Ex-footballers urged to sign up for early dementia tests
A former Wales and Norwich City footballer has agreed to brain tests for the rest of his life as part of a study into early signs of dementia.
Iwan Roberts, 51, who played more than 800 games, is urging other male and female ex-players to sign up. found they had a higher risk of dying from dementia than the average person - linked to repeated heading of the ball."I scored with my head a lot," said the striker, who chalked up 239 goals during his 20-year career, which ended in 2005.Painful headers
Roberts has already taken a series of simple memory, attention and spatial-awareness tests and he will repeat them every six months."I'm a big believer in prevention is better than cure," Roberts said.The balls were lighter now, Roberts said, but there were still risks to players, particularly children, who he thinks should be banned from heading the ball until a certain age.
"When I started playing, the balls were hard to head, it was painful sometimes - but I didn't think of it at the time," he said.Now, Iwan said, he was going to ask other former Norwich City players to get involved in the"The research they are doing here will help everybody," he added.
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