Adding to this site’s combat sports safety study summaries, a recent study was published in the Journal of Sports Medicine reviewing MMA fighter brain volume measurements and their association with sparring frequency. In the article, titled Sparring and the Brain: The Associations between Sparring and Regional Brain Volumes in Professional Mixed Martial Arts Fighters, the … More Study – MMA Fighter Brain Volume Not Decreased Based on Self Reported Sparring Frequency

An interesting article was published this month in Frontiers of Neuroscience exploring the possible connection between the delayed (and progressive) symptoms of CTE and micro trauma from the normal beating of the heart. There is ample evidence that CTE is caused by repeated brain trauma from external forces (think repeated hits in combat or contact … More Do Years Of Heartbeat “Pulse Trauma” Explain Delayed Onset of CTE Symptoms?

Headgear does not prevent concussions or other brain injuries. Nor does it stop the progressive disease CTE which is linked to repeated concussive and sub concussive impacts. Despite this many athletes don’t understand the limitations of headgear. Because of this some observe that athletes take more hits to the head with headgear on. A recent … More Study – Fighters Take “Statistically Significant” More Head Shots When Wearing Headgear