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Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Can Concussion Affect You for the Rest of Your Life?

The brain is a vital part of the human body. Without it the body would not move, function, or survive. We seldom think about the brain and how we affect it. Over the past few years the topic of concussions in contact sports has become a hot topic. Professional teams are expected to update their concussion protocols and to help bring awareness to the seriousness of concussions. Our brains do so much for us that you would think that concussions would be considered a very serious issue. A concussion is a brain injury caused by a violent blow to the head or violent shaking of the head or body. Concussion can affect your cognitive skills. They are a serious injury to the brain that can cause symptoms that last a lifetime.
How a concussion happens 


However, many people still brush it off as not being a very serious condition. Contact sports like football, lacrosse, and hockey result in a large number of head injuries yearly. In fully developed adults concussions can be very damaging or even life threatening. In children and young adults they can be even more dangerous as the brain is not yet fully developed. Many people believe that once a concussion has healed it is no longer an issue but recent research may be showing otherwise.
Some concussion statistics
CT Scan comparison of brain activity 


The autopsy of 87 NFL players who sustained multiple head injuries had build-up of the protein tau, a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease. While the build up patterns differ from those in Alzheimer's patients this is still an important development in concussion research. Many of the football players were experiencing symptoms similar to dementia, specifically Alzheimer’s disease. While more research is needed this suggests that the effects of head injuries may last much longer than initially thought. If head injuries can last a lifetime should we allow kids and young adults to play full contact sports? And if we allow them to, how can we increase the safety of these sports to prevent some of these head injuries from happening in the first place?
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 25, 2017 at 6:48 PM

    This topic is really interesting and very important. I have never fully understood what a concussion was or why it occurred, and this really helped explain the seriousness of this type of injury.

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  2. AnonymousMay 25, 2017 at 10:29 PM

    This topic is very important to me, as my sister has suffered several concussions. While your blog didn't really relieve me of my worries, it confirmed what I was thinking. That the pain and confusion she experiences now is most likely due to her concussions. On the topic of football, I know that they are always working to try and make safer and safer helmets. Although the safest helmet is to be sitting on the sideline not playing the game, there has been definite improvement in safety regulations. I wonder, is there anything people who have had concussions can do to improve their condition, or is it just something you have to live with?

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  3. AnonymousMay 26, 2017 at 1:21 AM

    As someone who has experienced concussions through playing sports I have experienced the negative that concussions can bring to someone's life. I have felt the symptoms first hand but was also put through various tests and an amount of time off sports that was frustrating because it felt like forever. However, I do understand how the research keeps on piling on about the seriousness about concussions and I think it's important younger athletes take it more seriously. I have done research on the topic previous and the new technology of helmets in contact sports has always interested me, and how companies use different tactics to protect the head from head on and rotational hits.

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  4. AnonymousMay 26, 2017 at 12:51 PM

    I love this blog post because concussions are they way we deal with them is a very popular topic today especially in high school and college sports. I myself have had 5 concussions. I think people don’t take concussions as seriously as they should and they don’t think about the long term effects on. Concussions are no joke and this issue needs to brought to light to educate people on this serious issue. The fact that 3.8 million concussions are sustained each year and this is not a public health issue, that is a problem.

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