Am I at risk for developing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy?

[CTEQuestions1]

First off, I created an account just minutes ago after googling "neurology forum" and I ended up here so please excuse me if these sort of questions aren't allowed or I'm posting in the wrong section. I'm a 17 year old male who is in good physical condition and is very active. My freshman and sophomore year of high school I played football and during that time my guess is that I received 3 or 4 undiagnosed concussions and maybe 25-30 sub-concussive hits to the head including my time of playing basketball. The somewhat recent news of the amount of American football players being diagnosed with CTE after their deaths has me terrified. Some players are even as young as me have been diagnosed after their brains were examined postmortem examination. Am I worrying too much? I feel like I've been tricked into doing something that will hurt my long-term mental health and I regret every minute of it. I'm not sure if I feel "slower" or not, but I do know that symptoms can manifest themselves decades later and there is no testing available for a living person. Thanks, and I apologize if I'm posting this incorrectly.

[GaborBP]

It's almost impossible that the current level of your head trauma would lead to something sinister. However, I strongly advise against pursuing a career in NFL, as it seems that some people, probably due to a genetic predisposition, are more prone to CTE. To put it simply, one guy gets whacked in the head every day and doesn't mind, the other has something with his blood brain barrier and develops CTE. Unfortunately, those genes are not known.

[CTEQuestions1]

I should note that the only symptoms I had with these blows to the head was a pressure buildup inside of my head. This lasted at most 5-10 minutes and I was never really bothered with it again. The sub-concussive hits are just a guess of how many times I've made contact with another player whether it be tackling them or picking up a block. I threw that in there due to the news that sub-concussive hits can be the most damaging because of the sheer number some players take.

Do you know if it is a progressive disease? I do know the tau proteins "clump" together after axons are damaged and it begins to damage brain cells, but that's about as far as my knowledge goes. Will it get worse over time or stabilize itself?

[GaborBP]

The pressure buildup is a completely normal symptom of acute concussions, and not indicative of CTE. It won't get worse and there's nothing to stabilize. Those were just little accidents. High school football is not known to raise the risk of tauopathy, only the level of exposure encountered during a professional career. A similar example is the increased incidence of ALS in professional Italian soccer players, who head the ball. Amateurs don't have an increased risk, and billions of people play soccer at high school. Please try to keep calm, don't worry about CTE and do keep playing sports in a way that is beneficial to your health.

[GaborBP]

Another similar example is the increased risk of ALS in truck drivers due to diesel exhaust. Diesel cars are extremely popular in Europe, yet the incidence of ALS in the same ethnic groups are not higher than in the US, where most cars run on gasoline. The reason is that the level of exposure is not significant enough to cause any problems. The same holds true for high school football vs. NFL.

[CTEQuestions1]

Right, I know the pressure buildup wasn't CTE, but rather the concussion symptom. My worry is that I will develop alzheimer, dementia, or a level of CTE earlier than those who did not play a sport like American football. I respectfully disagree that playing high school football will not increase your chances of incurring brain damage.

https://www.bu.edu/cte/our-research/case-studies/18-year-old/

Here was a case that BU studied from a high school football player. This is this sort of stuff that has been worrying me non-stop for the past week. I'm sure this kid took countless more repetitive hits than I did, but at the same time, not really.

[GaborBP]

I understand your concerns, but that kid had no known CTE symptoms, most likely had a strong (i.e. rare) genetic predisposition for tauopathies, and probably died from unrelated causes. Which means he was an outlier. The dozens of NFL players with dementia or motor neuron disease are not. There are several unsymptomatic brain diseases only found incidentally, e.g I have something called a DVA found during an MRI, which means absolutely nothing. I find that BU article highly controversial, e.g. there's no peer-reviewed paper attached to it.

[GaborBP]

To sum it up: you might have a slightly, statistically insignificantly elevated risk. Professional players have significant risk. There's no point worrying about things you can't control and let anxiety rule your life. The probability of getting paralyzed from a car accident is orders of magnitude higher than developing CTE from the level of exposure you (and millions of other kids) got. If you can't control anxiety, please see a psychologist. It's not abnormal, neither a mental disease to fear things you can't control. I'm sorry that I can't give you a more definite answer, but currently CTE can't be diagnosed. What I can say that your chances of developing CTE (based on a questionable link without a scientific paper) are extremely slim

[CTEQuestions1]

Hopefully you're right. It was the first link that I found when I googled high school players being diagnosed with CTE. Thanks for your input. I'm just curious, but are you a medical professional?

[GaborBP]

I really didn't want to paste this link here, because Forbes is not a source for reliable medical data, but it seems that the progression of CTE depends on the level of continuous exposure. Again, it's not a peer reviewed paper, and if you only had acute concussion symptoms, that should be reassuring https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2017/07/26/is-football-worth-gambling-with-high-school-and-college-players-brains/#2870c1bc12c6

[GaborBP]

I'm not a medical professional, but there are many doctors in my family, and I have some knowledge of neurological diseases, as my father passed away from ALS. I also have formal training in medical IT