The Dangers Of Concussions In Sports

Concussions are a rising issue in the daily life of many athletes in the sports of hockey, soccer, football, and skateboarding. Every 21 seconds, someone in this country encounters a brain injury. Concussions are brain injuries caused by jolts or hard hits around the head. When the tissue of the brain slams against the strong, thick skull in your head, a concussion is very common. This leads to either swelling of the brain, “torn blood vessels, or injury to the nerves.” (Haas) Eventually, the result will be immediate, delayed, or even permanent loss of your own brain. In the next four paragraphs, I will describe to you how a concussion is important to you and others, what the world can do to stop this issue, and what you can do to prevent

The treatment for a concussion used to be as simple as taking time to rest, or smelling bath salts before returning to play. In today’s world, concussions are more appropriately recognized as a serious head injury. In order to correctly diagnose and treat concussions, professional action needs to occur. Preventative measures, proper assessments and diagnosis, correct treatments, and increasing awareness are a few ways to reduce an issue down to a more manageable position. Concussions are a common threat in many aspects of life today. From contact sports to accidental falls, head injuries are an increasing issue that needs to be recognized as such. Two to four million concussion injuries occur from sports and recreation settings in the United States every year (The American Academy of Neurology). Most of these injuries result in a full recovery, but there are people who are left with dehabilitating injuries for the remainder of their lives. Thankfully it is becoming well known that these problems exist, and many people are starting to take action.

Concussions have become a major controversy in the United States. Because of uninformed students and negligent coaches, many student athletes are experiencing the severe complications that accompany the injury. High school athletes seem to be the most affected and for this reason are more vulnerable than other students to experience concussions. Not properly managing concussions in time could have significant and problematic injuries that could potentially effect the victims overall ability to live a healthy life. For this reason, athletes should have to stay out of any physical activity for the necessary time to allow their brain to properly heal.

The sports communities that require concussion education include the players themselves; their parents, the coaches, trainers, therapists, and referees; sports organizations/leagues; the media; teachers; and health care professionals. Several gains in recognition and management that impact upon concussion prevention can only be made through widespread of knowledge about concussions. Concussions are a serious issue in many professional sports. Concussions affect multiple sports in many ways. Many sports today are affected by the medical condition of concussions. Today, multiple leagues and professionals are learning how to prepare and prevent these career shattering injuries. With hundreds of medical advancements and a better understanding of the knowledge that the science has, we are assisting athletes to recover from these injuries. In order to understand concussions that lead the role on the games, one must look at the symptoms, injuries, and side-effects of this

In the sports world today, there are many different injuries that athletes experience and one of the most devastating injury is a concussion. Concussions can happen to anyone, in any sport, but we tend to see most concussions in contact sports (Świerzewski 1). While having an informal conversation with my dad about football, he told me it was common for athletes to receive a head injury in a game and continue to play as if nothing was wrong. While watching SportsCenter, I found that some of the greatest retired athletes don’t remember the best moments of their careers due to the lack of treatment. The worst aspect of concussions is that the symptoms can be delayed; in some cases, it’s only a headache so athletes don’t seek medical treatment. Multiple concussions over time can lead to life-threatening complications due to the damage they cause to the brain. Concussions can happen to anybody at anytime, but there is more to concussions than meets the eye.

If an athlete was to be impacted on the head on the playing field and was to gain a concussion they should sit out until they are able to fully recover. During the time period after one concussion athletes are more vulnerable to gain another. If a player were to get another concussion during this time period, permanent brain damage may be evident in the future. Also, If the player doesn't let their concussion heal properly it may lead to permanent brain damage in the future.

Concussions can have severe effects on an athlete. They can lead depression, memory loss, and event death. However, with growing research, it is possible to take preventative measures, identify the likelihood of a concussion and engage in treatment. Undiagnosed concussions can lead to more severe injuries and athletes should be concerned about, aware of them and treat them. With new technology, greater awareness, and growing acceptance that concern should be less on winning a game than preventing and treating a concussion, it is possible that one day, concussions may be a rare thing of the

One of the most controversial discussions in sports today is concussions and how the athletes who play sports are being protected. Concussions in the NFL has been a constant argument over the past decade because of not only the number of players who were diagnosed with concussions but also in addition to the number of retired NFL players that reported having depression problems, drug addictions and eventually taking away their own lives by suicide. Football is know to many as “Americas game” and because of this fans live for and look forward to these hard hitting brut athletes that suit up and take the field for battle each week not knowing the facts on how concussions not only ruins the athletes chances of playing again but affects the brain

Concussions are currently one of the most debated, studied and controversial subjects among all levels of athletics. This dangerous brain condition has only been properly studied and monitored for a brief period of time, and until recently, the dangerous side effects of concussions were not among the public eye. Issues such as dementia, migraines and depression are among the issues that those who suffer concussions are at risk for. Looking into the culture of athletics, the mindset that is driven into young athletes from an early age all the way throughout their entire athletic career, no matter the level, to see if there is a correlation between the values that they are taught and their history of possible concussions and concussion

Concussions have been a recognized disease in sports for decades, but the severity of these injuries has been drastically understated. Many sports, are only now beginning to understand and take action to try and better comprehend and treat concussions, and how to care for those who have sustained them. MAny of the major sports in the country have sustained huge backlash due to their lack of attention, to what is now considered a major health crisis in the country. Steps have been taken to action against the growing numbers of concussions and the ways they are

Approximately 10% of athletes take longer than seven days to fully recover from a concussion (article 1), but they still go back to the playing field before reaching that point. This is very dangerous and is mostly due to the fact that athletes, especially males, do not report their symptoms in fear of being sat out for a long period of time (article 1). It is understood that often if a person isn't feeling like they are experiencing any major symptoms then they might not want to be held back from participating in their normal activities. A concussion starts out as an "invisible" injury and can become majorly serious as time goes on if not properly handled and treated. An intelligent decision would be to have the concussed athlete monitored by someone, such as their coach, before a physician can give the athlete permission to return to the playing field

Throughout the history of sports concussions have been a problem, however it has only been recently that the dangers of concussions have been brought to light. Concussions have a serious effect on the brain both short term and long term.

Brain trauma is extremely dangerous and in some cases fatal. It is imperative for anyone participating in sports to learn the signs and symptoms of a concussion as well as the long-term effects. Educating the youth of these consequences will teach them that it is key to abstain from high intensity, contact sports until completely healed to ensure their best possible health. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you

A recent study of college football players has shown that those who participate in high contact sports and have had a concussion before have a 300% higher chance of having another one in comparison to athletes that have never had a concussion before (Jolicoeur et al, 2007). The NFL and NCAA have enacted several rule changes in order to minimize the occurrence of concussions. These new rules, like many before them, have come under the scrutiny of the very athletes that they were meant to protect. The NHL and NHL Players Association in 1997 together created a program in order to get a better understanding of concussions and how to prevent them (Burke et al, 2011). According to Covassin (2008), athletes who have had more than one concussion take a longer time to recover with each concussion that they suffer from.

The concussion rates among high school, collegiate, and professional athletes is increasing at an alarming rate. The United States alone reports 1.6 to 3.8 million cases of sport-related concussions per year2-4, 9, 12. The 1.6 to 3.8 million does not account for the large number of concussions that remain unreported by athletes2-4, 9, 12. According to McCrory et al., a concussion is defined as a complex pathophysiological process that disturbs the brain, which is prompted by traumatic biomechanical forces 10. Sports- related concussions are one of the most complex injuries, which makes them difficult to assess. The cerebral functional deficits that occur in one athlete may be completely the opposite from another athlete3-4. Studies