“Our findings suggest that there is something about playing sport, even though a person may experience concussion, that may be beneficial for long-term cognitive outcomes,” Dr Matt Lennon, a researcher at the University of New South Wales, said. “While it may be that those who play sports have had access to better education and more resources, we controlled for these factors in the analysis, so that doesn’t explain the result. We hypothesise that there may be physical, social and long-term behavioural effects of sport that may make for healthier adults in late life.”
This is headed by the weird line:
Oxford and Harvard study finds no link between amateur concussions and long-term cognitive decline
Which isn’t what they found at all. The suggestion is that having played sport competitively, if amateurlyly, provides a long term health benefit to cognition greater than whatever damage might be done by a few low-end head knocks.
Which is not all that amazin’ a findin’. Interestin’, but not wholly amazin’.
I sometimes used to ponder about particular problems that life was throwing my way while out for a run. I believe that while exercising, the blood supply to the brain gets a boost. That and the fact that I was spending an hour or so without any distractions meant that I was often successful in figuring stuff out.
It is equally if not more probable that the kind of person who plays robust sport has healthier genes. (It’s called the Post Hoc Propter Hoc Fallacy.)
Worth noting that Juvenal’s “Mens sana in corpore sano” has been used to support the claim that there is a causal connection between the two – that a healthy body is a cause of good mental health. But this isn’t what he meant by it. He said that these were both blessings, that’s all.
Having said that, exercise makes you feel better, and more inclined to do other things, so it’s certainly worth keeping fit and active if you can.
Repeated concussions are bad for you, obviously.
But the linkage with long term decline isn’t a slam dunk. Did boxing cause Ali’s Parkinson’s? Probably. On the other hand, Jake la Motta – who took a lot more hits than Ali – lived to 97 and was still doing speaking tours aged 90.
Those 400 rugby players in the class action lawsuit are a small minority of all ex players who’ve ever taken a knock.
Over the late summer I get the same effect from collecting blackberries. Your mind is in neutral while your body collects the fuit, and ponders things without distraction. With the benefit of a bowl of juicy yumminess.
Tim: Do the Iberians have similar foraging traditions kept up by Urbans keeping their connection to Rural? Or is it an early industrialisation thing?
@jgh: when we were wee we collected rosehips at the weekend. Handed them in at school on Monday; they were weighed and we were paid cash. At the end of the season our collected weights were added up and those who had collected most were given badges.
What larks! Presumably this had carried over from The War when a native source of Vitamin C (to wit Rosehip Syrup) was v desirable. While out collecting the hips we would scoff lots of brambles and return home purple-lipped. Happy days.
@jgh
Depends which urbans. Extended families are a much bigger thing in Catholic countries, so a lot of urbans will have families live on the land, they visit. But as for foraging, everything here is owned by someone. You don’t have the same “rights of way” as the UK.* So I don’t suppose landowners would as keen on people picking things in their hedges. If we had hedges. There are some odd things. Like one entitled to take one orange from an orange plantation when travelling.
*What you may think is a goat track may well be a public highway. A Labour MP famously got herself in trouble here for fencing off one crossed her land. But the “public” would be the local people live there. Not necessarily anyone from anywhere. You’d have to assert custom & use. The UK “public footpath” is a recent legal thing. Originally they were the same as Spain. Custom & use for the locals, not the “public” in general. France can be interesting. Your “right to roam” is the right to get shot.
“ France can be interesting. Your “right to roam” is the right to get shot.”
I have been wondering about that as we’re planning on spending a lot of October in the Dordogne an I like to go hiking for a couple of hours in the morning when we’re on our travels. I suppose I’ll have to stick to marked tracks.
“It is equally if not more probable that the kind of person who plays robust sport has healthier genes.”
Presumably I share a fair few of my genes with my brother. I’ve kept myself in shape over the years, my brother not so much. I think I look pretty damn good for 66. Brother is four years younger than me but looks ten years older.
I’ve only ever once been concussed (playing goalie and I dived on a ball, opposing forward kicked me on the back of the neck and was deservedly sent off) but I usually played left half and the number of impacts I got from heading a wet leather football was *allegedly* enough to cause significant brain damage as I learned half-a-century later. BiS and others may be of the opinion that I exhibit signs of brain damage but I’ve been quite good at passing exams, IQ tests etc [I was once accused of having more letters after my name than in it] so I never believed the bullshit from Edith Summerskill and this is just another confirmation that her personal anti-boxing vendetta was just a vendetta with no scientific basis.
Each individual is different and this just says the average of umpteen thousand individuals who suffered concussion and took part in sports was better than the average of umpteen thousand who did neither. It is still possible that concussion can cause brain damage (there was a moan earlier this year from the widow of a professional footballer who had suffered brain damage possiblyfrom heading the ball) – OTOH the health, both physical and mental, benefits from playing sport are *on average* greater.
@BiND
The Grandes Randonnées in France are very good and well-marked, roughly the same as national trails in the UK. But apart from those, there are no real equivalents of the millions* of public footpaths that criss-cross Britain.
* probably, high 6-figures, anyway
Chris,
Thanks, I’ll look in to the trails. I’ve been spoiled by Germany’s well maintained Wanderwegs everywhere.