FOOTBALL SEASON IS OVER - BUT THE DAMAGE LINGERS ON.

My Stanford medical postgraduate training was physically, intellectually and emotionally grueling as we spent 90+ to 120+ hours each week, caring for terribly sick patients. But one of my most difficult days involved high school football, coaches and the failure of adults to protect kids entrusted to their supervision.

Offered the opportunity to earn a few dollars as the "doc" at a local high school football game, I accepted.  I was told when and where to appear, where to sit at the field, and other administrative details.  Some of the orthopedic residents with whom I trained told me to immediately call an ambulance for any player who was seriously injured and to abstain from any significant medical contact because the players had their own sports doctors who were willing and ready to respond when called.

On a warm sunny afternoon, I showed up as instructed and was greeted by a grumpy home team coach who complained that I was not there when the game started minutes earlier.  I took my field seat and watched the game.  Several of the teenage players took hard hits and I went on the field and sent them to the sidelines to recover.  But by the time I had walked back to my seat, the coaches had returned those injured players to the game.   This was not an isolated event: shaken students were put back in the game repeatedly, before they were steady on their feet.  

I complained to the coaches who were uninterested in my comments, leading me to believe  they were more concerned about their teams' scores and wins than the well-being of the students entrusted to their care and supervision. 

Today, we know that teenagers' brain may be permanently susceptible to damage by the trauma inflicted in sports, including high school football.   We have seen news reports of retired professional football players who suffer severe dementia from cumulative blows to their brains, beginning early in the careers.

Adults have a responsibility to protect young people from the exorbitant price that high school sports may exact.  Training, proper equipment and sensible rules will help. But vigorous protection of players, by those who are there oversee their safety, is the key line of defense.

EPIGENETICS, CANCER & MENTAL ILLNESS: LIKE SWITCHES AND HOUSE LIGHTS?

EPIGENETICS, CANCER & MENTAL ILLNESS:  LIKE SWITCHES AND HOUSE LIGHTS?

You may never have heard the word "epigenetics" though it describes a process which has been with you since your conception.  The genes, you inherited from generations of ancestors,  which now make you the individual you are, are turned on and off by chemical switches in your body.  Cancers and other conditions may be caused by genes which are switched on and off by those chemical switches. And now, we have learned that even mental illness may be related to chemical switches which are activated, or inactivated, causing genes to produce proteins which produce normal growth and development, or produce serious disease.

Epigenetics is the science underlying those switches and their roles in causing appropriate development and disease. Scientific/medical breakthroughs may flow from an understanding of epigenetics and the development of tools which  can turn some genes on and some genes off, fostering normal development or treating disease. I have attended American Society of Hematology conferences in which German researchers reported their use of epigenetic techniques to treat lymphomas, which are cancers of the lymphatic system. 

A National Institutes of Health release tracks gene regulation in the brain's executive hub  across the lifespan and reports that mental illness suspect genes are among the most environmentally responsive. Perhaps some of our political figures should pay more attention to environmental issues - which play potent roles in causing disease, aggravating our national deficit because of escalating health care costs, and bringing misery to Americans subjected to potent toxins in our air, water, food and environment.