Athletes Warned About Dangers of Head Injuries - 副本.docx

KATHERINE COLE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a program in VOA Special English. Im Katherine Cole.BOB DOUGHTY: And Im Bob Doughty. Today, we will tell about head injuries in sports. We will tell about evidence of hearing loss among younger Americans. We will also tell about a study involving more than ten thousand scientists.(MUSIC)KATHERINE COLE: American researchers are urging athletes to take head injuries seriously. Their comments come after tests showed that a football player suffered serious brain damage from repeated blows to the head. Chris Henry played five years with the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League. He died last December when he either fell or jumped from a truck.Researchers reported in June that Chris Henry had a serious kind of brain damage. It is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C-T-E.Doctors believe that each hit to the head causes a harmful protein to build up in the brain. This causes the inside of neurons to become tangled together, similar to what doctors find in patients with Alzheimers disease. Other studies have linked C-T-E to dementia, depression and memory loss. The condition also is sometimes linked to drug and alcohol use.A 2007 photo of Chris HenryBOB DOUGHTY: The death of Chris Henry is something of a mystery. He was arguing with his girlfriend before he died. It is unclear whether he fell from the vehicle or jumped on purpose. Tests show that more than fifty former athletes had C-T-E. However, doctors are unable to confirm its presence until after the person dies.In the past, researchers believed that the only cause of C-T-E was a concussion. Chris Henry, for example, never missed a game with the Bengals or in college because of a concussion. This means one of two things. Either he hid the problem from his trainers and coaches. Or less severe hits can lead to C-T-E.Researchers say his death should be a warning to other athletes. Concussions are not like most injuries. They can become life-threatening, but