Dr. Clif Cleaveland is speaking on “Concussions, CTE and the NFL” in the gallery of the Signal Mountain Library Thursday, Oct. 27 at 6:30 p.m.Retired physician and local health columnist Dr. Clif Cleaveland, of Signal Mountain, is presenting a program titled “Concussions, CTE and the NFL” in the Signal Mountain Library’s lower level Thursday, Oct. 27 at 6:30 p.m.
Cleaveland said he first became interested in CTE – which stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative condition caused by repeated blows to the head – after coming across several stories about NFL players who were exhibiting increasingly strange behaviors, and were found to be experiencing unique brain changes.
Since then, he has written once a year on the dangerous effects of repeated head trauma for players of contact sports in his weekly column, “To Your Health,” in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Each column on the subject has garnered thousands of hits online, he said.
“I think, personally, that young children should not play football,” said Cleaveland. “Yet on Signal Mountain I’ve seen advertisements for leagues starting at age 5 or 8.”
Football isn’t the only sport that presents a cause for concern. As a specialist in internal medicine, Cleaveland said he didn’t have much exposure to this type of condition in his time as a physician, but he did have a granddaughter who suffered a concussion at age 12 after heading a ball during a soccer game.
Cleaveland said girls who play soccer are advised not to head the ball before age 14, when their neck muscles are not yet fully developed and they are more likely to get concussions. Hockey is another contact sport that causes serious injury, he added.
During his talk at the library, Cleaveland will speak about the book “Concussion” by Jeanne Marie Laskas, as well as the movie of the same name. Both are about Dr. Bennet Omalu, the pathologist who first discovered the football-related brain injury, along with the NFL’s efforts to downplay its effects.
Cleaveland said he will offer suggestions on ways that new regulations could help mitigate injury in contact sports, and he will also take questions from the audience following the presentation.
“I think there’s some unrecognized public health issues that are being downplayed,” he said. “It’s an important topic that parents of young children need to find out more about. There’s a lot of accessible information out there.”
Copies of “Concussion,” both the book and the DVD, are available to check out at the Signal Mountain Library, located at 1114 James Blvd.
Call the library at 886-7323 for more information.