Brain comes first to Jets

Opinion

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This article was published 21/02/2015 (3874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — If indeed neurosurgeon and concussion researcher Dr. Julian Bailes has found a successful way to test living and active patients for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), he’ll have some attentive parties in the Winnipeg Jets locker-room.

Bailes told TSN this week he’s about to publish a study that shows he and his UCLA research team have been able to diagnose the brain disease and its destructive tau protein in living subjects.

The condition has only been confirmed previously by autopsies. The most high-profile cases have been in the world of sports, when pathologists were able to obtain brains of deceased athletes, mainly football and hockey players and boxers, and slice them up to discover the presence of the protein and the disease.

Bailes said he’ll publish his study soon.

With that news, we asked members of the Jets Friday, if the test for CTE were now possible, would you want to know the result?

Forwards Bryan Little, Jim Slater and Adam Lowry gave an unhesitating yes to the question.

“Yeah, absolutely I’d want to know,” Little said. “It’s not like it’s your shoulder or a muscle. It’s your brain. It’s a pretty important part of who you are. Good or bad, I think it would be nice to know because it’s probably the most important part of your body.

“The way the game is played, how physical it is, that’s pretty dangerous. I have some good friends who have had their careers ended because of concussions. So, yes, absolutely.”

Slater, who has missed NHL time because of concussions, said: “I like to be pretty aware of my body, what goes in and all that. For sure I’d be one of those people that would like to know because if there is something you can do about it, I’d like to be able to do something about it. So yes, I’d definitely be willing to learn more about this, about whether people may have it.”

Lowry, the rookie, was also certain.

“Sure, that’s vital information,” Lowry said. “A lot of us have suffered concussions in the past and anytime you can take that next step to taking care of your brain and your health, it definitely would be important.”

Only one member of the Jets asked, forward Anthony Peluso, was sure he didn’t want or need to know.

“What a tough question,” Peluso said. “I think there’s a personal aspect, how you feel. If you feel like you’re fine, I don’t think I’d want to take the chance of finding that you’re not. If you’re doing your daily stuff and you’re OK at work and able to do it to the best of your ability, then I don’t think there’s a reason to try to find out. As the old saying goes, don’t fix something that’s not broken.

“Maybe after your career is done, you may want to take a stab and make sure there hasn’t been any harm done to your body, or if there’s a way to fix it. But that’s a different scenario. But I think while you’re playing, there’s not really a sense to find out something that’s not broken.”

Jets captain Andrew Ladd and veteran forward Chris Thorburn were on the fence regarding this subject, saying the question is food for much thought.

“Is this suggesting there’s some sort of cure?” Ladd said. “We’d have to understand more about that, whether there’s a cure or they can do stuff to help you recover from it.

“At the same time, you’re playing a game and if that makes you want to or gives you the idea you should stop playing, I don’t know how many guys want to know that. So it’s a tough decision, something we’d have to talk more about and learn more about and if there are ways to help (the condition).

“I think most guys probably would like to know, but there’s the other side; like would you like to know you need to stop playing the game you love, that’s pretty much your whole life?”

Said Thorburn: “Would I want to know? I don’t know. If that actually did become available I’d have sit down and actually think about that. That’s where I’ll leave it, that I’d need to put some thought into it,. But the biggest thing is whether there’s a cure or even the possibility of a cure for (CTE) once it is diagnosed. Those things would go hand-in-hand for me.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca