Super Bowl Success Can Come at Costly Price
DR. STEVE SALVATORE, HOST: Today on YOUR HEALTH, it's Super Bowl weekend. We'll take a look at what some players go through to get there. It's not always fun and games. And how high is your risk of getting Alzheimer's? Where you grew up and how many siblings you grew up with may have an impact. Also, many children are reaching puberty at an earlier age. We'll tell you what you can do to help prepare them. Welcome to YOUR HEALTH. I'm Dr. Steve Salvatore. This Super Bowl Sunday, all eyes will be on Atlanta as the Rams and Titans go for the championship. Football players train long and hard to make it to the Super Bowl. And as CNN's medical correspondent Holly Firfer reports, there's a physical and ultimately mental price they pay.</s>HOLLY FIRFER, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a long, rough road to the Super Bowl, and then only one team will call themselves the best. But at what price will players vie for the title?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MAN: And he got stunned at first, like maybe a boxer would...</s>STEVE YOUNG, QUARTERBACK, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS: As soon as I got my wits about me, I felt fine.</s>FIRFER: After four concussions hard enough to knock 49ers quarterback Steve Young unconscious, a superstar in the world of sports has a questionable future. It took six concussions for Dallas Cowboy Troy Aikman to ask a lot of questions.</s>TROY AIKMAN, QUARTERBACK, DALLAS COWBOYS: What some of the effects can be and what possible long-term effects can be.</s>DR. JOSEPH MAROON, NEUROSURGEON: A concussion is an injury to the brain. And it primarily affects processing and information, affect or mood, and that these things are subject to permanent damage if injudicious decisions are made about playing.</s>FIRFER: A concussion happens when a blow to the head causes the head to stop, but the brain continues moving, crashing into the skull. It can tear or twist fibers that carry messages between cells in the brain. The results can be recurrent headaches, dizziness, fatigue, even problems with memory and concentration. Studies show it is four times likelier, and easier, for a player who's had a concussion to have a second, more dangerous concussion which can lead to permanent brain damage. This is called SIS, or second impact syndrome.</s>MAROON: They can be cumulative and also lead to severe brain injury if players return prior to the complete clearing of the symptoms that cause the concussion in the first place.</s>FIRFER: Meril Hodge knows this only too well. While playing with the Chicago Bears, he had two serious concussions within five weeks of each other.</s>MERIL HODGE, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I was in intensive care for two days, and my wife came, my brother was there with his son. And I could -- I didn't know who they were. You know, I couldn't recall anybody. I couldn't recall the team doctor, the trainers, my family, my wife, my brothers.</s>FIRFER: His career was over at age 29.</s>HODGE: I remember laying on the couch, just thinking, How can I get back on the field? There was a little hand, if you can imagine a little 2-year-old's hand, come over and put her hand on my cheek. And I said, Priorities are wrong here. You know,</s>FIRFER (on camera): But some players say they've dreamed too long and worked too hard to give up a chance to play here at the Super Bowl, an attitude that some doctors say may come back to haunt them. Holly Firfer, CNN, Atlanta.</s>SALVATORE: It's been a year now since the first hand transplant was performed in the United States. You may recall the young man from Louisville, Kentucky, who received the operation. Let's take a look now and see how he's doing.</s>MATTHEW SCOTT, HAND TRANSPLANT PATIENT: It was more along here (ph),</s>DR. WARREN BREIDENBACH, UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE: So</s>SALVATORE: At the Louisville Medical Center in Kentucky, the surgeons who performed the first-ever hand transplant in the United States on Matthew Scott said he is showing good progress.</s>BREIDENBACH: We're very pleased. We're seeing positive results. We're seeing returning function. We're seeing returning sensation. And we have a hand which has changed the activities of daily living and made Matt's life more functional and better.</s>SALVATORE: The medical advances that gave Scott a new hand continue to improve. Just last month, a team in France performed the first-ever double hand transplant. These operations are complicated and time-consuming. It took the French team 17 hours. And as with most transplants, the patient will have to take powerful antirejection medicines for the rest of his life. They can prevent the body from rejecting the hand, but they can put the patient at greater risk for infectious diseases and cancer. To these patients, it's worth the risk.</s>SCOTT: The external -- you know, my hand being there, that's, you know, a physical aspect of it that I've gained, but the psychological, the social aspect, the inner peace that I feel now with myself, that's been the greatest boon, the greatest gain that I've had.</s>SALVATORE: Developments in genetics and tissue engineering may make the transplant obsolete in the future. Doctors think one day they may be able to rebuild a hand using cells cultivated from the patient. And breakthroughs in prosthetics continue to make the artificial limb a better option, as microchips get smaller and control of the limb improves. But for now, Matthew Scott is looking forward to another year of doing things he couldn't do for the previous 13 years.</s>SCOTT: It has been just an amazing year of firsts and triumphs, and setbacks as well. And I just look forward to the next year being even better.</s>SALVATORE: Doctors are closely monitoring Scott as he develops feeling in his fingers. They're also considering surgery to remove scar tissue, which may be restricting tendon movement. Ahead on YOUR HEALTH, the U.S. government launches Health Initiative 2010. We've got the government's top 10 list of things you need to focus on to stay healthy this decade. Plus, you may want to think twice about undergoing hormone replacement therapy. And prepare your child for puberty. When do you do it, and how? But first, we'll talk about your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The family and environment in which you grew up may have an impact.