Following a brief professional wrestling career, during which he experienced intense symptoms from concussions, Harvard graduate Chris Nowinski made the decision to learn more about the effect of repeated head trauma. Dr. Nowinski has since dedicated his career to studying the behaviors and brains of professional athletes, and is responsible in-part for what the medical field and the public knows about CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Nowinski made a recent appearance on "Talk Is Jericho" to discuss the disease, with specific focus on Chris Benoit. In 2007, Benoit murdered his wife and son before taking his own life at his home in Georgia. Though it was still early in the study of CTE, Nowinski urged authorities to study Benoit's brain in search of a connection between concussions and his mental health problems.
"You can't say that disease caused that single act, because ... there's so many other variables involved," Nowinski said regarding Benoit. "That being said, I think we have maybe ... 10 murders in the brain bank [that] all have sort of the same story: that they were fine, then they started having some mental health problems, then they went off and killed people."
While there is not yet a definitive link between Benoit's actions and the damage to his brain, Nowinski believes it's hard to deny that it played a significant role in what took place.
Nowinski pointed out that both doctors and the public have been aware for more than 100 years that boxers and other athletes often experience mental setbacks in their middle age. It was frequently used as a punchline in jokes on TV, but Nowinski is one of the key figures in pushing for serious medical research on the topic. It was eventually discovered that repeated physical impacts to the head cause small lesions on the brain that result in symptoms including changes to one's personality as well as depression, increased aggression, and memory loss.
Looking back and assessing how much progress has been made over the last decade, Nowinski believes the public is now more aware of concussions and their potential long-term effects. Because of that, concussion protocols have become more intensive, both in professional sports as well as in schools.
"The big change over the last 10 years has been the recognition that CTE is a much bigger issue than we wanted it to be," Nowinski stated.
According to Nowinski, based on studies of nearly 500 late NFL and NHL players, between 93% and 95% showed signs of CTE. There isn't currently a reliable way to test for CTE on those still living, though Nowinski seemed optimistic that progress was being made on that front. Wrestlers including Mark Henry and Kevin Nash have stated that they intend to donate their brains for CTE research following their eventual deaths.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Talk Is Jericho" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
