Not all brains are equal, especially for those that have been knocked about significantly more than others. The risk of dementia becomes especially high for people who are exposed to head trauma. This can of course include automobile accidents or otherwise unforeseen tragedies, but especially those in high-impact sports who are chronically experiencing hits to the skull. Dementia pugilistica (though originating from boxing/pugilism) is an umbrella term for what can happen to professional athletes who play sports such as football, hockey, ruby, and of course boxing. Boxers are the leading demographic of DP, with about 20% of professional boxers ending up with some form dementia.
Tag: dementia pugilistica (DP)
What Is Dementia?
There’s quite a bit of misunderstanding about what dementia is exactly. The short definition is that dementia is an umbrella term for any degenerative condition of the brain. In a purely word-comparison context, the word dementia is not that different cancer. But like cancer, dementia can be split into very specific conditions, depending on the quality and rate of degeneration or causes of dementia – just like cancer can be split into the different regions or tissues of the body, and particular risk factors can be pinpointed according to each type of cancer. The biggest misconception about dementia is that it is a natural part of ageing – which it’s not. Dementia is preventable in so many ways, but because people have systematically refused to change certain aspects of their lifestyles, the resulting dementia has taken on a fatalistic image.