[Dion]

The former San Diego Charger's death follows the suicide of former Atlanta Falcons player Ray Easterling less than two weeks ago. They aren't the first former NFL players to die by their own hands — former Chicago bears player Dave Duerson committed suicide last year — and very likely won't be the last, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock, neurosurgeon and author of The Blaylock Wellness Report.

It's almost inevitable, Dr. Blaylock tells Newsmax Health, and the reason boils down to one word: glutamate. To be more precise, glutamate accumulation caused by repeated concussions is the culprit. Repeated injuries cause the microglial immune cells in the brain to become overactive and release toxic levels of glutamate, which creates a state of immunoexcitotoxicity in the brain — chronic brain inflammation, in plain terms.

Brain damage caused by concussions is often found in the frontal lobe area of the brain — the part of the brain that causes restraint and controls impulsive actions — and a depressed person whose control is impaired is much more likely to commit suicide.

In the ordinary course of events for the average person, a concussion doesn't always cause such dire results. Football players and other athletes, however, are at greater risk because they can suffer repeated head injuries that are never allowed to heal, says Dr. Blaylock. "If you get a single injury and you take care of yourself and take the right supplements, brain damage reverses. But some of these players have 1,000 concussions during their careers, and if they're having repeated blows to the head — even if they are weeks and months apart — the microglia never shut off.

"There is a permanent state of immunoexcitotoxicity that continues even after they retire," he says. "So, they have brain inflammation combined with excitotoxic levels of glutamate.

http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/headlin...03/448664.html