Do high-impact sports damage our brains?

Whether it’s watching your kids play their local club fixtures or gathering around the telly for the grand final, sport brings Australians together more than almost anything else. But there’s a hidden – and potentially deadly – cost. 

Associate Professor Michael Buckland studies the brain, and through the Australian Sports Brain Bank, he examines the brains of athletes who’ve passed away. He’s worried by just how many brains come into the bank and are revealed to have CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy.  

It’s a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head impacts over a long period of time. In other words, the kind of thing that might happen if you’ve been playing collision sports since you were a kid.  

Michael explains how our understanding of CTE has changed in recent years, its causes, and most importantly, how we can mitigate the risk of CTE for all athletes, of all ages.  

NOTE: This episode contains a reference to suicide. If you need support, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 44 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636. For listeners outside Australia, please seek services in your region. 

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The Solutionists is podcast from the University of Sydney, produced by Deadset Studios. Keep up to date with The Solutionists by following @sydney_uni on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

This episode was produced by Liam Riordan with sound design by Jeremy Wilmot. Supervising producer is Sarah Dabro. Executive editors are Kellie Riordan, Jen Peterson-Ward, and Mark Scott. Strategist is Ann Chesterman. 

This podcast was recorded on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. For thousands of years, across innumerable generations, knowledge has been taught, shared and exchanged here. We pay respect to elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

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