...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...
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...Head Injuries In America, one of the most popular sports is the game of football. Programs in high school have been around since early in the 20th century. It is a very widespread sport, especially at the high school level. Football is a very violent, active sport and can cause many injuries such as leg, shoulder, arm, head and neck being the most severe. This fun and entertaining sport is very popular but it is getting progressively more dangerous as time goes on. Severe brain and neck injuries occur in the sport with more and more happening each year. The National Federation of State High School Association needs to take charge to protect its athletes and stop this rising problem by making specific rules against head to head contact. Head to head contact can be extremely dangerous and cause very serious problems for all high school football players. In 2009, 250,000 people age nineteen and younger were treated in emergency rooms for concussions and other sports related brain injuries in the country. That was an increase from 150,000 in 2001. Did you know that high school athletes sustain an estimated 136,000 to 300,000 concussions per year (Moms Team)? Out of all the patients who were admitted into an emergency department with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), 24.7 percent 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...
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...High contact sports such as hockey football and lacrosse have been around for many years. The injuries that occur to the players during these sports have been around for just as long. The human body is not designed to take on blows over and over again in our lives, if it were our organs and structures would be made up of much stronger materials. The standards of today are based around an activity that has many negative outcomes. People have been building their whole lives around sports for a long time. Many men push schooling aside and focus on their career choice to be a pro athlete. Time and time again, however, the case arises where an athlete gets injured and in the blink of an eye their career as a pro is destroyed. Choosing to be a pro...
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...Head injuries are quite common and occur regularly in all contact sports. Concussions, from brain injuries can cause long term effects and can lead to dementia. Too many concussions occur in high school athletes that participate in contact sports. One may suggest that contact sports should be banned from all high schools. Non contact sports should become a part of the physical education curriculum so that young adults should not have to suffer the consequences from head injuries in contact sports. There are a large number of dangerous contact sports that athletes participate in today. Examples of the most common contact sports include: football, basketball, soccer, wrestling, field hockey, and lacrosse. Research suggests that these sports have the most severe injuries. High school students that participate in contact sports are endangering their health, lives, and future. Contact sports have been a part of school age children’s life for a long time in America. Whether it be football, soccer, lacrosse, wrestling, or the recent addition to American sports, rugby. Millions of children in middle school or high school have worked hard and enjoyed playing. In recent news articles contact sports have been deemed bad for children. Doctors have been studying the statistics and have come to the conclusion that children have been developing physical injuries resulting from certain types of contact sports. One of the new findings from these studies is that once a person especially a child...
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...event that one may watch, the threat of serious injury or even death is a very real possibility. Obviously, the object of the game is not to murder the opponent, but to those such as Welsh boxer Johnny Owen, this tragedy has happened. To the spectator, witnessing a sprained ankle or broken hand is part of the game; life changing injuries or death are not. The crowd wants to be entertained and hard hits and knockdowns provide that thrill. Severe injuries should never be applauded, but they can be at times when the crowd becomes too rambunctious. Spectators fail to realize that these athletes are not robots or super-humans, but human beings. As a society, we must acknowledge where to draw the line in regards to advocating violence in sports, and possess the self-control and discipline to discern excitement and inappropriateness. In recent years, physical injury caused by contact sports has been shed in a light portraying such sports as potentially life-shortening or brain damaging. The NFL Players Association has filed lawsuits against the NFL for not properly addressing head injuries in the past or warning about brain issues the sport may cause. Even though these suits brought attention to the possible brain damage one may face, it falls way short of actually dealing with players who have such injuries. In Hugh McIlvanney’s essay, he even argues that we haven’t the slightest clue about the extent to which the brain cells of...
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...compared to ALS and CTE’s. ALS and CTE’s are horrific diseases that impact the lives of people every year. They have recently became an even bigger issue as more and more young adults have been getting diagnosed with these diseases. Specifically, young athletes have been the victims of these diseases and now the sports world is reacting by making sports safer, even if it means changing up the game. Changing up the game is causing a lot of corruption in the sports world because people believe the game can’t be played right with recent rule changes that will affect what the game is all about. They believe...
