TORONTO - While the debate over hits in minor hockey rages on, pediatricians are calling attention to another sport they say threatens kids? and teens? health: boxing.
Amateur boxing may not be as rough as the professional prizefights seen on TV, but it still presents a high risk of head injury, Canadian and American pediatricians argue in a new statement.
The position paper published Monday by the Canadian Paediatric Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics calls for underage athletes ? whose brains are more vulnerable to injury ? to stay out of the ring.
Other sports such as hockey and football may cause more injuries overall, but boxing ?is a sport where intentional blows to the head are rewarded,? said Dr. Claire LeBlanc, one of the paper?s Canadian authors.
That makes it particularly dangerous for children and teens, she said.
?The amount of time to recover from a single concussion for a child or youth takes longer than an adult,? she said.
?The cumulative effect ? can mean that concussions take even longer to recover from the more you get them, but also there may be more sustained negative effects on what we call cognitive function ? memory, being able to do your school work, chronic headaches and the like.?
Experts have long sounded the alarm about the risks of repeated head injury, which can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition with symptoms similar to dementia.
Scientists first spotted the condition in the late 1920s in professional boxers.
Some studies suggest concussions make up close to half of all boxing injuries, though it?s not clear if that also applies to children.
In Canada, the minimum age to fight in a boxing competition is 11, according to Boxing Canada, the organization representing amateur boxers.
About 2,000 kids between the ages of 11 and 16 are registered to compete, its records show. Roughly a quarter are girls.
The organization doesn?t track recreational boxers who don hand wraps and gloves to train, but never progress beyond a few rounds of casual sparring.
Robert Crete, executive director of Boxing Canada, said the sport is misunderstood and unfairly targeted by doctors who ?have seen too many ?Rocky? movies.?
Amateur boxers spend the bulk of their time punching bags, not each other, he said.
?It?s not like playing hockey, where every weekend, the kid is competing,? he said. ?If they compete twice a year, it?s considered very often.?
When they do step into the ring, amateurs are far more restrained then the champs because they aim for points instead of a knockout, he said.
?I have never seen a knockout in the small-weights division,? where youth typically end up, he said.
It?s unclear how many injuries children and teens sustain while boxing, since few studies separate data by age group, the pediatricians? paper reads.
Some 273 boxers reported injuries between 1990 and 2007, according to the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program, which is maintained by the Public Health Agency of Canada. Among them, nearly 70 per cent were 18 and under.
The program collects data from 15 hospitals across the country, including 10 children?s hospitals.
Dr. Charles Tator, a neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital, said the dangers of boxing far outweigh any fitness benefits the sport may bring.
?It?s not worth it because there are so many great sports that involve less trauma to the brain, like swimming and bicycling,? said Tator, who heads ThinkFirst Canada, a national organization for the prevention of brain and spinal cord injuries.
But boxing isn?t the only activity kids should avoid, he said, pointing to the growing popularity of mixed martial arts and other combat sports.
So far, there isn?t enough data on mixed martial arts to draw clear conclusions, ?but the concept is the same,? agreed LeBlanc, the pediatrician.
Several other bodies, including the Canadian, Australian and British medical associations, have pushed to make boxing off-limits to youth. Some even advocate that the sport be banned entirely.
(PAOLA LORRIGIO, THE CANADIAN PRESS)
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