...Concussion Awareness Among Athletes The packed stadium all holds their breath. Everyone except the player who is about to catch the ball sees what is going to happen. Then just like that it happens, the loud collision of two bodies slamming into each other, helmet to helmet. The player who just tried to catch the ball drops it on impact and now lays motionless on the field. He gets up with help and walks slowly off to his sideline. This athlete has just suffered what professionals in the medical field call a concussion. This article will be taking a deeper look into what happens to a players brain during a concussion, signs of a concussion, and what rising athletes can do to prevent these concussions. Concussions have been an ongoing controversy as of late in the world of sports and it comes with good reason. Though concussions are most prevalent in football, they are common across the entire sports spectrum. A concussion occurs when the head is hit directly or indirectly, causing a chemical disturbance within the brain that can have immediate consequences. An estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions occur each year (CDC 2012). The numbers will always be very broad when it comes to concussions because so many athletes refuse to take themselves out of their games and a majority of the time they neglect to report any concussion symptoms to a trainer or coach. Lets take a look at some of the factors that contribute to athletes neglecting their concussions. A university study...
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...Jessy Pasch Effects of Sport Concussions Sport concussions are a major scare in all sports today and it’s a problem in youth leagues as well as professional sports. While an athlete plays a sport they will suffer multiple concussions throughout their career in sports. In the last 3 years in high school football 400,000 concussions occurred. Concussions are a problem, at times is hard to detect, because the symptoms are sometimes hard to spot and in many cases symptoms can last for day, weeks, years and even life time. Through study they found that adults can heal faster than young athletes, and they can heal in just two weeks. Sport concussions are becoming bigger problems in all sports and researchers are trying harder to find how concussions occur, how to prevent them to make all athletes safer while playing and how to make sure all athletes are safe to play after a concussion. One way to help preventing concussions is to understand how they occur. Fist a concussions is defined as a complex pathophysiological process that affects the brain, typically induced by trauma to the brain. A concussion happens when there is trauma to the brain. Trauma can happen when you take a blow to head region. It can also happen when you get something called the whiplash effect to the body. The whiplash effect is when the impact to your body accelerates your head causing the trauma to your brain. With contact sports there are many ways concussions can occur. In any tackling sport, without proper...
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... Athlete Safety When sports were first created, they were presented with minimal rules and a lack of knowledge for player safety. In today’s time, all sports have a specific set of rules to go by, and there are medical teams present at every sporting event. Most would say that every sport is prepared for the injuries that occur, but that is not the case when it comes to concussions. Recently in sports such as, Boxing, Hockey, and Football, there have been new rules created to either prevent concussions, or to emphasize the seriousness of concussions occurring. In the sport of boxing, a boxer can be knocked down multiple times and is allowed to keep fighting if they can seem alert by standing up before the ref counts to ten, many believe boxers are receiving concussions when knocked down and should not be allowed to keep fighting. In the NHL or National Hockey League, players are constantly being smacked into the arena glass by opposing players and many players fall head first on the solid-seeming ice, which can easily result to a concussion. The NHL is currently to figure out a way to slow down the game speed of hockey to lower the number of concussions, which have doubled since the previous season. In the NFL, players who now commit head to head contact tackles will be fined and can also be suspended if felt necessary. Players who now suffer concussions in the NFL during a game can no longer return...
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...Concussions have been an increasingly controversial topic for many years with both reports on an increase of concussions to more awareness towards the issue, how both effects can happen at the same time is a puzzling mystery. The overall opinion of two medical professionals interviewed is that there is more awareness of concussions, causing more concussions to be diagnosed. From constant lawsuits and present and former athletes speaking out against sport associations, concussions are clearly having a large impact on society. According to Tria Physical Therapist Carly Mattson PT, DPT, OCS, a concussion is either caused by an injury or impact to the head or neck. Although once believed that concussions always caused unconsciousness, that is not always the case. “A...
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...Concussions have the capability to destroy a brain. Multiple concussions, if left untreated can result in serious life threatening damage. The issue of concussions is very close to home and important to me. A few years ago, I suffered from a concussion while playing soccer and for months afterwards, I was affected by symptoms of the concussion such as headaches and dizziness which kept me out of playing the beautiful game. I feel very strongly that something must be done to keep athletes safe from this deadly injury. I believe that an independent oversight organization must oversee concussion protocol, which is to identify, treat, and clear any athlete with a concussion. Concussions have always occurred but have not always been identified as such. During battle, concussions occurred to soldiers but they were not classified as concussions. It...
