Can concussions in sports lead to early dementia? Yes, research shows a clear link between repeated concussions from sports and a higher chance of developing dementia earlier in life, though the risk depends on factors like the number of head injuries and the sport played.
Sports like football, rugby, boxing, and American football often involve hard hits to the head. These can cause traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, which shake the brain inside the skull. One study found that people with a TBI are about 50 percent more likely to get dementia than those without one. In rugby, former top players in Scotland were 2.5 times more likely to develop brain diseases that cause dementia compared to people who never played at that level.
A rare type of dementia called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, comes from repeated head hits. It has been found in the brains of former athletes after they died. CTE leads to problems with thinking, mood, and movement over time. Contact sports raise the risk because players face many small impacts, not just big concussions.
Not every concussion leads to dementia, and the link is not always straight. For example, in women professional football players, those with three concussions had trouble with simple attention tasks, like focusing quickly. But players with four or five did not show the same issues, hinting at a possible cutoff point around three hits. In former NFL players, how long someone played or their position on the team did not predict later health problems. What mattered more was their actual history of concussions.
Scientists stress that concussion history is the best way to spot who might face brain risks later. Repetitive head impacts can speed up brain shrinkage and cause thinking deficits. Right now, experts are studying blood markers from brain cells after hits to find early signs of trouble. Sports groups need to cut down on head impacts to protect players while keeping the benefits of exercise.
Sources
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12736892/
https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/about-us/our-influence/policy-work/position-statements/sport-and-dementia/
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-career-length-playing-position-term.html
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41452073/?fc=None&ff=20251228130754&v=2.18.0.post22+67771e2
