Imagine you play football.  Every year, you get at least one concussion.  You think, ‘Hey, it’s just a concussion, so as long as I can still play, I should be fine, right?’  Wrong.  According to a recent study at Boston University, more than 40 percent of athletes that play sports have CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy,  and of those, 48 played football, and most of them weren’t even out of high school or college yet.  CTE is a progressive brain disorder that causes symptoms like dementia, and these symptoms will continue to get worse over time.  This disorder also causes tau, an abnormal protein, to appear in the brain and begin to deteriorate.  Unfortunately, CTE can only be diagnosed by a brain autopsy after the person affected has died.  So, if you play sports, especially football and boxing, wear a helmet, be safe, and always tell someone if your head hurts after hitting it extremely hard.  In the end, it could save your life.