Speaking of Chemistry: Rethinking football head injuries (video)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2014 — Football season is here, and along with thousands of lost hours of productivity from fantasy teams, there's a renewed discussion on the impact of head injuries on players. This week's Speaking of Chemistry focuses on a brain disorder called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), whose symptoms include memory loss, depression and aggressive or violent behavior. Current detection methods can only identify CTE after a patient has died, leaving many NFL players with a diagnosis that came too late. Now doctors are developing a way to spot CTE in its early stages and hopefully develop a treatment before tragedy strikes.

. Credit: The American Chemical Society)Source: American Chemical Society