from your articles:
"
Conclusion:
Rates of KOs and TKOs in MMA are higher than previously reported rates in other combative and contact sports. Public health authorities and physicians should be cognizant of the rates and mechanisms of head trauma. Preventive measures to lessen the risks of head trauma for those who elect to participate in MMA are described."
"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, Georgia), nearly 1 million individuals experience a concussion each year, frequently in the setting of organized sports (27). Moreover, there has been increasing recognition in the scientific and lay media of retired athletes who have died with pathologically confirmed CTE (3). Yet little is known about how repeated concussions or subconcussive blows to the head lead to a chronic neurodegenerative condition such as CTE. There are no existent biological markers for early detection of CTE, our knowledge of the risk factors for development of CTE is limited, and we know little of the spectrum of other brain disorders that may be related to cumulative head trauma (2, 4, 5–7)."
"Furthermore, frequency of fighting may be a complementary variable that requires consideration; fighting more frequently may reduce the time the brain has to fully recover from prior trauma and may be a risk factor that interacts with the total number of fights."
"From the established literature on the brain effects of boxing (much of which has design limitations) come a picture of the clinical features of CTE and the recognition that greater exposure to head trauma is associated with increased risk of long-term neurological disease and that a variety of imaging findings can be seen in fighters."
So what have we learned here from ANY of these studies? 1. CTE is linked to repetitive concussions, the link is not directly understood. 2. Getting hit in the head causes concussions, combat sports participants get hit in the head for a living. 3. Frequency of fights may reduce the time the brain has to recover from prior trauma. - Whats a typical schedule more most UFC fighters? 6 months off at most? Remember how keith jardine went from being "the real deal" to being a complete can after getting KO'd then coming back to fight within or under 6months every fight? lol
4. There's no early biological markers for early detection of CTE. Essentially we don't know until its too late. HOWEVER typical symptoms of being 'punch drunk' are easily noticeable in fighters who have either suffered brutal KO's or have since retired from fighting. Most of these symptoms don't show up until well into a career or following retirement. Hence why it's not as commonly known in MMA because its a young as fuck sport comparatively. However plenty of the old timers are obviously suffering from CTE. Gary Goodridge for example, also people like Jordan Parsons and TJ Grant who had his career ended due to lingering concussion symptoms come to mind.
The only logical inference a sane and reasonable human being could make given the evidence which you so politely provided is that brain trauma leads to CTE, MMA causes brain trauma like any contact sport, so then it's reasonable to assume MMA fighters will develop CTE as well. In fact theres a fucking ton of fighters already showing signs of it or being diagnosed with the shit, what is there to argue? How can anyone assume that the exact same stimuli (sometimes horrifyingly worse in MMA) will result in a different outcome just because it's a different sport? Get off your high horse pencil neck your logic doesn't follow
