Concussion is a 2015 American biographical sports medical drama film starring Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian forensic pathologist who published research on the brain damage suffered by professional football players. The film also stars Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Albert Brooks. Columbia Pictures released the film on December 25, 2015.
According to the story line, in 2002, former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster was found dead in his pickup truck. Bennet Omalu M.D, a forensic pathologist with the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania coroner’s office, handles Webster’s autopsy, and discovers that he has severe brain damage. He ultimately determines that Webster died as a result of the long-term effects of repeated blows to the head – a disorder he calls chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE has as a biomarker the presence of tau fibers and amyloid plaque in the brain. The idea of an NFL concussion film was inspired by Dr. Bennett Omalu’s later study about former NFL stars Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, both of whom committed suicide after suffering from CTE.
The movie struggles with the tension between Omalu’s studies, and the portrayal of sinister forces seeking to suppress them. The film suggests that CTE is clearly caused by sports head trauma, and that there is no truth in any other theory. It is this suggestion that has spawned hundreds of Workers’ Compensation sports injury claims as well as thousands of civil claims against the NFL.
The film does not depict the considerable conflicting medical evidence about the cause of dementia. Omalu’s findings were rejected by the world’s leading medical experts who met at the 4th International Conference on Concussion in Sport held in Zurich, November 2012. In 2013 its findings were published as a “Consensus Statement” in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (McCrory P, et al. Br J Sports Med 2013; 47:327-330). The article concludes “The speculation that repeated concussion or subconcussive impacts cause CTE remains unproven.”
As moviegoers enjoy the Concussion movie, more studies continue to emerge in the literature about suspected causes of tau fibers and amyloid plaque biomarkers in the brain. The theory de-jure comes from brain scientist Jeffrey Iliff, who works at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. He told NPR that sleep is valuable for brain health, particularly because your brain purges amyloid, a toxin linked to Alzheimer’s, overnight, through what’s called the glymphatic system. If the glymphatic system isn’t able to properly clear the brain of amyloid, the researchers posit, it puts a person at a higher risk of Alzheimer’s.
Sleep habits now join a long list of theoretical causes of tau fibers and amyloid plaque. There is published medical literature claiming a relationship between dementia and cerebrovascular disease – cholesterol level – genetics – dental X-Ray exposure – ethno-racial differences – sleep apnea – diabetes type 3 or the metabolic hypothesis and even diacetyl (flavoring in popcorn, beer, and butter) to name a few of the many suspected causes.
It remains to be seen if the concussion hypothesis portrayed in the movie of the same name is fact or fiction.