Concussions In Professional Sports

The documentary Head Games directed by Steve James follows former football player and ex-wrestler, Chris Nowinski, on his mission to uncover the truth about the consequences of playing sports related to concussions. A concussion is a brain injury that you cannot see and where the brain moves around in the skull. More than 3.8 million concussions occur a year due to a sport. The documentary raises the question of whether protective head-gear should be worn in all contact sports. I believe a head is more likely to sustain more damage to the brain without a helmet than a head with a helmet.

It was a miserable year in 2001,the NFL reported 900 concussions that year still nothing was done to change this unbearable outcome. Now more people are aware of the seriousness of receiving a concussion and should be required to take the baseline test to determine if the athlete is still eligible to play. Recent studies have shown females are more likely to suffer a concussion than men due to how fragile their neck is making the impact to the head extremely severe. Soccer has the highest rate of concussions due to the brutal impact the ball has when it reaches the player head this could be vital if the player repeatedly undergoes the same position. Thinking, speaking,or any type of brain activity can be crucial to recovering the mind must be at complete

B. Athletes have a strong desire to play and ultimately return to the game too soon after a concussion, even knowing the dangers they face. C. Gino Odjick was a fighter for the Vancouver Canucks back in 1998. “The 43-year-old said there was very little information about the dangers of sports-related head trauma when he first started playing hockey. As a result, he played while concussed and is now suffering the long-term consequences” (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/former-nhler-gino-odjick-speaks-on-concussion-dangers-1.2515082)

In the article "heads up: concussions in high school sports", it exemplifies how high school athletes are more vulnerable to concussions and may take longer to recover based upon immaturity of the central nervous system, the lack of recognition that a concussion has occurred, and the reliability of symptoms. The document, "concussion: potential causes and long-term impact", supports the conclusion of how repeated injuries can result in permanent brain damage. If an athlete where to experience a concussion more than once, then these effects can be permanent. The damage can affect them in other careers too. This is why it is important to let athletes have more recover time for concussions: another concussion occurring in that same time frame can alter their mental status and the team may loose that athlete forever.

However, it is also important to note that a concussion can also take place outside of sports, meaning it can happen to anybody. For instance, there have been incidents where a person tripped while running, fell, and the impact of their head’s contact with the ground caused a concussion. Or, in a car accident many front-seat passengers, or even the driver, have slammed their heads against the dashboard/steering wheel, also possibly resulting in a concussion. Concussions when treated can be healed in a timely manner. Unfortunately, throughout history, there has been a tendency for people to overlook a concussion as a serious injury, therefore, making it more problematic than it already is.

Stated in the first excerpt, people should be aware that 10% of athletes take more than 7 days to recover from the effects of a concussion. The percentage could vary depending on how badly you were hit. If you were to continue a game while injured it could hurt you even worse or even make the effects last longer than they should. If you sat out when told, you could recover faster then get back to the game to perform your best. When performing better, people will notice you more and your chances to play for colleges could increase.

We hear about them all the time; headlines read “Major Athlete Receives Major Head Injury and Concussion”, but do we really know what a concussion is and the dangers it holds? Mayo Clinic defines a concussion as a traumatic brain injury that affects brain function. Effects are generally temporary but may include headaches and problems with concentration, memory, balance, and coordination. There are several symptoms of a concussion, some of which may include headaches, fatigue, amnesia, temporary loss of consciousness and nausea. Signs of a concussion that require immediate attention include seizures, eyesight disturbances, and large head bumps.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph concussions and head trauma are common in athlete players who had been hit in the head several times. There is a test called the Impact Test that is used by doctors to measure the severeness of a concussion. The test consists of basic movements like grabbing a pencil, repeating words and answering personal questions to see if the person is back to normal. Although concussions last a few hours it is important to have the person constantly reacting to sound and light. Sometimes people who have had a concussion need to be tested every two years just to make sure everything is ok and that no new concussions have been made.

When student athletes participate in contact sports, they run the risk of getting a concussion. A concussion, according to The American Academy of Neurology, is defined as "A trauma induced alteration in mental statues that may or may not result in loss of consciousness". Short term effects could cause a change in mood, along with headaches and nausea; whereas long term effects of a concussion can range from drastic behavioral changes and mood disturbances to cognitive difficulties. These symptoms are very prevalent in student athletes that may get a concussion and can only get worse when one has been re-concussed. I believe that student athletes should be required to sit out for a longer period of time following the events of a concussion.

Recently over the previous decades, concussions have increasingly received attention in the world of sports. A concussion is a serious head injury that can happen to any player, and in just about any sport. Indeed, it has been happening to a countless number of athletes for centuries. However, it is also important to note that a concussion can also take place outside of sports, meaning it can happen to anybody. For instance, there have been incidents where a person tripped while running, fell, and the impact of their head’s contact with the ground has caused a concussion.

In many of today's most popular sports, head injuries are quite common and are starting to occur more frequently in children. These injuries can bring upon brain damage, nerve damage, loss of memory, CTE, and much more. In the article “Hard Hit” by Kirsten Weir, and the video “Hard hits and head trauma, the dangers of team sports” by AFP News Agency, they both talk about head injuries in football, and the new safety measures put in place to help decrease them. In the video, they also talk about hockey, and how they are also putting in place rules to help decrease the amount of head injuries occurring in childrens hockey. Gwen Moran’s article, “We should all care about concussions in women’s soccer.

Athletes who have a prior concussion face greater risks of developing critical symptoms of concussions and that can lead to slow recovery (Agel and Harvey 319–323). On some instances, concussion can lead to permanent damage and can even become

The need for players to be checked often should be mandatory and administered more often to keep players safe. As coaches and trainers find out more about concussions so does the testing improve on athletes. Traumatic brain injuries affect all those who play in physical sports. One study says, “They can cause symptoms such as loss of consciousness, confusion, and headache, as well as long-term side effects.” (“Sports-Related”).

More now than ever athletes are being watched out for when there is trauma to the brain. After multiple cases of poor treatment to concussions parents and doctors are cracking down on letting concussions not be a big deal. As more studies advance, it is discovered that every case is different. The range is created by severity, past experience with trauma, and how the patient heals. Concussions in sports can range in severity, and how they affect each individual over time depending on times of impact.

According to a research report from Loehrke, a young athlete suffers a sports related injury that is severe enough to go to the emergency room approximately every 25 seconds, or 1.35 million times a year. The most prominent of these injuries were concussions, which accounted for 163,670, or 12 percent of the total 1.35 million injuries (Loehrke). Dr. Alexander K. Powers, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Wake Forest Baptist Health in North Carolina, found that most children who suffer concussions recover, but the prognosis for children who suffer recurring concussions is unknown. Recurring concussions could lead to several disabilities later in life, such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer 's disease, epilepsy, and many other neurological disorders that would require a substantial amount of surgery to cure, if they could even be cured at all (Powers). Putting a child at risk to suffer injuries, such as the ones listed above, is one of the main reasons why the amount of children participating in competitive sports has been dropping