If you or someone you love has had concussions, or years of repeated knocks to the head, from sport, a physically demanding job, or another cause, you have probably wondered what that might mean down the track. A large new study, just published in one of the world’s leading medical journals, gives us some of […]
Prof Dr Margie Sharpe
CTE in NFL Players: A New BMJ Study Rewrites the Denominator, Not the Diagnosis
Have you long assumed that a diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy tells you almost everything you need to know about a patient’s future? A major new study published in The BMJ suggests otherwise. It is not the presence of CTE that predicts dementia. It is the severity. For those of us working with patients who […]
Ten Seconds Is All It Takes to Understand What Our Patients Feel Every Day
Stand near a wall or a sturdy chair. Cross your arms. Lift one foot. Close your eyes. Try to hold it for ten seconds. If you managed it easily, good. Your vestibular system is doing its job without you ever having to think about it. If you wobbled, reached for the wall, or gave up […]
Still Rocking After the Voyage Ended? What You Need to Know About Prolonged/Triggered Mal de Débarquement Syndrome
June is MdDS Awareness Month. This year, as attention on Mal de Débarquement Syndrome grows — with recent coverage in Good Housekeeping, The Independent, and UNILAD bringing it to wider public notice — it is more important than ever that the right information reaches the right people because two of the greatest obstacles facing patients […]
The NRL Gets It. The AFL Does Not. And the Difference Could Be Measured in Brain Tissue.
There are moments in sport medicine when a governing body does something that makes clinicians pause and say: finally. The NRL’s quiet introduction of contact training limits at the start of the 2026 season is one of those moments. For those of us who work at the intersection of head trauma and neurological health, this […]
Luke Ivens’ Story Reinforces the True Cost of Football Concussions
Once again, we’re confronted with the devastating reality of repeated head trauma in Australian Rules Football, this time through the courageous testimony of former SANFL player Luke Ivens. His story, recently shared by ABC Science’s Listen Up, serves as yet another stark warning about the catastrophic impact of treating brain injuries as mere inconveniences to […]