...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...
Words: 2348 - Pages: 10
...Concussions are very serious injuries that could decide if you play a sport or not. Medical professionals have to sign a piece of paper saying that you can play after you get a concussion. More than 300,000 sports-related concussions occur each year in the United States. Although it is not what the athlete wants the injured athlete should sit out for a longer period of time for the injury to heal. Concussions can hinder a teenagers brain growth. Concussions affect the central nervous system, immaturity of the adolescents’ central nervous system, the lack of recognition that a concussion has occurred, and the reliability of self-reporting of symptoms. When a choice uses certain phrases he can have the athlete and their families believe that...
Words: 500 - Pages: 2
...Occupational Safety and Health Case Study Draft Introduction Concussions have casted a dark shadow over sports throughout the last decade. They are the most common head and brain injuries suffered by athletes. A concussion is “a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body, a fall, or another injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull” ("Concussion - WebMD: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention"). The major problem regarding concussions is that they are not visible to the human eye. Concussions occur all the way from Pop Warner leagues as a child to the professional leagues. My friend has played football his whole life. Unfortunately, he has been plagued by concussions ever since he started to play the sport. He is a prime example of an ordinary kid who plays a sport he loves, but has altered his future forever. Commissioners are actively trying to reduce the number of head injuries that occur while playing. However, the main problem regarding head injuries in sports is that players tend to rush back to their respective sports, without proper testing and treatment. This results in athletes risking their playing careers, a life filled with long-term head complications, and eventually putting their lives in danger. As an injured athlete, there comes a point where you have to ask yourself, is rushing back to the game really worth a lifetime filled with head injuries and complications? So what do team doctors need...
Words: 3182 - Pages: 13
...the future of professional sports and the potential for long-term injury. This is especially true when looking at traumatic brain injuries in professional athletes. Health care professionals are facing conflicting obligations in working for professional organizations and athletes. They have the ethical dilemma of whether to try to get the athlete back onto the field as quickly as possible, as long as they are healthy. That being said, with concussions and the recent findings on CTE, the long-term effects of such injuries could be damaging. Thus, it creates a complex dilemma for leagues and health care professionals on how to avoid this issue. This is especially rampant in the NFL. Although there have been some changes in concussion protocol, helmet-to-helmet hits, the moving of kick-offs by five yards to reduce concussions in the league, protection of defenseless receivers, and others, players still constantly are affected by unavoidable injuries. There is a huge dilemma at play as the NFL and players are making tons of money every year. It is very difficult for athletes to retire to avoid such injuries, as the game that they play may be the only thing that they know. It may well very be their only stable source of income as...
Words: 655 - Pages: 3
...Chris Berryman Sport in Modern 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...
Words: 3098 - Pages: 13
...Concussions in Athletes Concussions in Athletes Introduction Athletes are faced with a number of health issues including injuries that could require surgery. It is also important to note that there are a number of athletes who have died while participating in sports. Sadly, most athletes do not report these problems in time albeit they are aware of the symptoms that accompany such sport-related health problems. Concussion is one such health problem that is affecting athletes, especially high school students. It has been reported that most of athletes tend to avoid reporting symptoms of concussion in order to avoid being sidelined from playing (Diagnosing and Treating Sports-Related Concussion, 2014). In the United States, it is estimated that up to 3.8 million athletes suffer from concussions linked to high impact sports (Diagnosing and Treating Sports-Related Concussion, 2014). There is, however, a feeling that the figure is under-estimated in the sense that most athletes as well as their coaches are not conversant with the symptoms of this particular health issue. Therefore, concussions in athletes are a serious health issue which should be addressed immediately. There is need to inform athletes and all stakeholders in the sport industry on the symptoms of concussions as well as their capability to be fatal in order to help athletes seek treatment to avoid repetitive concussions which would lead to deaths. The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader, especially...
Words: 2830 - Pages: 12
...About 53% of all high school students sustain a concussion before and while playing a sport. In sports such as football and hockey concussions are sometimes not taken seriously and kids may go back in during the game they got the concussion. Kids do not realize the risk they take when they do not wear the proper head gear. If concussions are not taken care of, they can leave a player out of the game and practices for up to a month, they may also cause physical contact sports less popular. Kids can suffer severe long-term effects from a concussion if not treated properly.. Concussions are a big deal with a small solution. If concussions are not taken care of, they can leave a player out of the game and practices for up to a month. If a player...
Words: 498 - Pages: 2
...It's often that playing sports results in an injury, concussions specifically, or multiple injuries that might end up with serious and possible fatal effects. It's not worth risking an athlete's mental state just to win a game due to the fact that a concussion causes both short and long term side affects that can lead to permanent brain damage if a second incident occurs after a short period of time. An obvious fix to the situation would be keeping players out for longer periods of time in order to keep up the players health status. However, some people's understanding is to add the player back into the game as soon as a medical professional checks off the athlete. Although, making sure the player receives a full recovery can also prevent the athletes susceptibility to the effects of concussions, all because the player was given more time on the sidelines. Notably, a player might report to their coach that they've had a head injury, and the coach is likely to overlook this and say something like "he suffered a ding" in order to relieve the player so he/she may return to the field. Even though this one concussion wasn't so bad, it may as well be treated as any normal blow to the head. According to the article, there were 43 athletes in a study who suffered multiple "dings" to the head and were not returned to...
