2 more @ health stories- CTE/football & bariatric surgery

[SusanBAnthony]

I never did get the link in the OP to work, but came across this one: www.thecut.com/article/weight-loss-drugs-ozempic-kids-childhood-obesity.html?%3F=&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=social_paid&utm_campaign=content_low&utm_content=6538841823407&fbclid=IwAR1zC8-7aMciEHyE2ZJLpaTyGEM0FhzDJSUlbjQeILvhAZms6HhYoIMlvkY_aem_AZCIibeCSUBzB7RhgW0lxb-PaTOXGpzSpBqMTrS8H_fNIt0p1wBu0gKQ_R1uD4Cm1CTrfp6kvRn0ZM_DyCt4TuC3

Super long link, sorry.

I'm not sure how legit the source is but I thought it was an interesting read.

[imimahoney]

Dec 21, 2023 22:16:16 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

I never did get the link in the OP to work, but came across this one: Super long link, sorry.

I'm not sure how legit the source is but I thought it was an interesting read.

Thanks for the article link. My daughter is obese and I am deeply concerned for her. Right now she is just being monitored but I could see weight loss medicine being prescribed in her future.

She's 8 and her cholesterol is so high she gets seen by the cardiology department at Children's Hospital.

She is active and eats moderately well for children her age but it doesn't seem to matter since she keeps gaining 20+ pounds a year. She sound similar to the subject of the article with the desire to eat constantly and the struggle with portion size.

She has anxiety and struggles with friendships. She thinks it's because her "body is bigger than everyone elses". I tell her it doesn't and she's beautiful as anyone who struggles with self-esteem knows, positive talk doesn't always help.

[nsl]

@

I've seen a lot more about CTE in young football players and parental refusal to let kids play tackle in the news recently. Just last week the Daily did an episode about it that included a heartbreaking story about a young man who only played in youth leagues and high school (with one year of college, I think), and whose brain was found to have level 2 CTE when he passed away in his mid-20's (TW for discussions of suicide). Here's the link: www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/podcasts/the-daily/youth-football-cte.html. It made for an interesting conversation about youth sports with my athletic 13 year old who was in the car with me when it aired.

Also, the Washington Post has been doing a series on the changing demographics of youth football, and published this very long feature at about the same time. It highlights the states where tackle football participation has shrunk (as well as those where it's grown--there's a follow-up story that dives more into Mississippi's growth), and how the NFL is leaning heavily into flag football because even it can see that tackle is losing ground so fast they need to diversify if they want to have a league in 30 years. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2023/football-participation-decline-politics-demographics/

[Jalapeñomel]

Dec 20, 2023 0:04:38 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Dec 19, 2023 19:45:46 GMT -5 erbear said:

Serious competitive youth athlete and D1 collegiate player here. No injuries from sports to speak of as an adult.

I think some of it is that no one specialized then. I played three different seasons of varsity sports through high school. I was never playing the same sport year round. Some of it is just good luck.

Yeah I think it’s luck. I played soccer year round starting at age 10. In high school I still played soccer year round (high school in the fall, indoor club team, travel spring team) plus did indoor and outdoor track. Then D1 in college. No major injuries except a few sprained ankles and overall my body feels ok and until covid hit I still played soccer. I rarely headed the ball, I guess I knew back then that it wouldn’t be great for me!

The repetitive hitting of football though is just so scary. No way would I let my young kid participate.

Definitely luck.

I danced for 25 years. and my body pays for it every day between spondy and DDD in my back, sesimoidoctomy in my foot, bunions in my feet, and compartment syndrome in both shins, it really damaged my body. And every dancer I know has serious injuries and daily pain in their +40s, if you were a serious athlete in your younger years and not suffering now, you’re damn lucky.

[mrsukyankee]

I have bad knees from playing D1 field hockey, followed by years and year of playing hockey at a high level here in England. (I also played softball or cricket for a large portion of my life, so my shoulders are also an area of weakness). It doesn't help that I tore my ACL in my early 30s while playing rugby. I think I'm actually quite lucky with how well my body works at almost 55 considering all I did over the years. At this point, I can't squat fully but that's about it (I did have to stop playing cricket the summer of 2022 because I kept hurting my knee and had a frozen shoulder).

[wanderingback]

Back to the article, so tragic. Especially the twins, ugh.

Based on the studies it does seem like football is the highest culprit. I wish the article would’ve talked more about the women who had CTE.

Obviously being a parent you have to make a lot of hard and even unpopular choices for your children. Tackle football might be one of those decisions and I personally don’t think the risks are worth it.

[mrsukyankee]

Dec 23, 2023 15:17:49 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Based on the studies it does seem like football is the highest culprit. I wish the article would’ve talked more about the women who had CTE.

That was my interest as well. As a woman who played a LOT of sport, it would be interested in seeing the impact of concussions on women in sport specifically.