Boxers on the mode used helmet may have changes in brain fluids after each assault, indicating damage to nerve cells. This follows from the results of a study of 30 high-level fighters in Sweden.
It has been debated for some time if the boxing helmet, the most common type among amateur boxers or first, it is dangerous for the brain despite the greater protection that a helmet compared to the absence of it in the battles of professional boxing.
A team of researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, under the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in collaboration with the University of Linkoping in the same country and the Swedish Federation of Boxing, examined 30 high-level fighters in Sweden and compared the results with the analysis of these 25 people who have never boxed.
The study by the research team of Sanna Neselius shows that repeated blows to the head during the fight in the ring can produce a release of markers of brain damage similar to the release observed after other types of trauma to the head, as well as neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s disease.
Neselius has a personal interest in the topic because she has been boxing at an elite level and was considered one of the best female fighters in the boxing world, in the form used in the hull and in the mode that it dispenses with the same.
In the investigation, she and her colleagues have found that after the attacks, some of the boxers had higher concentrations of four different proteins, all markers of damage to nerve cells in the brain. Furthermore, levels of two proteins were still high after a rest period.
Up to 80 percent of the boxers showed changes in protein levels indicative of brain damage.
The boxers who participated in the study competed at the highest level in Sweden and all had fought in at least 47 rounds in that category. None of them had lost a fight by knockout, and none said symptoms (headache) after an assault.