CTE is a destructive, debilitating, disease due to repeated/consistent head trauma from:

(1) Playing contact sports:

Boxing, American Football, Ice Hockey, Mixed Martial Arts Fighting, Soccer from headers, Rugby, Australian Rules Football);

(2) Serving in the Military:

Veterans exposed to blast zones and physical head trauma during battle result in TBI's. Traumatic Brain Injuries become CTE if the repeated head trauma is not stopped.

(3) Victims of Domestic Abuse:

Females & children develop Traumatic Brain Injuries much more easily than a 220+ pound American football player (Ann Mckee, MD Boston University CTE Center). Repeated hits to the head, over time, have been documented to transform into CTE (Lancet Neurology, 2026).

With years of repeated trauma to the Prefrontal Cortex, Tau Protein (designed to protect Neurons and Axons) transforms & becomes slow growing masses in the form of spindle-like clumps throughout the PreFrontal Cortex.

Tau Protein build up, in CTE patients, begins to suffocate the PreFrontal-Cortex as the spindle-like clumps grow and force brain cells to become dormant & turn off. Neurological cells do not turn off then back on; they are considered permanently damaged.

The prefrontal cortex is the most critical component of the human brain. It acts as the controls over decision making, impulse control, & mood regulation. It's like flying a plane, all communication & controls stop working and nobody is aware of the emergency situation at hand. 

Patients with CTE have brains that operate as if they were 15-year old teenagers. Their lives begin to unravel as they lose money to bad investments, start using drugs in their 40's, cheat on and lose their wives, lose their primary homes, and gamble away their remaining money. All while experiencing fits of rage, crying spells, deep depressions, short-term + long-term memory disappears, paranoid delusions, & massive insomnia leave these one proud Demi-Gods broke and broken. And they have no idea how it all went so terribly wrong just 3-5 years after retirement.

CTE patients are so lost, confused, and not the same people they used to be. Unfortunately so many of these patients end up committing suicide.