• Font Size    
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Wrestler To Donate Brain To Research Center

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   
Sep 24, 2008 11:07 pm US/Eastern

Wrestler To Donate Brain To Research Center

BOSTON (CBS) ― It's a provocative question – are some of our best athletes ruining their minds on the field?

Some of those athletes, including former New England Patriot Ted Johnson, want to help answer that question by donating their brains to research once they die.

Johnson, along with a dozen other athletes, including other NFL players, wrestlers, and a female soccer player, are taking part in a unique new study based in Boston.

Johnson retired from the Patriots three years ago after multiple concussions resulted in permanent and progressive memory problems and depression.

That's why he's agreed to be monitored over time and upon his death, donate his brain to a new center at Boston University's School of Medicine, which is devoted to studying the long-term effects of head injuries.

"The repetitive trauma they suffer -- 10 to 20 years after they stop the sport -- they start developing systems because this process in their brain has been triggered,"

The goal is to understand the disease and also under the degenerative disease and have an impact on prevention.

Former WWE wrestler and Harvard football player Chris Nowinski suffered at least half a dozen concussions and is also taking part in the study.

Nowiski explains, "The big problem was my brain. In football, big concussions. In wrestling, I was kicked in the head a few times."

Nowinski also founded the Sports Legacy Institute, which is collaborating with the new brain center at BU.

He explains, "Part of me wants to find out a cure because I'm worried about what'll happen to me in 10 years, and because I know this will help every athlete everywhere."

An NFL committee is also conducting its own study to determine if there are any long-term effects of concussion in football players.

Those findings are expected to be released in about two years.

Nowinski's institute is holding a fundraiser at the Langham Hotel in Boston on Monday, Oct. 6. If you would like more information about the Sports Legacy institute, visit www.sportslegacy.org

And for more info on the new center at the BU School of Medicine, log onto www.bu.edu/alzresearch.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

© MMIX, CBS Television Stations Inc. All Rights Reserved.