With more boxers and MMA fighters finding their way to Global Fast Fit, we'd like to take the opportunity to cover an important topic related to combat sports. We admire all athletes, period. However, there's a prevalence of acute and chronic injuries that occur with those involved in sports that incur frequent head trauma. Our global health initiative promotes living a fit and healthy lifestyle to combat problems such as type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, but we aren't limited to issues caused only from poor dietary habits and sedentary behavior. Global Fast Fit is about longevity. It's about living the most fulfilling and active life that you can possibly have, void of avoidable pain as you move onward into your twilight years. So here are a few things that we'd like to help both up and coming, as well as veteran fighters avoid.

Concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy (CTE)

What may immediately come to mind when discussing sports where concussions are common and frequent is chronic traumatic encephelopathy (CTE). The brain is encased within the most protective structure within your body, but it doesn't mean that it's impervious to physical trauma. Your brain is suspended within your skull in cerebrospinal fluid, floating there as it manages the various processes that go on in your body. When you receive a physical blow to the head, the brain collides with the skull as it's shaken from its suspension. Those blows are what lead to concussions as the nerves and blood vessels in the brain become damaged from the trauma. While concussions may not be life-threatening, frequent concussions can lead to something far more debilitating like CTE. 

Acute brain injuries resolve themselves over time. A person dealing with a concussion will display symptoms like brain fog, headaches, confusion, nausea, tinnitus, etc. These problems can eventually lessen and dissipate with the right treatment and rest as the brain devotes energy into healing itself. However, with constant head injuries, some of these symptoms may persist, along with a slew of others issues like behavioral changes, executive function loss, issues with movement, etc. If these types of problems become chronic and persistent over time then it's possible that CTE has already begun to develop and differing types of therapies are required to address the various issues that come with it.

We've witnessed multiple boxers and MMA fighters who have dealt with acute and chronic brain injuries like CTE. The most famous being Muhammad Ali and his development of young onset Parkinson's Disease, which he was diagnosed with in 1984. While specialists treating Muhammad Ali's Parkinson's Disease believe that his development of the disease was idiopathic (meaning the cause of it is unknown), it certainly couldn't have helped that his career involved being constantly punched in the head. Other notable boxers and MMA fighters who deal with CTE are:

Wilfred Benitez: A former boxing world champion that lost his ability to speak and is confined to a bed due to CTE

Spencer Fischer: An MMA fighter that was diagnosed with dementia after his brain scans showed significant brain damage

Nam Phan: An MMA fighter who is now facing speech degradation after retiring

While boxers and fighters may not be able to avoid the frequent blows to the head, they can keep in mind that problems like this exist and take the necessary precautions during training as well as after their fights. Both vigilance and awareness go a long way in ensuring that if there are any potential problems from these types of contact injuries, that they get the immediate care and treatment as needed. So please protect yourself both inside and outside the ring so you can live the fulfilling life that we know you deserve to have.