Is middle-aged boxing healthy or harmful?

As middle-aged champion boxer Bernard Hopkins, 46, prepares to fight 29-year-old Chad Dawson this Saturday, he boasts that he feels as good as he did a decade ago. On the undercard, 52-year-old Dewey Bozella makes his professional boxing debut against Larry Hopkins, an opponent also 2 decades younger. While athleticism at their ages is impressive, both match ups raise the same question — at what age do the health risks of boxing become too great? theGrio: Exonerated of murder, a boxer makes a debut at 52 For long-time fighters like Hopkins, the effects of boxing have been well-studied. As many as 40 percent of ex-boxers have symptoms of chronic brain injury. One study found that over 80 percent of professional boxers had major scarring on brain MRI scans. It can be assumed that continuing to withstand head trauma worsens this outlook. Most of the data collected, though, is on professional boxers who were involved in more than twelve bouts who fought for decades, like Hopkins. There is currently no research on boxers who start later in life. “However, anytime you’re talking about people taking repetitive risks to the head, the brain doesn’t like that,” says Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, director of Michigan NeuroSport at the University of Michigan, who researches the effects of sport injuries on the brain. NBC Philadelphia: Obama Calls Wrongly Convicted Boxer Before Fight Recently publicized concerns about boxing have focused on youth and brain development, which is, arguably, not a concern for new, older boxers like Bozella. By a person’s 20’s, the maturing processes of the brain are complete. But, Dr. Gail Rosseau says that doesn’t mean they are out of the water. “We’re always at risk. Every blow to the brain is a new insult to the brain,” says Rosseau, a neurosurgeon at North Shore University Health System in Illinois. (more…)

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