Overview

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a brain condition that can develop due to repeated head impacts and concussions. This condition affects how areas of your brain function, communicate and work with each other. Depending on the extent of the damage and the affected brain areas, this condition can have severe effects.

CTE is best known for affecting professional athletes in contact sports, especially boxing, American football and ice hockey. However, this condition can develop in people with repeated head impacts regardless of their sport (or if they don’t play sports at all). Healthcare providers also identify it in military veterans who experienced multiple explosion- or blast-related incidents.

The name of CTE breaks down like so:

  • Chronic: This means CTE is a long-term condition.
  • Traumatic: This term means CTE is trauma- or injury-related.
  • Encephalopathy: This combines two words from ancient Greek. The literal translation means “brain disease.”

Who does chronic traumatic encephalopathy affect?

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy can affect anyone with a history of repeated blows to the head. However, CTE also doesn’t appear immediately. For most people with this condition, it can take years or decades before symptoms are severe enough to draw attention. People who develop CTE typically have a history of many head impacts over several years, especially people who play sports professionally. The vast majority of people who play high school sports don’t develop CTE. In fact, the average age of people with confirmed CTE is around 42 to 43 years old.

People who have the greatest risks include:

  • People who participate in combat-centered sports and competitions. This especially applies to boxing, mixed martial arts (MMA) and other traditional forms of martial arts (tae kwon do, aikido, judo, etc.)
  • People who play contact sports, especially football, ice hockey and rugby.
  • People who participate in road/concrete-based activities like cycling, rollerblading, skateboarding, etc.
  • Military personnel exposed to explosions and other concussive events.

How common is chronic traumatic encephalopathy?

Experts aren’t sure just how common CTE is. That’s partly because there’s no way to diagnose this condition while a person is alive. Healthcare providers can suspect a person has it, but there’s no way to confirm it without an autopsy. CTE also has strong similarities and shares symptoms with several other degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia.

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Symptoms

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Complications

Blood clots are a dangerous complication of atrial fibrillation (AFib). Blood clots can lead to stroke.
The risk of stroke from AFib increases as you grow older. Other health conditions also may increase the risk of a stroke due to AFib. These conditions include:
  • High blood pressure.
  • Diabetes.
  • Heart failure.
  • Some types of heart valve disease.
Blood thinners are commonly prescribed to prevent blood clots and strokes in people with atrial fibrillation.

Prevention

Healthy lifestyle choices can reduce the risk of heart disease and may prevent atrial fibrillation (AFib). Here are some basic heart-healthy tips:
  • Control high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
  • Don't smoke or use tobacco.
  • Eat a diet that's low in salt and saturated fat.
  • Exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week unless your health care team says not to.
  • Get good sleep. Adults should aim for 7 to 9 hours daily.
  • Maintain a healthy weight.
  • Reduce and manage stress.


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