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Children and Concussions

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Children and Concussions

“Kids will be kids.” That saying has been around for ages. Its basic meaning is that kids can get into some trouble, whether it be by injury or doing something foolish. That is until they sustain a concussion or some other brain injury. Then the tables change. Concussions have been an increasing problem and has brought fear in every household whose children are in physical sports. Concussions have been around ever since humans started performing physical activities. There has been loads of equipment created to help prevent this brain injury. The equipment created dropped the risk about 8% but it still isn’t effective enough. At this day and age, children and teens pretty much do whatever anybody tells them to do. Especially when it comes to sports. They don’t understand the risks they take when they go out on that field or court. Having the knowledge of the risks, before you go out there and play, should be mandatory and would most definitely help in the long run.

Problem

A concussion is a brain injury that occurs when the brain is shaken inside the skull, causing changes in the brains chemistry and energy supply. Concussions are increasing every year and it is getting way out of control. Over 400,000 children are admitted to hospitals each and every year either induced with a concussion or some other brain injury. Over 6,000 of them die from these injuries. These injuries have increased so much that even the national sports leagues are paying billions for research on the subject, in order to prevent them within their leagues players. In fact, Researchers from the University of Ballarat have compared the number of people who were admitted to a hospital with head injuries associated with different sports over the past nine years. They found that there was a 60% increase in that figure. (World Today n. pag). Stopping the

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