Experts react to Brett Favre’s Parkinson's diagnosis: The overlooked symptoms and contact sports dangers
Key Takeaways
Football legend Brett Favre was diagnosed earlier this year with Parkinson’s disease (PD). He knew something was off when he had trouble using his right arm and hand.
There are strong associations between head injuries from contact sports and PD risk. It is believed that inflammation and genetic susceptibility can increase this risk.
NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre, 54, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in January after experiencing difficulty using his right arm and hand, according to a TMZ interview.[]
Earlier this week, Favre attended a Capitol Hill hearing on welfare reform, during which he announced his diagnosis. Additionally, he mentioned his connection to Prevacus, a company that “develops drugs for the treatment of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or concussion,” according to Bloomberg.[] Favre was a key investor in the company, but its founder was recently caught using funds for himself rather than the business.[]
“Sadly, I…lost an investment in a company that I believed was developing a breakthrough concussion drug I thought would help others,” Favre said at the hearing.[] “I’m sure you’ll understand, while it’s too late for me because I’ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, this is also a cause dear to my heart.” Favre said he knew something was wrong when his dominant arm would get “stuck.”[] Additionally, he said he couldn’t hold a screwdriver steady with one hand. Favre explained that he struggled to guide his arm through a jacket hole—something that signaled he had a serious issue.
Eventually, five different specialists agreed that he had PD. "They all said the same thing," he said. "'If it's not in your family' -- and there's none on either side of my family -- 'then the first thing we look at is head trauma.' Well, hell, I wrote the book on head trauma,” he told TMZ.
A look at PD’s motor and nonmotor symptoms
About a million people in the US have PD, with numbers predicted to rise. After Alzheimer's disease, PD is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease in the US.[]
Early PD symptoms can be vague—and experiencing some symptoms doesn’t mean that a patient definitely has PD.[] Sule Tinaz, MD, PhD, a neurologist at Yale School of Medicine, says that early motor symptoms include tremor, writing in small letters, and reduced facial expressions,
Stiffness is also a symptom. In PD, “muscles are tight, which may prevent [the] natural swing of an arm when walking or [cause] a shoulder to become painful from the muscular tightness,” James Beck, PhD, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of the Parkinson's Foundation, tells MDLinx. Dr. Tinaz adds that other nonmotor symptoms include acting out while dreaming (such as kicking the legs), mood changes, and —to name a few.
The link between contact sports and PD
Clinical research shows that there are strong associations between head injuries from contact sports and PD. “It is believed that head trauma and traumatic brain injury, like repeated concussions seen in many football players, may lead to an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. The exact mechanism is unknown, but may be a result of both brain inflammation and genetic susceptibility,” Dr. Beck says.
According to a 2023 study published in JAMA, boxing and American football can result in neurodegenerative pathologies that lead to PD and PD-type symptoms because of players sustaining repeated head injuries or impacts.[]The study looked at 1,875 men and found that a “[h]istory of playing football was associated with higher odds of having a parkinsonism or PD diagnosis,” with odds increasing the longer a person played the game or the higher their level of play.
Dr. Tinaz says that football players aren’t the only ones at risk of PD. So, too, are any patients who play contact sports.
She also adds that physicians should know that the nonmotor symptoms of PD can be present many years before the onset of motor symptoms. “Especially acting out dreams, [which is] known as ‘rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder.’ [This] is a strong risk factor for PD. I think it is important for MDs and the public to be aware of this risk because early diagnosis will be crucial for prevention and treatment as we continue to develop new therapies for PD,” Dr. Tinaz adds.
Dr. Beck says that he wants patients to know that PD is not a death sentence. “It is a slowly moving disease, and people can enjoy a good quality of life for quite some time,” he says. There is no cure, but there are things patients can do: “Exercise can help manage symptoms and the impact of the disease, while medication may also help. “There [is] a new generation of medicines entering clinical trials,” he says.
What this means for you
Patients can play an important role in the treatment of PD, Dr. Beck adds: “The only way to find a cure is if people with PD are willing to volunteer for these trials and see if these new drugs are successful,” he says. “An easy way to participate in clinical trials is through the Parkinson’s Foundation PD GENEration study, which offers free genetic testing and counseling to those with the disease.”