Role of Exercise and Dietary Supplementation in Attenuation of Traumatic Brain Injury in American Football.
Approximately 1.5 million Americans experience a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year. TBI’s can occur in many ways such as car accidents, falls, work-related injuries, and athletic events, leaving lasting effects that may lead to degenerative diseases.3 There are approximately five million Americans that currently living with these TBI-related disabilities.
Acute damage to tissue normally results in the release of extracellular enzymes into the blood. One such enzyme (marker) that is present after brain injuries are CK. Elevated levels of CK in the blood has long been used as a marker for tissue damage in tissues like the brain and heart. CK is normally not present in the blood; however, after the onset of an acute brain injury, it is present in the peripheral blood.17 Similarly, a recent study by Karkela et al demonstrated that a brain-specific creatine kinase (CK-BB) is also present in cerebrospinal fluid after a hypoxic brain injury.18 This
group also found that increased levels of neuron-specific enolase (NSE), present in cerebrospinal fluid is present in the blood after a hypoxic brain injury.
Aerobic exercise has emerged as a potent intervention to prevent poor progression of various neurodegenerative diseases because of its key role in decreasing inflammation and modulating favorable gene expression. Neural inflammation is a secondary cause of neuronal cell death due to the excessive release of proinflammatory cytokines from immune cells and tissues of an injured area.
Sport Exerc Med Open J. 2019; 5(1): 5-10. doi: 10.17140/SEMOJ-5-168
