'm hopeful that the
sort of control over slowing the
progression of this process is going
to be a lot a lot better over time,
sure, and I'm sorry to put you on the spot,
but you just have so much knowledge
about this that I'm really curious.
What do you think the
next steps need to happen?
As far as the research goes, what what?
What's happening now to help us
learn and understand more about CTE
in terms of the research I you know,
like we said we were talking about sort
of looking at how we can identify this.
A lot earlier, you know,
but it's it's there seems to be a greater
focus right now on the causes, right?
And trying to really mitigate from
high contact sports, the protective
equipment that we're utilizing,
advancing that technology,
looking at the contacts boards and the
rules of engagement to see if we can
sharpen up and decrease the likelihood
of the types of hits that cause this.
So I see a lot of research being
pushed in the areas of preventative
measures at this point.
Sure, alright,
Doctor Eric French with mind spa.
We thank you so much for being
with us is going to break it down.
Probably have to have you back
because we learn a little bit more.
We're going to need to dive into that.
Glad to be here all right?
Doctor French.
Thank you so much.
We'll be right back.