Bennet Omalu Quotes

Is a concussion going to lead to CTE? No, probably not in most cases. But if you have enough concussions over a certain amount of time, yes, then I think you can lead to CTE.

The overwhelming evidence is that trauma is a major factor in CTE.

The beginnings of CTE can start quite early.

As many know, brain injury comes in many forms. The two most prevalent brain injuries - stroke and trauma - affect more than 2.2 million Americans, and these numbers are expected to grow.

Dementia is, after all, a symptom of organic brain damage. It is a condition, a disorder of the central nervous system, brought about in my case by a viral assault on brain tissue. When the assault wiped out certain intellectual processes, it also affected emotional processes.

The relationship between concussions and the asserted clinical symptoms of C.T.E. remains unknown.

I've had hundreds and hundreds of concussions, but I don't think that I have any permanent damage. A lot of my peers do.

CTE can be caused by smaller hits to the head over time.

When I read Mike Webster's file before I began his autopsy, I knew he was more than a 50-year-old heart attack victim. His file and the television reports of the death of the former Pittsburgh Steelers center described a long, steep fall into bizarre behavior. I suspected he suffered from some sort of brain disorder.

I never did think I had brain damage.

I understand the seriousness of concussions.

It's simple to get a concussion, you know. I don't know how many I've had over my career, you know, but I've definitely had my fair share.

I wish my memory weren't so bad. They tell me it's from all the football and boxing and the concussions that I got.

It's just a matter of sometimes the CTE in your brain affects what happens in your life... and sometimes... it does not.

It's impossible for me to dissociate the risk of playing football from the risk of C.T.E.

I know if I don't look after myself, I will be talking to you in a couple of years' time mumbling my words and slurring. It won't be because I am drunk: it will be the fighting, taking blow after blow to the brain. That scares me. I don't worry about being killed in the ring; it's losing my mind that I fear.

My father was an NFL running back, so I feel like I might be more susceptible, genetically, to CTE.

My brain is - essentially, you take any college football player in the country, because I have had multiple, multiple concussions. I had 10 documented concussions, four post-concussion seizures and so, but, with that said, my brain is no worse than your average college football player's brain, right?

One thing that's important to understand is that it's believed that the pathology of CTE doesn't have to do with concussion so much as it has to do with the accumulation of sub-concussive hits. So every hit matters. If you're subject to 800 or 1,200 of these every year, it accumulates. It's like erosion.

I had one major concussion. It's different for each guy. For me, it was never an issue because I didn't have an issue with concussions.

All the NFL players I have examined pathologically, I have not seen one that did not have changes in their brain system with brain damage.

What I did when I identified Mike Webster's thing, I showed it to other doctors. We all agreed that this was something new, but we had to give it a name. This was not dementia pugilistica. Maybe we could have called it dementia footballitica!

Omalu first found the tau 'threads' in the brain of former Steeler Mike Webster in 2002 and published his findings in 2005, in the journal 'Neurosurgery.'

The thing you don't realise is that every time you head the ball, your brain shakes. Every single time. Have you ever headed a ball badly and seen stars for a couple of seconds? That's your brain shaking. Let's be honest: that can't be healthy, can it?

I have a lot of college football players in my Brain Bank with CTE.