Has there ever been any proof that Alis Parkinson's was caused by boxing?

I get a chuckle out of this.

Actual doctors who actually treated Ali: Nope.

Keyboard doctors who wouldn’t know which end of a rectal thermometer to stick up their behinds: Definitely.

 

Really? We're questioning CTE in 2024?

 

He was never diagnosed with CTE despite being evaluated and cared for by the most prominent neurologists in the nation. He was diagnosed with Parkinsonism. That being said common sense would suggest getting hit in the head isn't good for it.

 

Diagnoses of CTE and PCS were very little understood during Ali's lifetime (as recently as it was, even the very end of it). Repeated head trauma is known to be a cause of idiopathic Parkinson's, so just because they didn't happen to determine conclusively that it was causal in his case doesn't mean it absolutely wasn't. Or, as you say, could have been not the underlying pathology but an exacerbating factor.

His brain tissue wasn't analyzed when he died, so it will likely remain a question mark forever.

 

Yeah, but idiopathic Parkinsonism and CTE have different symptoms. I would say we don't know what we don't know. That's what the treating physicians are basically saying. I don't believe they would say getting hit in the head helped his condition. It's like his death. I went around and around with another poster. The proximate cause was sepsis but his Parkinsonism weakened his body to where he was susceptible to sepsis.

 

Postmortem tissue analysis would've been nice for clarity's sake, but for whatever reason it wasn't performed (maybe family's wishes?) so yeah, unknowable.

 

There is a general proscription against autopsies in Islam. That might explain part of it.

 

CTE then and as far as I know still can only be diagnosed by post-mortem examination of the brain.

No doctor can say definitively ‘this living person has CTE.’

 

It's almost certainly a combination of genetics and external influences, taking blows to the head just isn't healthy.

 

As great as he was, Ali got the s**t beat out of him multiple times. Was it the cause? We will never know with metaphysical certitude. But common sense ought to tell you it didn’t help. It’s a cruel sport that we love.

 

He had traumatic Parkinson's, not idiopathic Parkinson's. It's caused by getting punched in the back of the head, near the cerebellum/substancia nigra.

The giveaways that it was traumatic are (1) he was a boxer who took a huge amount of punishment and (2) onset was a couple decades earlier than a typical Parkinson's case. It's the same thing that happened to Terry Norris and Freddie Roach.

You can dispute the true cause of many neurological diseases (look at autism), but that doesn't mean that evidence can't give a reasonable assumption.

How many of us know forty year olds with Parkinson's/Parkinsonism in real life who didn't get hit in the head?

 

There is such a thing as coincidences and no other legendary boxer has gotten parkinsons. Its not CTE. But the reality is that people are always going to draw that connection regardless and theres really nothing that can be said to convince them otherwise.

 

If getting punched in the ****ing head is so harmless, how about one of you go do it?

People don't realize there are peer reviewed studies relating to issues of brain damage and boxing, but would rather play armchair doctor on a forum than do 15 minutes of cursory self education using free resources on the internet.

ZeroHistory is apt. Someone just named 2 boxers with trauma induced Parkinson's in the post right above yours.

 

Literally one post above you.

 

No sentient person would say getting hit in the head is good for it. The question is how much getting hitting in the head caused or exacerbated a condition he likely was genetically predisposed to. I'm more impressed that his treating physicians said he developed It mid career. Think of all the asses he kicked with a degenerative disease that affects gait, reflexes, and motor functions. If they're correct he's not only the HW GOAT but the PFP GOAT because guys like Robinson, Pep, Duran, Pacquiao weren't kicking asses in the throes of a progressive neurological disease. He had a will of iron and balls of steel.