Reversing Brain Damage in Former NFL Players

Read about what has happened to some former NFL players since starting care with Dr. Amen, and what it all means for you and your brain.
Your Brain Can Be Better, Even If You Have Been Bad To It
 
Read the Study Abstract: Reversing Brain Damage in Former NFL Players: Implications for Traumatic Brain Injury and Substance Abuse Rehabilitation
“I have replaced a part of me that overtime had slowly slipped away.” — Fred Dryer
AD: The Notre Dame Killer
In July 2007, Anthony Davis came to see me as a patient at the Amen Clinics. He was concerned about the cognitive problems he saw in other former retired professional football players.
AD, as he is called by most who know him, is a College Football Hall of Fame running back from the University of Southern California. AD is called the “Notre Dame Killer,” because in 1972 he scored 6 touchdowns against the University of Notre Dame. The students at Notre Dame hated AD so much that they put his picture on the walkways of the campus so they could walk all over him. In 1974, he scored 4 more touchdowns against Notre Dame.
AD had heard about us and thought perhaps we could be helpful to him. At age 54, AD’s brain looked like he was 85. It showed clear evidence of brain trauma to the prefrontal cortex and left temporal lobe.
For the last 20 years the work at the Amen Clinics has been about brain rehabilitation. We have demonstrated over and over that the brain has the ability to improve after trauma and when we change or improve people’s brains, we change their lives. AD’s case was no exception. I put AD on a group of brain enhancement supplements that included high quality fish oil, a comprehensive multiple vitamin and mineral supplement, and supplements targeted to support blood flow and neurotransmitter levels in the brain.
Within several months AD told me that he felt better, more focused, and he had better energy and a better memory. I decided to rescan AD in January 2008. His follow up scan showed significant improvement in blood flow and activity.
Through my relationship with Anthony I met many other active and retired NFL players and he was the impetus for our large scale study of brain injury and brain rehabilitation in professional football players. At the time the NFL was still saying they did not know if playing football caused long term brain damage, but had never done the studies to prove it or not. My colleagues and I decided to tackle it. To date, we have scanned and treated 113 active and retired players. Clear evidence of brain damage was seen in almost all players.
The most exciting part of our study we have seen is that recovery and improvement in function is possible, even if the brain damage occurred decades earlier, which was true for most of our players. 70 percent of our players showed significant improvement on their SPECT scans and their neuropsychological testing. We found after our first 5 follow-up scans that our initial group of supplements was not powerful enough for the brain damage we saw. That led us to develop a second group of supplements that have made a much more substantial difference, especially our fish oil and Brain and Memory Power Boost formula.
Components of NFL Brain Rehab Program to Heal Brain Damage:

  • Education on brain health
  • Stop doing things that hurt your brain
  • Start doing things that help your brain
  • Optimal nutrition education
  • Weight loss group for those who needed it
  • Coordination exercises
  • Natural supplements, including fish oil and Brain and Memory Power Boost

