Retired professional soccer players are showing signs of potential neurological impacts in midlife, according to a study presented at the July 2026 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in London.

CTE is a major threat to NFL players

A week before Super Bowl LVII, Boston University released findings from a study diagnosing 91.7% of former NFL players in their 376-person study with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It was a stark comparison to the less than 1% of CTE diagnosis in non-football players.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman rejects ties between CTE and playing hockey.

Following the NFL's concussion settlement, numerous victims were denied payouts.

Brain training game creates long-lasting changes in the brain that may help protect against dementia.

Traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of brain death—and TBIs are trending up

Traumatic brain injury-related deaths have generally increased between 2000 and 2023, growing from roughly 49,000 to more than 68,000 in 2023. Firearm-related suicide is the most common cause of TBI-related deaths in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People also experience TBIs from falls, motor vehicle crashes, or assaults.

Developing adaptable brain-body systems lets athletes thrive beyond 30

Success in high-level sports after age 30 relies on physical fitness and building brain resilience through deliberate training, recovery, and stress regulation. This creates a feedback loop where body and mind reinforce each other.

Mental health experts caution against youth sports betting

People in their early 20s represent the fastest-growing group of sports gamblers. That fact concerns mental health professionals, who warn that early exposure to gaming primes children’s brains to seek digital rewards.

Fantasy sports can have adverse health effects

Experts warn that fantasy sports, including fantasy football, can encourage obsessive use because they offer hits of dopamine. Daily fantasy games, which function more like gambling, are especially problematic.

Ultraprocessed foods are linked with a 58% elevated risk of developing dementia.

How trauma gets ‘under the skin’

A study examining the muscle function of older adults who have at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) suggests that trauma digs itself into muscle cells. Participants who reported childhood trauma were found to have lower maximum levels of cellular energy than people who reported fewer or no ACEs. Such compromised mitochondrial function "doesn't bode well," as it relates to a variety of health and age-related outcomes.

Alzheimer's brain changes may begin years before symptoms appear.

67 US high school athletes died from exertional heatstroke between 1982 and 2022

Many of those deaths were from football specifically, where student athletes play in hot conditions while wearing heavy protective gear. Few states mandate heat guidelines for school athletes, and this article says that's of increasing concern with more high heat index days.

Stress and the brain

While an acute stress response is a normal bodily function, the effects of chronic stress can be extremely damaging to the human body. This is particularly true with regard to the brain. This article explores the effects of stress on the human brain, including how chronic stress may lead to psychological conditions such as depression and memory loss.

Hockey enforcers are players responsible for guarding against aggression from the opposing team

From the 1980s through to the early 2000s, enforcers were a regular part of NHL lineups. At 6 feet 7 inches, Derek Boogaard’s body was made for the part, but he was found to have suffered from CTE after his tragic death at 28. Stories about Boogaard helped dramatically reduce enforcers in hockey and opened discussions for player safety.

Some dementia cases may be linked to microorganisms in the brain.

Neurogeneration is the process underlying dementia, but it may happen for myriad reasons and its triggers are under investigation.

The disease no one survives (yet)

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is currently incurable and can cause one's death within months of symptoms appearing. It involves misfolded proteins that, for some reason yet unknown to science, aren't cleared by the brain as typical and instead trigger similar proteins to misfold. These malformed major prion proteins—prion being a portmanteau of protein and infection—clump inside nerve cells, blocking signals crucial to processes ranging from speaking to organ function.

How family members disappeared into dementia

This narrative feature describes one family's troubling experience with frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, which emerges in the prime of adult life — as young as 40, in some cases — and degrades the brain's ability to plan, organize, express language, understand social cues, and exercise judgment.

Resistance training is linked to better memory and cognitive function in older adults.

"Plaques" and "tangles" are top potential causes of Alzheimer's—but questions remain

The exact causes of Alzheimer's—and how to treat it—continue to be the subject of intense research. Two leading factors are amyloid beta plaques and tau protein tangles, which effectively pile up in the brain and interfere with neurons and cause cell death, which manifests as memory loss and other symptoms.

Hearing loss is linked with brain volume reductions

The brain looks different as a result of hearing loss, with reductions in brain volume overall and in specific areas, and these changes are hypothesized to impact cognition. Exactly why hearing loss alters cognition is an active area of research, but theories include that the elevated cognitive load of straining to hear affects brain power available for thinking and memory and that hearing loss leads to social isolation which boosts dementia risk.

Traumatic childhood experiences heighten the risk of developing schizophrenia

Clinically termed as "adverse childhood experiences," events such as physical or mental abuse or the death of loved ones have repeatedly been linked to an increase in rates of developing schizophrenia later in life. The reasons behind this link remain under investigation.

A WWI war helmet outperformed modern gear in this study

Your great-grandparent's World War I helmet stuffed in the back of a closet may be just as effective at preventing brain injury from some blasts as a modern-day military helmet. This article further explains a study that pitted WWI and modern helmets against each other.

Alzheimer's can cause significant brain shrinkage in the affected brain regions, including the hippocampus.

Five to ten percent of Alzheimer's cases are early-onset

Early-onset Alzheimer’s typically emerges around 40 to 50 years of age, with devastating effects. This video follows Brian, diagnosed with the disease at age 54, as he travels the country as an advocate for research and discusses the progressive mental fog of Alzheimer’s.

Trauma is a primary risk factor for substance use disorder later in life

Studies indicate 75% of people with substance use disorder have experienced at least one traumatic experience in their life. These experiences alter brain function, leading to heightened stress and emotional pain. Substances offer temporary relief, but this often results in dependency.

Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia and risks rise after age 65

Read this primer about Alzheimer's disease and learn what factors increase the risk of this form of dementia, including genetics, being a woman, and health conditions, including high blood pressure.

How a brain injury created a mathematical mind

In 2002, two men savagely attacked Jason Padgett outside a karaoke bar, leaving him with a severe concussion--and turning Padgett into a mathematical genius.

Sitting 10+ hours per day increases dementia risk

People who sit for at least 10 hours per day are more likely to develop dementia, according to a study published in 2023. This article details the study on the murky relationship between brain health and prolonged sitting. This study involved...

An analysis of ancient texts found that dementia was rare in ancient Greece.

Take a quiz to discover your brain care score

Each year, nearly 800,000 Americans have a stroke. With such a high occurrence rate, you may be asking yourself what you could do now to prevent a future stroke. Researchers at Harvard collaborated to answer this question by coming up with a "Brain Care" scoring system. Take the quiz to learn the quality of your brain health today and pick up helpful insights to lower your risk of stroke and dementia well into the future.