Link between concussions, dementia is complex: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In a new study of National Football League (NFL) veterans, former players with thinking and memory problems also had more lesions in their brains than healthy players and non-athletes in a comparison group. But cognitive difficulties weren’t directly related to the number of concussions a player had suffered in his career – complicating the controversy over long-term effects of head injuries. “Not everyone gets this problem,” said Dr. John Hart, Jr. from the University of Texas at Dallas, who worked on the study. …