Can I have your brain? The quest for truth on concussions and CTE | Chris Nowinski

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2018

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Something strange and deadly is happening inside the brains of top athletes -- a degenerative condition, possibly linked to concussions, that causes dementia, psychosis and far-too-early death. It's called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, and it's the medical mystery that Chris Nowinski wants to solve by analyzing brains after death. It's also why, when Nowinski meets a pro athlete, his first question is: "Can I have your brain?" Hear more from this ground-breaking effort to protect athletes' brains -- and yours, too.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features author and former professional wrestler Chris Nowinski,
0:05.7	recorded live at TEDx Beacon Street, 2017.
0:10.4	I'm Chris Nowinski, and odds are if you've met me in the last five years,
0:15.0	I've asked you, after a few minutes, a bit of an odd question.
0:18.4	Can I have your brain?
0:20.4	Now, it only seems like a strange question
0:22.6	if you don't know my story, so please let me share it with you. I grew up outside Chicago
0:28.0	and I was an athlete, and I was very lucky to get recruited to play football at Harvard University.
0:33.9	So that's me. And then after graduating, like most Harvard graduates,
0:38.5	I decided I wanted to join the WWE.
0:41.6	So that's also me.
0:45.2	Sure you remember me from Monday Night Raw in 2002 and 2003,
0:49.1	and I had a blast playing what people affectionately like to call
0:53.0	Chris Harvard, the Ivy League snob.
0:56.8	It was perfect for me.
0:58.6	But unfortunately, I got kicked in the head by my colleague Bubba Ray Dudley,
1:04.5	and I suffered a severe concussion.
1:06.3	And it led to what became permanent post-concussion symptoms,
1:11.0	constant headaches, inability to sleep, depression, feeling in a fog.
1:15.7	And in that first year, I tried to figure out,
1:18.3	how could I make this pain go away?
1:20.4	And I wasn't getting the answers I need from doctors.
	...

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