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(WaPo) CTE "discoverer," Doctor Bennet Omalu, built career on distorted science

BossAttack

BossAttack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
42,979
WashintonPost said:
A Nigerian American pathologist portrayed by Will Smith in the 2015 film, "Concussion," Omalu is partly responsible for the most important sports story of the 21st century. Since 2005, when Omalu first reported finding widespread brain damage in a former NFL player, concerns about CTE have inspired a global revolution in concussion safety and fueled an ongoing existential crisis for America's most popular sport. Omalu's discovery — initially ignored and then attacked by NFL-allied doctors — inspired an avalanche of scientific research that forced the league to acknowledge a link between football and brain disease.

Nearly 15 years later, Omalu has withdrawn from the CTE research community and remade himself as an evangelist, traveling the world selling his frightening version of what scientists know about CTE and contact sports. In paid speaking engagements, expert witness testimony and in several books he has authored, Omalu portrays CTE as an epidemic and himself as a crusader, fighting against not just the NFL but also the medical science community, which he claims is too corrupted to acknowledge clear-cut evidence that contact sports destroy lives.

After more than a decade of intensive research by scientists from around the globe, the state of scientific knowledge of CTE remains one of uncertainty. Among CTE experts, many important aspects of the disease — from what symptoms it causes, to how prevalent or rare it is — remain the subject of research and debate.

But across the brain science community, there is wide consensus on one thing: Omalu, the man considered by many the public face of CTE research, routinely exaggerates his accomplishments and dramatically overstates the known risks of CTE and contact sports, fueling misconceptions about the disease, according to interviews with more than 50 experts in neurodegenerative disease and brain injuries, and a review of more than 100 papers from peer-reviewed medical journals.
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Omalu did not discover CTE, nor did he name the disease. The alarming statistics he recites about contact sports are distorted, according to the author of the studies that produced those figures. And while Omalu cultivates a reputation as the global authority on CTE, it's unclear whether he is diagnosing it correctly, according to several experts on the disease.
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More at link, might possibly get hit with pay all.

But, basically the articles goes pretty in-depth to explain that CTE as promoted by Dr. Omalu was grossly distorted as he essentially calls everything CTE, even when there's little evidence it is. You can only really tell someone has CTE after they've died and you can dissect their brain, otherwise it's hard to diagnose. The main indicator of CTE is an abnormal amount of Tau proteins tanged together in brain cells. However, Tau clusters naturally appear as individuals get older with no side effects. It only becomes a problem and an indicator of CTE when it becomes widespread across the brain. But again, that's hard to tell without dissecting a brain.

In sum:
Omalu's definition for CTE, as described in his published papers, is incredibly broad and all-encompassing, describing characteristics that can be found in normal, healthy brains, as well as in other diseases, according to experts including Ann McKee, lead neuropathologist for Boston University's CTE Center.

"His criteria don't make sense to me," McKee said. "I don't know what he's doing."
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On CTE prevalence:

Several studies have found former NFL players die with brain disease at significantly higher rates than comparison populations, but nothing approaching 100 percent, with figures ranging from 5 percent to 8 percent. There have been no published studies examining rates of brain disease among former college football players, but one sizable research project, overseen by the NCAA and the Department of Defense, is underway. Three studies of former high school football players who played in Minnesota and Wisconsin between 1946 and 1970 found they had no higher rates of brain disease than their classmates.
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While experts acknowledge NFL players likely have an increased risk of CTE, it's nowhere near as high as Dr. Omalu claims. And, Dr. Omalu has done everything possible to silence critics and prevent independent research. He's basically turned CTE fear mongering into a career and charges regularly for speaking fees and as an "expert" witness in cases. Again, I suggest reading the whole article.

All in all, this significantly changes my perception of the diseases risks among sports players. I didn't know the science was nowhere near concrete.
 
Squarehard

Squarehard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
25,871
This is what happens when fame and fortune goes to someone's head, and completely inflates their ego.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,017
A problem I have with CTE reactions from the public as a whole is that people have done horrible things, like Aaron Hernandez, and then it's revealed their brain was damaged and showed strong indications of CTE. And the response around it is sort of like... A confirmation that CTE turns people into murderous bad guys or makes them react the ways that Hernandez did to people. Or like a football player acts in a way that is not normal, like Antonio Brown and people start to point to CTE as a possible explanation. It's irresponsible both to people with the condition and people without.
 
Ogodei

Ogodei

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,256
Coruscant
The Albatross said:
A problem I have with CTE reactions from the public as a whole is that people have done horrible things, like Aaron Hernandez, and then it's revealed their brain was damaged and showed strong indications of CTE. And the response around it is sort of like... A confirmation that CTE turns people into murderous bad guys or makes them react the ways that Hernandez did to people. Or like a football player acts in a way that is not normal, like Antonio Brown and people start to point to CTE as a possible explanation. It's irresponsible both to people with the condition and people without.
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Fad science is always like that, like how everyone's fixated on gut biomes lately. Hugely important, as CTE is for people prone to it, but not all-consuming.
 