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...Years ago, coaches referred to concussions as “having your bell rung” and were never considered as a serious injury. Athletes would simply skip a play and would be given smelling salts. After that, they would be back in the game in no time. Concussions now have been linked to life-threatening injuries in many athletes. Today, concussions are the most common football injury by young athletes and are becoming more frequent each year. Coaches, players, trainers, physicians and parents need to take better precautions when dealing with concussions and with their help concussions will not be as life threatening as they are today. Multiple concussions suffered by athletes can lead to psychological problems long-term. A scholarly person once said, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Even though the person was actually referring to people taking advantage of school, it now can be applied to football. A concussion is an injury caused to the brain which can cause loss of consciousness, confusion, blurred vision and ringing in the ears. Multiple concussions can be life-threatening, career-ending and serious. Concussions used to go unnoticed by players and coaches and they referred to them as “having your bell rung”. Players would return to the field after a short rest. Today, the NFL and sports teams across the United States are sitting up and paying more attention to the medical profession when it comes to concussions. Concussions are dangerous, cause permanent damage to...
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...The Facts Of Concussions Concussions are a surprisingly common occurrence in sports. Sports-related concussions often result in mental and physical symptoms. For many athletes, the symptoms disappear after about 10 days, and they typically do not last more than several months. In some cases, though, concussions lead to persistent complaints of physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral symptoms, sometimes referred to as post-concussion syndrome. We do not know whether persistent post-concussive symptoms result from primarily medical or psychological causes. In rare cases, when repeated concussions occur over a brief interval, athletes may suffer from second impact syndrome, a pathological response of the brain that can be life-threatening if not treated promptly. Concussions are typically managed according to their severity. Immediately after a concussion, medical evaluation is needed to determine a child's vital signs and level of consciousness and to rule out any other injuries, such as those to the spine. Can neuropsychological assessment help with concussions? Well, Neuropsychological assessment is widely regarded as the most sensitive way of detecting disturbances in brain function associated with concussion. The National Football League and the National Hockey League have both instituted systematic programs of neuropsychological testing, as have many colleges. Athletes are administered brief tests of attention, memory, and speed of information processing before the season...
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...year, tens of thousands of concussions happen due to high school sports. 2.5 million students play sports and could get hurt. Isaiah, a 13 year old boy, had a dream to play football in high school. At football camp, a year before his dream was going to come true, he was running with a ball and was tackled. He smacked his head hard on the turf. He was rushed to the hospital where he was told he had a concussion. Isaiah had to sit in a dark room for two weeks so his brain could heal. After he healed, Isaiah decided to quit football. Injuries in sports are causing players to give up on their dreams (Belson). Unsurprisingly, football is the number one injury causing sport in high school. Two dozen high school football players died in recent...
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...Concussions in Athletes Patrick Austin DeVry University Concussions in Athletes Junior Seau, a favorite player of many professional football fans, committed suicide in 2012. Although Seau seemed to have everything going his way, he quietly suffered from depression, one of the many symptoms of repeated concussions Those close to Seau knew something was not right the man they all knew and loved. Some of them just chalked it up to him adjusting to life after football. Many players go through an adjustment period after stepping down from a glorious career in the limelight. However, this was not the case with Seau. He was suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE. What is unique about Seau’s suicide is he shot himself in the chest. The common belief is he did this to preserve his brain for scientist to study how it was affected by suffering many concussions during his 20 year football career. And, eight months after his death, the scientists who examined his brain announced they had found evidence of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a dire neurological disease linked to concussions, which has been a factor in the deaths of many other NFL players (Penn, 2013). The fact that a player would kill himself because he was suffering from symptoms of repeated concussions speaks to the importance of properly diagnosing and treating head injuries. Other players have suffered from the symptoms of brain trauma. Some, like Dave Dureson, have even taken their own lives. These...
