Footballers could be at risk from headers, research is currently underway into the long-term health effects

Football players could be at risk of developing cognitive problems from heading the ball and from experiencing concussions, but more evidence is needed to investigate the long-term consequences of mild traumatic brain injury in football players, researchers have told delegates at Occupational Health 2019.
Researchers, Professor Damien McElvenny and Professor John Cherrie gave a presentation to delegates at the conference outlining their involvement in The HEADING study, which is currently underway, it is looking into concussive and subconcussive head impacts to see if there is an association with cognitive decline in the long-term.
The effects of sustaining head injuries in other sports such as boxing have been known for decades and it’s thought that footballers could be at risk of similar health problems.  The researchers are concerned that Return to Play policies are not based on the long-term consequences of concussive and sub-concussive head impacts, because good quality research is not currently available.
Footballers can sustain head injuries when their head comes into contact with the ball, with other players or objects on or around the pitch as well as when diving.  The researchers want to understand whether heading the ball more or receiving concussions could be putting players at a greater risk.
Professor McElvenny and Professor Cherrie who are involved with the HEADING study said they will be looking at around 300 former football players between the ages of 50-89 years of age.  They will focus on the exposure to heading and concussion in the game and assess the player’s physical and cognitive abilities, recruitment for the study is about to commence.
There are a number of different factors effecting how much a professional football player heads the ball including: the footballer’s playing position, the type of ball used, the speed of the impact, the level of club played in and the physical fitness of the footballer.
The researchers detailed how the exposure to head injuries in footballers could be assessed.  They said that looking at the sequence of events as opposed to one off events is likely to be beneficial.  Questionnaires will be used to ask footballers about the frequency of head contacts, previous research and validation exercises will be carried out that may include analysing video recordings of matches between the 1950’s to 1990’s.
The researchers are also looking at how the impact of the ball can be quantified by measuring the acceleration from impacts using sensors attached to a footballer’s head.
Researcher Professor Damien McElvenny said: “There is currently no strong scientific evidence that the occasional concussion or repetitive heading of footballs have a long-term effect on a player’s cognitive or general health.  However several studies have been carried out that suggest this might be a possibility. 
“It is thus important that the long-term cognitive and general health consequences of playing professional football are evaluated as soon as possible.” 
In 2015 The United States Soccer Federation announced a ban on headers for children aged under 10 years and a limit on headers for children aged 11 to 13 years.  If this research finds an association between headers and cognitive issues, then this could have wider consequences for heading in football in the future.

Health Tourism Lithuania Aiming to Bring Together Medical and Wellness Tourism as Country Grows in Popularity Amongst Overseas Visitors

Lithuania, the largest of the three Baltic States, has become a popular destination in recent years, with the number of international tourists visiting the country growing by 10.8% in 2018 alone. Similarly, the country’s medical tourism industry is also experiencing a boom, with Lithuania expected to become one of the top-five European medical destinations by 2022.

Since becoming a European Union member state in 2004, Lithuania’s medical tourism industry has flourished. This is largely due to EUR 10 billion in EU funding, which was directed to revamping the country’s healthcare facilities. This financing also included funding universities to provide local and international medical students with world-class higher education, as well as retraining schemes for existing health care professionals.

Subsequently, Lithuanian medical institutions and their highly-qualified professionals are able to offer world-class health care treatments costing up to three-times less than in Western Europe due to lower taxes and labour costs. In-line with Lithuania’s growing tourism industry, so has the demand for ‘wellness tourism’ and ‘medical tourism’.

Medical tourism is when a patient travels abroad to receive more affordable or higher-quality treatments than they would have access to in their home country. Meanwhile, wellness tourists seek out a vacation that will maintain or improve their mental and physical health. The driving factors behind where to visit are usually based on unique, location-based experiences or therapies that are either unavailable or too expensive compared to where the visitor comes from.

Overall, medical tourism provides treatments and aesthetic changes such as surgery or dental work. Wellness tourism offers preventative measures such as mud and water SPA therapies, as well as active leisure.

As Lithuania’s medical tourism sector continues to grow alongside the increasing number of general tourists visiting the Baltic nation year-on-year, Health Tourism Lithuania aims to bring together those seeking wellness and medical treatments via a series of packages to a number of Lithuania’s widely-recognized wellness hotspots. These locations include the coastal resort of Palanga, the pine forests and sand dunes of Nida, as well as local SPA towns, such as Birštonas.

“The number of tourists coming to Lithuania has increased during the last year alone, and if we factor in the predictions made surrounding health tourism by 2022, we have every reason to be optimistic,” said Reda Ambrozaitė, one of the founders of Health Tourism Lithuania. “In addition to the lower costs of healthcare in Lithuania, we also believe that by mixing the trends of medical and wellness tourism, we can open the country to new client groups from across Europe.”

The interest in Lithuania as a popular destination for medical and general tourists is unquestionable. Should medical and labour costs continue to remain low, then there is every possibility that the country’s medical clinics and wellness resorts will also enjoy even greater popularity amongst new demographics.

Medicine safety: New commitment allows EU and US to share full medicine inspection reports

This month, the European Commission, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) signed a new confidentiality commitment related to medicine safety. The commitment allows the EU and US regulators to share non-public and commercially confidential information, including full reports on medicine inspections, potentially improving patient safety on both sides of the Atlantic.

Whereas the EU and the US have had confidentiality arrangements in place since 2003, the step concluded now allows the sharing of more types of non-public information, so that regulators can make better use of their inspection resources to focus on manufacturing sites of higher risk. This enhanced cooperation with US regulatory authorities will improve the EU's ability to identify and address problems at factories before they become a public health risk.

Background

This confidentiality commitment is a milestone in the ongoing implementation of the Mutual Recognition Agreement concluded between the EU and US on 2 March 2017.