For those players who were depressed or demented, we did more. I acted as the psychiatrist for a number of our players or a consultant to their own physicians. For many, I prescribed natural antidepressants, such as SAMe, because it also helps with pain. If the supplements were not strong enough I prescribed medications. A number of our players also opted to do hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), which we have seen improve blood flow to the brain, and neurofeedback. Over the years I have been impressed with HBOT’s ability to increase blood flow to damaged brains.
Dr. Paul Harch, one of the world’s foremost experts in HBOT, and I did a study of 40 soldiers who had been experienced brain injuries from IEDS (improvised explosive devises) in Iraq and Afghanistan. We used before and SPECT scans and neuropsychological test data. The results were similarly impressive to what we have seen in our NFL players. Neurofeedback uses electrodes to measure brain electrical activity and then to teach patients how to change it.
Here are four examples:
Roy
Roy Williams came to see us at age 73. He is part of a three generational NFL family. He played for the San Francisco 49ers. His son Eric played for the Dallas Cowboys and his grandson Kyle played for the Seattle Seahawks. Roy’s cognitive testing scores for attention, reasoning, and memory were in the normal range but he was significantly overweight at 334 pounds, which was too much for his 6′ 7″ frame. Plus, his brain SPECT scan was not healthy and showed overall decreased activity.
When I told Roy about the research studies that say that as your weight goes up the size of your brain goes down, I got his attention. When I added that brain shrinkage is associated with aging, he got the picture and said he wanted to do whatever it took to get a younger brain. Roy runs a highly successful business that helps families transition their wealth to the next generation so he was not too keen on having a smaller, older brain.
Roy eliminated his bad brain habits and adopted a host of new ones. When he came back for retesting a few months later, he had lost 30 pounds, but more astounding was the fact that his attention, memory, and reasoning scores had improved. His brain was getting younger! Plus, his wife says he had the energy of someone who is forty years old, which initially really irritated her. Over time our program ideas rubbed off on her and she has lost weight too.
Marvin
Marvin Fleming is another example of how a severely damaged brain can recover. Marvin is the first player in NFL history to play in 5 Super Bowls. He played tight end for 12 years for the Green Bay Packers and then the Miami Dolphins, including the Dolphins perfect season in 1972. He was 67 when he first came to see us and his brain was in trouble. Marvin is one of the nicest people we have had the privilege of helping. He is funny, caring and always looking for ways to improve himself.
When I asked him if he ever had a brain injury he said no. Brain injuries are a common cause of premature aging and cognitive dysfunction. The brain is very soft, about the consistency of soft butter, and the skull is very hard, with many sharp bony ridges. I thought to myself, “You played tight end for 12 seasons in the NFL, how could you NOT have had a brain injury!” So I pressed him. Marvin seemed so proud of himself because did not remember ever getting his bell rung, being unconscious, seeing stars or being confused on the football field, like almost all of our 115 players. But I persisted. I had seen his brain and it showed clear evidence of brain injury. I asked about other potential causes of injuries from childhood, adolescence, and outside of football, such as from motor vehicle accidents, falls, or fights. He persisted in saying no. I have been doing this a long time and had seen thousands of scans like Marvin’s and knew better.
“OK, Marvin, last time, then I will leave you alone, you are telling me you do not EVER remember a car accident, fight or fall or a time when you played football where you hit your head so hard it caused changes in your awareness or thought process?”
What happened next in my office is so common it is a running joke at the Amen Clinics. Ask patients 10 times whether or not they had a brain injury and those who initially say no, may actually end up remembering multiple occasions where they lost consciousness or were in severe car accidents. Our research director, Kristen Willeumier, PhD, was in the interview with Marvin and gave me a knowing look.
Marvin’s face changed. The right hemisphere of his brain had an “ah ha” memory experience and it was all over his face. “I am so sorry I lied to you Dr. Amen. When I was in college at the University of Utah we were driving from Utah to California in the snow and our car skidded off a mountain road and we fell 150 feet to a river bed below. I was knocked unconscious and my friends had to drag me out of the car so I wouldn’t drown.”
I wondered how you forget such an emotionally powerful event. But I have seen it happen so many times in my work. Take all the head hits he had given and received in football, plus the car accident, plus whatever else he did not remember, no wonder his brain looked in trouble.
All of our players also undergo extensive cognitive testing. Marvin’s general cognitive testing was not good. What Marvin had going for him was a great personality and a willingness to do the things Dr. Willeumier and I asked.
We asked Marvin to lose weight (he was a sugaraholic who would eat frosting out of the can without cake). We also gave him a multiple vitamin, high dose fish oil, Brain and Memory Power Boost, our specially designed supplement geared to enhance brain function, hyperbaric oxygen therapy to boost oxygen to his brain and had him increase his exercise.
Two years later, his brain looks dramatically younger, as does he, he has lost 20 pounds, and his cognitive scores have improved by as much as 300%.
Typically, the brain becomes less active and less efficient with age. Marvin’s brain, like many of the retired NFL players in our study became more active and more efficient.
Fred
We have dozens of great testimonials and emails from our players. One of my favorite ones came from Fred Dryer, the famous Los Angeles Ram defensive tight end who later became an actor and television star of the popular show Hunter.
“With the supplements and certainly with the neurofeedback sessions themselves, I have replaced a part of me that overtime had slowly slipped away. It is very odd to describe the feeling but it is while going through the program, I noticed mental energy and “speed” of thought and cognition that I “recognized” I had lost!
Playing a contact sport for so many years did so much accumulative damage it actually mesmerized me into not noticing the slow progression of brain function loss. It was only when I began to “feed” my brain with the supplements and at the same time go through the neurofeedback sessions that I began to notice just how far my brain function had slipped. I wish I had knowledge of this science-technology while I was playing professional football. It would have help prevent all of what had been lost over the years.”
Cam
At 34, Cam Cleeland was one of our younger retired NFL players. He played for the New Orleans Saints, New England Patriots and St. Louis Rams and volunteered for our study because he was struggling with depression, irritability, frustration, high stress, obsessive thinking, memory problems and marital problems.
Cam had been diagnosed with a total of eight concussions–three in college and five in the pros. Cam’s SPECT scan showed clear brain damage and his Microcog (a test of neuropsychological function) showed significant decreases in general cognitive functioning, information processing speed, attention, memory and spatial processing.
After eight months on our brain rehabilitation program, Cam reported feeling much better and noticed significant improvements in his attention, mental clarity, memory, mood, motivation and anxiety level. He felt his anger was under greater control and he was getting along better with his small children.
His SPECT scan showed dramatic improvement in the areas of his temporal lobes (memory and mood stability), prefrontal cortex (attention and judgment) and cerebellum (processing speed). His Microcog showed dramatic improvement as well.
Captain Patrick Caffrey
While deployed in Afghanistan in 2008 Captain Patrick Caffrey, a Combat Engineer Officer, was in the middle of phasing-in of new, specially armored vehicles. These are the vehicles all of our troops ride today. “We knew one thing about them,” he said, “they could take an enormous blast and you’d be able to walk away, unscathed – or so we thought.”
One of the many tasks of the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines’ (2/7) Combat Engineer Platoon was to conduct Route Clearance – the intense mission of taking mine detectors and other special detection equipment on roads laden with mines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). His mission was to find and clear them from the road so that logistics, convoys and the infantry could move freely.
At the time Captain Caffrey did not know a thing about traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), despite having had 5-6 concussions in his life from sports and other injuries. In his ignorance he said to one of his sergeants: “So, am I screwed up because I kindawant to get blown up? I mean, not get hurt, just blown up then walk away?” The sergeant said he had the same thought on his own – must be a Marine thing. Little did they know that they’d be together in the same vehicle for more than one blast. For me, Patrick that memory redefines the saying: Be careful what you wish for.
Before he left Afghanistan Captain Caffrey sustained three blasts, where he experienced concussions. But he thought he felt OK. After all he reasoned, many others were much worse off than he was. However, his personality was beginning to change. He became prone to angry outbursts, a new thing for him. Arriving home, the changes became more pronounced. In Patrick’s words, “I was more irritable than ever, I had intense headaches, trouble focusing and concentrating (particularly listening to what people were saying), trouble with memory and an inability to sleep. I was rude and nasty to people and the worst part was that I didn’t really know just how much I had changed.”
Patrick decided to have SPECT imaging at the Amen Clinics in Newport Beach California. “Boy, did I underestimate the value of actually looking at the brain when you have a brain problem!” Patrick said. We saw the damage to his right temporal lobe, which explained his behavioral and cognitive changes, headaches, decrease in ability to focus and concentrate, and memory issues.
Patrick was then put on a simple natural supplement regime targeted to his specific brain issues. He said, “I felt a dramatic difference right away. I felt more mentally sharp and focused than ever! Having served in the U.S. Army for 10 years, first as an enlisted soldier, then as a military physician I have a heart for soldiers and with Patrick’s help I hope to help more service men and women get the help they need.”
What All This Means For You!
So why should you care about the brains of these retired gladiators? If we can improve the brains of retired NFL players who have had tens of thousands of hits to their heads, imagine the benefit you can get with a brain healthy program, even if you have been bad to your brain. Getting on a brain smart program can literally slow and in some cases reverse the aging process.
We have seen people improve from brain damage, brain infections, strokes, a loss of oxygen, substance abuse, and toxic exposure. The SPECT scans give us a sense of how much reserve the brain has and how much improvement is possible.
Here is a personal brain smart program to slow aging and reverse brain damage:

