Hello to all of our HPFY readers! Lately we have been doing articles all about tips and tricks on maintaining health. This week I wanted to do something a little bit different and talk about sports-related health with the super bowl coming up. In the past few years, the NFL has really begun to crack down on hits to the head and concussion policies. This can be seen with all of the penalties and fines given out to defensive players who hit above the shoulder pads. Many people consider this to be a joke, and a detriment to the physicality of the game itself. In reality, this may well be saving the lives of many of our favorite athletes.

The inspiration for this write up came after reading a truly tragic article from CNN. The article highlights the football career of 17-year old Kansas high school running back Nathan Stiles. The article starts off in his senior season, where he is poised to have a great year in football. Nathan was the starting varsity running back for the Spring Hill Broncos. He was the star player at his high school, but being a running back often took many hits during the course of the game. After the homecoming game, he complained of headaches, which was not out of the ordinary. After the headaches persisted for 5 days, the trainer explained to his mother that Nathan may have a concussion and should be taken to the doctor.

He proceeded to go to the emergency room where he was CT scanned. The results came back clean, but the doctors instructed him to sit out for 3 weeks just to be safe. When Nathan returned to the doctor 3 weeks later, he was cleared to play. On the first game after his return, Nathan took a big hit and was visibly stunned. When asked about it, he claimed that he had never felt better and that was the best game ever. Everyone assumed he had just had his bell rung and walked it off. He even took his ACT’s the following day and had no issues. The headaches that had previously bothered him were gone.

The following week, Nathan played in what would be the final game of his career. He intercepted an errant pass from the opposing quarterback and ran it in for a touchdown. Everything seemed to be going great for the young star athlete. Around halftime, the young man’s parents noticed he was walking in a strange way and seemed to be acting funny. His mother received a call beckoning her to the sideline. By the time Nathan’s parents got to the sideline he had collapsed and began seizuring. He was airlifted out of the football stadium to a hospital around 50 miles away.

He was immediately rushed into surgery. Four hours later, the doctor’s emerged telling Nathan’s parents that they were able to stop the bleeding in his brain, but that his heart and lungs were too weak to go on by themselves and that their son was now on life support. By 4 a.m. the following morning, Nathan was taken off life support and declared dead. The autopsy revealed he died from multiple hits to the head, also known as second impact syndrome. What came next was even more of a shock to the parents. They received a call from Chris Nowinski, one of the co-directors of the VA Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy Brain Bank asking if they would donate their son’s brain to be studied.

The Brain Bank is a joint project between the Department of Veterans, Boston University, and the Sports Legacy Institute. Their mission is to understand what those hard hits on the field are doing to the brain, by looking inside the brain. The Brain Bank is the world's largest collection of athlete brains. Since its inception in 2008, the bank has documented over 50 cases of CTE. Much of that work is in the hands Dr. Ann McKee, the bank's co-director and neuropathologist. Dr. McKee Claims that the brain of this 17 year old athlete looked very similar to those of boxers from the 70’s she had studied. This is alarming for their youngest case yet, but it is a warning sign for parents of athletes all over. This is the main focus of the NFL’s stand against hits above the shoulder pads. The studies done by the Brain Bank and other similar studies show that repeated hits to the head can cause very serious damage and even death. And while Nathan’s parents are devastated at their loss, they believe that he has now contributed to helping future athletes to avoid the same fate. If you are interested in this topic, a Doctor by the name of Sanjay Gupta has been following the 2011 season of a North Carolina high school football team. In 2008, a player on the team died after sustaining a head injury during a game. For a closer look at the health and safety issues on the playing field, watch "Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Big Hits, Broken Dreams," premiering January 29, 2012, at 8 p.m. ET.