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...ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Relationship Between Concussion and Neuropsychological Performance in College Football Players Michael W. Collins, PhD Scott H. Grindel, MD Mark R. Lovell, PhD Duane E. Dede, PhD David J. Moser, PhD Benjamin R. Phalin, BS Sally Nogle, MA, ATC Michael Wasik, MEd, ATC David Cordry, MA Michelle Klotz Daugherty, MA Samuel F. Sears, PhD Guy Nicolette, MD Peter Indelicato, MD Douglas B. McKeag, MD T HE MANAGEMENT OF MILD TRAU- matic brain injury (MTBI; eg, concussion, defined as a traumatically induced alteration in mental status not necessarily resulting in loss of consciousness) in athletics is currently one of the most compelling challenges in sports medicine. Despite the high prevalence1 and potentially serious outcomes2,3 associated with concussion, systematic research on this topic is lacking. Many sports medicine practitioners are not satisfied with current return-to-play and treatment options, which do not appear to be evidence based.4-6 There is also little research examining whether long-term cognitive See also pp 954, 958, 971, 974, and 989. 964 JAMA, September 8, 1999—Vol 282, No. 10 Context Despite the high prevalence and potentially serious outcomes associated with concussion in athletes, there is little systematic research examining risk factors and short- and long-term outcomes. Objectives To assess the relationship between concussion history and learning disability (LD) and the association of these...
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...Society Concussions in Sport: An Analytical Discussion “I had no idea what a nickel was (Kevin Kolb, The Concussion Blog).” NFL quarterback Kevin Kolb has suffered three major concussions since 2010 (Galliford, Buffalorumblings). His most recent one just this past August effectively ended his football career. This is just one example of the many in which multiple or severe concussions have cut short careers in sports. The issue of player safety in sport has become a topic of controversy and debate in recent years. Many professional leagues such as the NFL and the NHL have adopted strict concussion test protocols and procedures for its players. Player safety has no doubt become a major concern in contact sports. The problem is, many of these regulations have yet to address what happens after playing careers are over. What happens to former players’ mental and physical health after they retire? How do players whom have suffered multiple concussions playing contact sports live their lives as opposed to players whom have played non-contact sports such as golf or baseball? What will be questioned in this analysis is do known players that have suffered multiple and/or severe concussions throughout their playing careers due to playing a contact sport develop abnormally high levels of mental and physical health problems at an early age? Previous history on the attempts to lower the frequency of severe injury and concussions have shown advances...
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...Concussions In The NFL The Problem * A hit or a bolt to the head ultimately causes a concussion, which is classified as a traumatic brain injury. * Concussions can also be caused by an excessive blow to the body that causes a person’s head to move back and forth, which causes the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull. * Concussions within the National Football League have become a serious health risk due to the fact that athletes were playing in games before their concussions had completely healed, which puts athletes vulnerable to increased injury. * Many retired NFL football players have suffered memory and cognitive issues, such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and depression. Indicators of Concussions * During the 2012 NFL football season, there were 265 concussions reported. * From the 2010 season to the 2012 season, the amount of concussions per season only decreased from 270 to 265. * In the 2012, players who suffered concussions have been linked to severe memory loss, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and player suicide. * Mike Webster’s death in 2002 was the first to relate concussions in the NFL with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and death. * In 2012, autopsies of Ray Easterling and Junior Seau both showed evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. * This concerning evidence led to relation of concussions and deaths for several more NFL players. * Chris Henry, a former Cincinnati...
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...focus more on the dangers of concussion sin football. In sports everyone who commits to playing for an organized team knows that there is a large risk involved by the time you are stepping onto the field, Court or Ice Rink. One of the most common sports that athletes are being injured in is the sport of football. Every one knows the dangers of the the full contact sport because it is so widely commercialized in for all ages. From High School all the way to the NFL football is a big deal but what about the injury's that come along with playing this violent game. Concussions are one of the most common injures that occur out of the football field and it has...
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...Concussions are a danger to many athletes in our country. A concussion is what happens when the head receives a blow or is jarred resulting in a bruise on the brain. The effects of a concussion can be immediate loss of consciousness right after receiving the injury. Other immediate symptoms could be dizziness, nausea, aching of the head, memory loss etc. If the concussion is serious, some more long term effects are long term memory loss, depression, mood swings, loss of focus and an inability to move in certain ways. Studies have shown that athletes that suffer a concussion and then go back in the game and get another concussion can suffer serious brain damage. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) estimates that over 300,000 sports-related...
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...more attention over the past few years; the effects of repeated concussions have been demonstrated in a number of high-profile athletes. With multimillion dollars and careers at stake, professional athletic associations have supported the implementation of preseason baseline testing and neuropsychological evaluation to assist in return-to-play decision making and to assess the cognitive sequelae of concussive head injuries. Such comprehensive programs are infiltrating college athletics and most recently have begun to manifest themselves in high school athletics. It is clear that mild head injury is a growing concern in the popular high school contact sports. Statement of Purpose...
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