January 22, 2024 – Gary Plummer is a former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) and the United States Football League (USFL) and a Super Bowl champion. He signed with the San Diego Chargers in 1986 and played there for eight years. He won a Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers in 1995. In 2014, Gary was diagnosed with early-stage dementia as a result of all the concussions he endured during his playing days. He is a member of the Amydis Professional Athletes Council. In the following, he shares his thoughts about the importance of the efforts of Amydis on early detection of neurodegenerative and other diseases and why he joined the Council.

In 2012, one my all-time favorite teammates, Junior Seau, committed suicide. We later learned that Junior was suffering from traumatic brain injury caused by repetitive hits to the head from all the concussions he endured during his more than 25 years of playing high school, college and professional football. Among the symptoms of the injury is suicidal tendencies.

It was one of the most devastating moments of my life as it was for so many others. Junior belonged to the city of San Diego; he was an icon in San Diego. I vowed from that day forward – and because I suffered from my own concussion issues from playing football – that I was going to educate myself and reach out to others about the serious health issues that come from concussions.

Ironically, Junior Seau committing suicide saved my life. During my career I believe I suffered from thousands of concussions, just like so many other football players. Following Junior’s death as part of my education process, I learned more about how concussions can increase the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. One of the outcomes for me was being diagnosed with early-stage dementia in 2014, 16 years after my retirement from football. Click here to watch a video about Gary’s diagnosis of early dementia.

As I learned more about the ramifications of concussions, I found out about Amydis and their pioneering work of using a simple eye test to help identify Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases which are on the increase for all athletes. Understanding that Amydis is actively engaged in improving early detection of diseases and that they can help in this process was eye-opening for me, and that’s why I got involved.

That Amydis is working to enable digital detection and monitoring for serious diseases through a standard, non-invasive eye test, is truly amazing. Guys like me who are in macho sports don’t really want anyone to tell us what to do, including to go to the doctor. But to know that there is a process, now in clinical trials, where you can do a simple eye test from Amydis that can possibly provide early detection of dementia, Alzheimer’s and other serious health issues … that is a game changer.

For me it is important to know that I can tell my friends and others that you don’t need someone berating you to go to the doctor; you can decide for yourself. The Amydis team is working to make it simple and quick to get an accurate diagnosis. And the benefit of this will be in the early detection of serious health issues so you can start treatment as early as possible to lead to better outcomes.

The work Amydis is doing is groundbreaking. When I first started collaborating with Amydis they were in animal studies, and I am thrilled that they have now moved into human trials. Their team is so passionate about bringing this technology to the masses to make it simple and quick to identify serious health issues with just an eye exam.

The Amydis technology has potential applications across so many areas of healthcare with the goal of accelerating diagnosis, improving the clinical testing of remedies, revolutionizing treatments and improving outcomes for those suffering from serious diseases.

That is why I’m so excited about it and proud to be part of the Amydis team.

About Amydis
Amydis is leading the way for early detection of diseases through the eye that is accessible, affordable and non-invasive. The company is developing proprietary ocular tracers that enable identification of molecular biomarkers for diseases of the eye, heart and brain. Amydis is creating a data warehouse for multi-omics that includes unique molecular biomarkers of the eye to empower AI-enabled health insights. The Company’s digital health solutions leverage the eye as the “window to the body” to accelerate diagnoses, enable precision treatment and improve patient outcomes. For more information contact: info@amydis.com