Deleted member 11985

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4,168
Don't read newspapers for scientific research purposes. Look up a CTE review article from a reputable academic journal if you want a summary of the current state of research.
 
metalslimer

metalslimer

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
9,565
Whatever his exaggerations, it would be worse to go in the opposite direction of Totally clears the NFL!

Also the risks with repeated head injury are not limited to CTE
 
MonoStable

MonoStable

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,052
Did he really claim to discover cte? Or did he just link it to American football, something that as far as I know hadn't been done before him? Some if it seems like jealousy from other scientists but idk. One thing that's for sure is that there's way more interest in the effects of mild concussions on the brain in sports now thanks to his efforts and I can imagine maybe some of his inflated ego has to be from being smeared for so long before being taken seriously.
 
OP
OP
BossAttack

BossAttack

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Oct 27, 2017
42,979
El Bombastico said:
I suggest not basing you entire opinion of a serious issue on ONE article.
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The article is not shitting on CTE, it states the current state of CTE research. What is clear is that its risk and prevalence may have been greatly overstated, in addition what is overall classified as CTE may actually be multiple different diseases. I suggest actually reading.
 

Deleted member 176

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37,160
BossAttack said:
The article is not shitting on CTE, it states the current state of CTE research. What is clear is that its risk and prevalence may have been greatly overstated, in addition what is overall classified as CTE may actually be multiple different diseases. I suggest actually reading.
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what one guy said 15 years ago was overstated. there has been research since.
 
Paz

Paz

Member
Nov 1, 2017
2,151
Brisbane, Australia
I'd rather the issue was overblown than underplayed, it's not like anyone in the world has done anything to improve things since the issue blew up.

Everyone is still out there watching the sports that we know destroy the brains of those competing, the athletes are just knowingly trading their health and futures away now.
 
Gwenpoolshark

Gwenpoolshark

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Jan 5, 2018
4,109
The Pool
Squarehard said:
goes to someone's head
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i2yYun3.gif
 
Bitanator

Bitanator

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,044
When more nfl players are retiring early, the risk of these effects have done enough to make players think of their life after football, which is only a good thing.
 
OP
OP
BossAttack

BossAttack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
42,979
Paz said:
I'd rather the issue was overblown than underplayed, it's not like anyone in the world has done anything to improve things since the issue blew up.

Everyone is still out there watching the sports that we know destroy the brains of those competing, the athletes are just knowingly trading their health and futures away now.
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I actually agree. Still doesn't change the facts.
 
MechaX

MechaX

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Oct 27, 2017
5,044
BossAttack said:
All in all, this significantly changes my perception of the diseases risks among sports players. I didn't know the science was nowhere near concrete.
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I don't know why it would "significantly" change your perception of the disease and possible risk; the scientific community has very much distanced itself from that man over the past decade or more and usually when you get into a conversation like "CTE caused Hernandez/Brown to do the bad stuff," usually you'll get someone who will remind folks "CTE probably isn't responsible for him being a shit person, but could be playing into it." Saying the science is "nowhere near concrete" is a little inaccurate, but more that science is still investigating what this all means.

I mean, even a singular traumatic brain injury can cause post-concussive syndrome or other possible neurological defects. But it'll still take decades to see how this is playing out for long time NFL players, let alone trying to parse out where CTE ends and other neurological issues begin. Nothing here has changed; NFL players by virtue of the sport are still vulnerable to CTE or other brain injuries, and it'll take decades until science can progress up to the point to fully evaluate this as it's a work in progress.
 
gogosox82

gogosox82

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Oct 25, 2017
4,385
MechaX said:
I don't know why it would "significantly" change your perception of the disease and possible risk; the scientific community has very much distanced itself from that man over the past decade or more and usually when you get into a conversation like "CTE caused Hernandez/Brown to do the bad stuff," usually you'll get someone who will remind folks "CTE probably isn't responsible for him being a shit person, but could be playing into it." Saying the science is "nowhere near concrete" is a little inaccurate, but more that science is still investigating what this all means.

I mean, even a singular traumatic brain injury can cause post-concussive syndrome or other possible neurological defects. But it'll still take decades to see how this is playing out for long time NFL players, let alone trying to parse out where CTE ends and other neurological issues begin. Nothing here has changed; NFL players by virtue of the sport are still vulnerable to CTE or other brain injuries, and it'll take decades until science can progress up to the point to fully evaluate this as it's a work in progress.
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This. The article doesn't really change anything for cte.
 
Pokemaniac

Pokemaniac

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Oct 25, 2017
4,944
Elderly Parrot said:
On the other hand here is Ann McKee's (cited in the article stating his criteria is off) study Journal of the American Medical Association in 2017 that found 110 of the 111 brains of NFL players she examined showed evidence of CTE.

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It should be noted there's a pretty huge sampling bias there (the brains were mostly from people who were already suspected to have something wrong with them), so that doesn't say a whole lot about how common it actually is overall. NFL players aren't exactly a huge population, so the numbers are definitely concerning regardless, but the context is important.
 
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