During the last few years, a lot of emphasis has been placed on head and brain injuries in football, and until recently, limited research has been done to study how each athlete’s brain is affected.
Former Denver Broncos Tight End Jeb Putzier has been a CereScan patient for years. After experiencing cognitive and emotional problems following his professional football career, he now encourages other athletes to take early action. By identifying how and what regions of the brains are affected by multiple concussions, athletes and others suffering from persistent symptoms can start their paths to better brain health.
READ MORE: Jeb Putzier on the Road to Recovery
For Jeb, CereScan has taken the guesswork out of the picture, unveiling a clear answer and solution. He sat down with Triple Threat Radio Houston host and celebrated NFL linebacker Ted Johnson to discuss how CereScan’s advanced functional brain imaging can help former players. An excerpt from the Triple Threat Radio Houston interview is below.
Ted Johnson: Jeb, it’s really great talking to you and I want to get to the company you’re representing – CereScan. Obviously, this is something important to me. When it comes to concussions and trying to find technology such as brain scans and SPECT [single-photon emission computed tomography] scans to properly diagnose these brain conditions, talk about CereScan. What you guys are doing as far as helping these guys, who are former football players, get the right diagnosis so they can have a better, healthier life moving forward?
Jeb Putzier: Well the analogy I always use is your knee. You don’t tell somebody you have a knee injury, but you tell someone what area is affected. Is it your ACL, PCL, or LCL? Then we can work on it.
That’s the problem with concussions, everyone lumps it in as to one thing. Well, in our brain, every area works something else for us. Over time, like you know, we get hundreds, if not thousands of concussions throughout the seasons.
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So, we need to know what area specifically is not working right, or, how are we susceptive to these injuries. Some guys get hit a million times and it doesn’t really affect them. Another guy gets a concussion once and he’s done. He can’t play.
For me, it’s getting the guessing game out. With CereScan you now know the blood flow of your brain and the proper treatment for it. There is no guessing. We work a lot with wounded warriors and we have also worked a lot with former Broncos players that go in and do this. It has helped our lives, the people around us, our families and everyone.
It’s a group I trust, and that’s a big thing for me. As you know, there are people out there who are just trying to get NFL players so they can get their name out there. This isn’t that type of place. These people are doing it for the right reasons and that’s why I trust them. That’s why I’ve been back and am trying to help them out as much as I can. Because I know they are doing the same thing for other people.
Ted: Jeb this is great technology, and I was one of the first guys to use it years ago. It was very helpful for me. I want to ask you this though, do you find it that guys are reluctant to maybe go find out exactly what it is they’re dealing with? Do you see guys who – I don’t know – think ignorance is bliss? They don’t want to get their brain scanned and figure out what their problem is.
Jeb: I get that or I get “I know I’m screwed up, what are you going to tell me?” I do spend a lot of time on the phone and emails with wives and girlfriends of former players who have seen it. The thing is you want to understand what’s going to happen in the future, and if you’re going to have trouble later in your 40s and 50s while your children are still growing.
That to me, with my two kids, was my biggest push. It was because of them I had to go out there and change who I was. I was in self-destruction mode. I was ready to be done with life. It was really tough until I got the scan done, and I understood what was going on and got the proper treatment.
Listen to their full conversation below to learn more about how CereScan can make a positive difference in the lives of current and former athletes.