Concussions 1n sports

> Tackle football declared dangerous for children

Colten Kamlade
Staff Reporter

 

ootball Hall of Famers Harry
Carson and Nick Buoniconti have

teamed up with the Concussion Legacy
Foundation (CLF) to end tackle football
for children under the age of 14.

To encourage parents to keep
their kids out of tackle football, the
CLF has created the Flag Football
Under 14 All- Time Greatest Team,
a list of NFL players who didn’t play
tackle football until they entered high
school. The list can be found on the
CLF website, and consists of stars such
as Tom Brady and Mike Haynes.

Robert Lake, an instructor in
the department of sport science
at Douglas College, said he agreed
playing tackle football can cause a lot
of harm, but not just for children.

“IT would say that football—the way

it is played now—is a dangerous sport
for adults and kids, but especially for
kids,” he said in an interview with the
Other Press. “While the helmets are
well made and the padding is solid,
this does not protect the head 100
per cent. No helmet can. In fact, one
of the unintended consequences of
improving helmet technology is that
the helmets and pads might make
the players feel more invincible.”
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy
(CTE), the degenerative neurological
disorder caused by blows to the head
which has been found in retired
NFL players, is a risk in sports aside
from football, according to Lake.
“CTE is something that any sport
where there are repeated blows to the
head must face as a potential issue,”
he said. “In hockey, the main issue is
with the big hits that knock players
onto the ground. These are rarer

=

7DOES YOUR CHILD C
NEED TO PLAY TACKLE FOOTBALL
BEFORE HIGH SCHOOL TO

BECOME AN NFL LEGEND?

 

than in football, given the nature of
the game and the fact that the idea
is to stay on your feet—there is no
‘tackling’ in hockey—but CTE is still a
real possibility for hockey players who
take repeated blows to the head.”

Lake reiterated the dangers of
tackle football, and he emphasized the

Image via Concussion Legacy Foundation

harm it can cause to children.
“Tackle football is dangerous
for children, in my opinion. There
is no getting away from that,” he
said. “I certainly would not want my
children playing tackle football, and
I support the move to ban tackle
football for the younger children.”

>

 

ANALYSIS: Multinational study paves |
the way for the future of psychotherapy __

> MDMA therapy trials near conclusion

 

Greg Waldock
Staff Writer

 

he final phase of an experimental

PTSD treatment using
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine,
commonly called MDMA or ecstasy,
has begun in Vancouver at the BC
Centre on Substance Use.

The trials are part of a multinational
project with 16 other cities in Canada,
the United States, and Israel, and their
positive results are opening the way for
the legalization of medically-assisted
hallucinogenic use in psychotherapy.
Canadian and American agencies are
already showing support, with the
American Food and Drug Administration
calling it a “breakthrough therapy”

and promising to work with activists,
according to a report in Newsweek.

The initiative was funded
by Multidisciplinary Association
for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS),
and was authorized in Vancouver
by Health Canada in 2013.

MAPS Canadian chair and UBC
professor Mark Haden told Metro
News that “most PTSD therapy takes
years. We do it in three months.”

According to the study so far, the use
of MDMA helps to break down mental
barriers and allow PTSD sufferers to
speak openly about their trauma and
their feelings about the trauma, which
in turn allows the start of a healing
process. Two thirds of participants
reported that, after less than four

Vancouver

months of MDMA-assisted therapy, they
remained free of major PTSD symptoms
for the full year following their trials.

In its current state, the therapy
consists of three eight-hour sessions using
MDMA and twelve sessions without,
over a period of three to four months.

The empathogenic nature of the drug
and its medical-grade quality allow for
a safe and productive therapy session.

Ed Thompson, one of the participants
of study and a former firefighter,
said MDMA helped him overcome
psychological barriers in therapy.

“Tt wasn't a party drug. There was no
party,” he said in an interview with the
Globe and Mail. “For the first time in years
I was able to open up and talk painlessly.”

MDMA facilitates bonding between

Image via MAPS.org

people, which is why it gained popularity
as a recreational drug in the first place. As
patient-therapist bonding is often a major
barrier for trauma recovery, the breaking
down of those barriers is a sought-after
goal for recovery, and part of the reason
these trials were initially approved.

There are also few known long-term
negative side effects associated with
the drug, which, when coupled with
the therapy’s success rates, means that
legislation around psychedelic-assisted
treatments could pass into law by 2021 in
both Canada and the United States. Both
the FDA and Health Canada have greenlit
the third phase of trials based on the
success, which should begin in Vancouver
in February after a suitable new location is
found for allowing more study participants.