Words: 645 - Pages: 3
...Long Term Effects of Concussions in Sports: Disease, Depression, and Social Effects When discussing the very popular and controversial topic of concussions in sports, there are many questions raised from the public about the effects of these concussions on ones life. For the past few decades, the sporting world has been dealing with head injuries in sports and finding new and better ways to deal with and prevent them. With most people involved in sport now knowing the severity of head injuries and there long term effects, it is not uncommon to hear more and more long term effect stories and how these injuries have impacted athletes’ lives. Psychological changes, brain disease, social declination, and even suicide caused from depression have been documented in recent years and has the public growing more and more curious to what the long term effects of head injuries are and what the best way to deal with them is. For professional athletes, the “loss of identity is evident”(Caron 175) and some may even lose their whole livelihood due to head injuries. In this paper I will be examining the aforementioned long-term effects of psychological changes, brain disease, and deterioration of social abilities. Long term effects of head injuries are an epidemic and by identifying these effects and being aware of symptoms or signs may help us better understand them. In recent years, psychological problems have been identified as one of the most prevalent effects caused by concussions...
Words: 1343 - Pages: 6
...Today, concussions are a serious factor in most sports and have moved to the center of attention in public awareness. According to the Sports Concussion Institute, a concussion is “a complex pathophysiological process that affects the brain, typically induced by trauma to the brain” (2016). Most concussions occur without the individual losing consciousness yet these impairments can lead to dementia, aggression, confusion, impaired judgment, and depression and may not be treatable. In fact, per Marcos Abreu, “the American Academy of Neurology discovered that athletes are at greatest risk of repeat injury in the first 10 days’ post-concussion and suggested that the more head injuries a person suffers; the more likely they are to face complications...
Words: 1013 - Pages: 5
...This essay will argue that sports teams from high school to the NFL need to 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...
Words: 2094 - Pages: 9
...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...
Words: 1674 - Pages: 7
...Concussions; traumatic brain injuries caused by the brain moving vigorously in the skull. According to Dr. Michael Collins, assistant director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Sports Medicine Concussion Program, “the blow shakes the brain in the skull like a yolk sloshing around inside an eggshell”. They affect hundreds of thousands of people each year, from young children to elders. “While high school students are the most commonly affected, athletes of any age can suffer from concussions; however, younger athletes require more time to recover from concussions than older athletes do” (Concussions in Sports). With a simple fall or hit you can obtain one. But, how can you detect when one happens? Well for starters, know the signs. Some symptoms include drowsiness, loss of consciousness, dizziness, confusion, headaches, nausea, and heightened tempor. Sometimes the symptoms aren’t clear at first, possibly not even showing up until weeks after the hit occurred, worsening the impact. The effects are cumulative. And if not treated properly or diagnosed accurately you better believe you are at risk for long-term effects. These long-term effects...
Words: 535 - Pages: 3
...,“League of Denial” The NFL Concussion Crisis ave you ever taken the time to consider the consequence? Not the immediate consequence, maybe not even the short term, but the long term consequence of how we as society treat our bodies. For the NFL, its players and “Iron Mike” Webster, the consequence’s became reality on September 24th 2002 when “Iron Mike” meet Dr. Bennnet Omalu as he lay lifeless on a cold autopsy table at the Allegheny County Coroner’s Office. Concussion: a condition resulting from the stunning, damaging, or shattering effects of a hard blow; especially: a jarring injury of the brain resulting in disturbance of cerebral function and sometimes marked by permanent damage (http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/concussion). Concussions have become more prevalent in the National Football League as awareness has risen. There are numerous cases of CTE that have resulted in permanent damage or death over the course of the last 15 years. The reality behind concussions is that there will never be a total solution to the issue, in contact sports the danger will always be there. We must continue to raise awareness and develop protective equipment to minimize the risk. Concussions are one of the leading causes of CTE among all professional athletes toady. Mike Webster retired in 1991 from the NFL and the Pittsburg Steelers after 17 years in the “pit” and made an attempt at a normal life, a short time into this journey it became apparent that “Iron Mike”...
Words: 770 - Pages: 4
...Head Injuries in the Game of Football Head Injuries in the Game of Football 250,000 people age 19 and younger were treated in emergency rooms for concussions and other sports- or recreation-related brain injuries in the country in 2009. That was an increase from 150,000 in 2001 (Cleared to Play). Did you know that high school athletes sustain an estimated 136,000 to 300,000 concussions per year (Moms Team)? How about that 24.7 percent, out of all the patients who were admitted into an emergency department with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), obtained their head injury while playing football (Swarm Interactive)? That is higher than any other sport or activity associated with TBIs. Brain injuries contribute one third of all injury-related deaths in the United States and 75 percent of those injuries are concussions (CDC). It is easy to conclude that head injuries are extremely dangerous and can be easily obtained. For these reasons, people should be informed of how football can be immensely risky to play and how the sport is associated with brain injuries. Numerous retired professional football players now suffer from a degenerative disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). This disease is caused by countless hits to the head or body, causing small concussions (ESPN). CTE is a build up of a protein that garrotes brain cells that control one’s emotions, memory, perceptions, and more. As far as we have seen, the disease also causes serious depression, dementia, and...
Words: 1659 - Pages: 7
