The team, from the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York, says their findings shows Heading the ball more riskier for women brain as they advice sex-specific guidelines may need to be put in place to prevent head injuries from becoming common place in the most-played sport in the world.


Two young women heading soccer ball, eyes closed
Soccer, or football, is the latest in a number of sports, including the NFL, that have come under scrutiny for players that potentially walk away with long-term brain damage from repeated hits to the head.onplace in the most-played sport in the world.



The Study
For the study, the team performed a type of MRI known as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) on 49 male and 49 female amateur football players enrolled in the Einstein Soccer Study.

This type of scan isolates the movement of water in white matter, found in deep brain tissue, which is responsible for connecting different regions of gray matter to one another.

The DTI can then isolate and study parts of the brain that are not functioning properly.

Reports on the average number of headers over the last year were similar among both sexes with the men reporting an average of 487 and the women about 469.

The DTIs measured the diffusion - or spreading of water - on a zero-to-one scale known as fractional anisotropy (FA).

A low value would indicate the that the diffusion of water of the brain is equally restricted in every direction.

After analyzing this diffusion in each of the players' brains, the researchers found that women had five times greater damage in the volume of their white matter on average than the men did.

Additionally, the team found eight brain regions among the women with lower FA values in comparison with just three regions among the men.

Although the team says it cannot pinpoint exactly why women suffer more damage than men, they suspect it could be down to differences in neck strength and sex hormones.

Differences in the brain size and structure, as well as arrangement of neurons, are caused by sex hormones.

Males have a greater amount of circulation of testosterone than women do of estrogen and progesterone.

This is because there are a greater number of male hormonal receptors than female hormonal receptors in the brain.

The brains of women and men more similar than different, but men tend to have brains that are about, on average, 14 percent bigger - which may mean that women have brains that are more susceptible to damage.

The researchers added that although findings such as altered thinking ability weren't seen, the low values of FA were still concerning.






https://medfort.com.ng/heading-the-ball-more-riskier-for-women-brain/