  1. Stop doing anything that hurts your brain. Playing tackle football at any age is not brain smart. I loved the game, but it does not love us back.
  2. Focus your energies on brain smart activities, such as those listed in this book. A healthy diet, great exercise, new learning, developing a community of healthy people, etc.
  3. Lose weight if needed.
  4. Take simple supplements daily to make sure you get the nutrients you need. I recommend all of my patients take a multiple vitamin, fish oil, and know and optimize their vitamin D level.
  5. If damage has occurred consider brain enhancing supplements, such as:
    • gingko and vinpocetine to enhance blood flow,
    • acetyl-l-carnitine and huperzine A to boost the neurotransmitter acetylcholine,
    • phosphatidylseine to help nerve cell membranes, and
    • n-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) and alpha lipoic acid as anti-oxidants

I put this group of nutrients together in our nutritional supplement product Brain and Memory Power Boost, which we used with our retired NFL players. But to be clear, we used this supplement together with the whole program, which is the smartest way to use an supplementation.

  1. Consider HBOT to enhance blood flow to the brain if there has been trauma. You can learn more about HBOT at http://www.hbot.com.
  2. Consider neurofeedback to help stabilize nerve cell firing patterns in the brain. Biofeedback, in general, is a treatment technique that utilizes instruments to measure physiological responses in a person’s body (such as hand temperature, sweat gland activity, breathing rates, heart rates, blood pressure, and brainwave patterns). The instruments then feed the information on these body systems back to the patient who can then learn how to change them. In neurofeedback, using electrodes placed on the scalp, the amount of specific brainwave patterns are measured throughout the brain.

There are five types of brainwave patterns:

  1. delta waves(1-4 cycles per second), which are very slow brainwaves, seen mostly during sleep
  2. theta waves(5-7 cycles per second), which are slow brainwaves, seen during daydreaming and twilight states
  3. alpha waves(8-12 cycles per second), which are brainwaves seen during relaxed states
  4. SMR (sensorimotor rhythm) waves (12-15 cycles per second), which are brainwaves seen during states of focused relaxation
  5. beta waves(13-24 cycles per second), which are fast brainwaves seen during concentration or mental work states.

Researchers have found that people can learn to change their own brain wave states through training. Before neurofeedback is done in our office people usually have a SPECT scan or QEEG to help guide the treatment. In our retired NFL players, we often saw excessively high slow wave activity (excessive delta and theta) and too little fast wave activity (too little beta) in the front part of the brain. Many of our athletes thought of neurofeedback like going to the gym for their minds and found it very helpful.