Doctor opposes any contact sports before high school

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SALT LAKE CITY — Hitting might be part of the game in some sports, but one doctor believes that young people under 14 years old should not play any contact sports.

In the last few years, physicians have been learning more about the long-term effects of playing sports, especially about concussions. Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon at Emerson University's department of surgery and leading voice opposing contact sports, is calling youth head injuries a crisis.

In his new book, "Concussions and Our Kids", Cantu explains why helmets are no guarantee of safety.

"I'm not asking that the sports be banned," Cantu said. "I'm asking that the head contact part of the sports be banned. So, the rules need to be changed. I think below the age of 14 is just too dangerous to allow our youth to be banging heads."

At Virginia Tech, middle school students are helping researchers design safer headgear by wearing sensors inside their helmets.

"Children are not small adults," said Virginia Tech Researcher Stefan Duma. "And there are several reasons for that: It gets into the neck size, the head size, how the head forms, how the brain forms."

His concerns are not just concussions, but brain trauma that can lead to early traumatic chronic encephalopathy.

"It causes personality changes, memory loss, aggression, depression and dementia," Cantu said. "Currently, people living with CTE have no way of knowing it. Diagnosis most often is possible only after death."

Cantu is concerned about children who participate in American football, ice hockey, rugby, boxing and wrestling.