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...Playing sports is an important and common activity in The United States. According to The Center for Kids First, 30 million to 40 million children get involved in organized sports in the course of a year (Wilson, 2011). A recent study indicated that between 4 and 4.5 million children in the U.S. play football annually (Benzel). In my personal opinion, sports are important because it gives children a sense of team work and it also gives them responsibility and keeps them busy at the same time. Even though it is good for them in a way, it can also cause tragedy and pain for everyone that is involved in it. Each year the U.S. emergency departments treat and estimated 173,285 sports-and-recreation-related traumatic brain injuries, including concussion, among children from birth to 19 years old, and each year TBIs contribute to a substantial number of deaths and cases of permanent disability (CDC, 2010). With this information in mind, parents, athletes, and coaches have to be very careful when it comes to concussions, a concussion can happen without the knowledge of the person involved and it can show itself right away after the injury or it can take up to days or weeks after it (brainline.org). The Frontal and Temporal lobes are the most affected areas by Traumatic Brain Injury...
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...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 to do differently when treating head injuries? Junior Seau and Sidney Crosby...
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..."High school football accounts for 47% of all sport related concussions" ("Sports," 2013). High school athletes still have developing brains. Any injury to their brain can cause severe changes in development and cognitive ability. When thinking about sports, there are many that require more impacts than football. Take ice hockey for example. The athletes get pounded into the walls and fall down easier, but football players still acquire almost half of all concussion, and the majority of those concussions happen in practice. Football is one of the most watched sports in America, but is also causes a lot of injuries. Many people think this has to do with the football helmet, made in order to protect the head and brain of a player. However, stricter...
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...neurological consequences of playing football and what is currently being done to prevent neurological injuries? The first thing I would say is that while football is certainly fun and entertaining to watch, the human body was not designed to handle the frequent hard hits to the body and head as a result of playing the sport. Unfortunately these professional athletes end up suffering from brain damage as a result of our thirst and fascination for hard hits and violence. I would explain that while football helmets seem safe, they truly only provide very minimal protection against concussions that cause the brain to bounce, shake and rotate back and forth hitting against the wall of the human skull as a result of frequent football tackles that appear harmless to those watching the sport. To ensure the message hits home, I would bring up examples of their favourite former NFL players such as Hall of Famer Mike Webster who actually suffered neurological effects of playing the sport. It is important to highlight the most severe consequences first, which is that playing football can cause severe trauma to the brain as a result of multiple concussions that these athletes regularly experience. This trauma starts to destroy the integrity of the brain cells, causing a degenerative brain disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). High levels of CTE in a football player’s brain can result in memory loss, agitation and even increased anger management issues. It can also cause...
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...Sport Concussions and Head Injuries Concussions are a problem in sports and can affect people’s lives forever. There is an estimated 300,000 high school concussions per year (Parachute- Preventing Injuries. Saving Lives). Half of trauma deaths are due to head injuries (“ Journal of Trauma Management and Outcomes”, BioMed Central). The leading cause of concussions are sports, falls, motor vehicle related, and assaults. Football is the most common sport with concussion risk at 75% chance for a concussion. This is why I think sports should make football, hockey, and other sports that have a high concussion rate, safer to play. Some people don't like to play a physical game, but people like me would rather play a rough game. The more physical it is can make it a lot more fun to play and watch, but sometimes they get too rough and people can get hurt. It can be very bad if you get a concussion at any time in your life because it affects your brain. Your brain controls your nervous system, your planning, and thinking. Your nervous system...
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...for traumatic brain injury (TBI) age groups are ages 0-4 and 15-19, which the leading cause of disability and death in young children in the United States. 62,000 children endure brain damages demanding hospitalization as a consequence of motor vehicle smashes, falls, sports injuries, physical abuse and other causes and there are 564,000 children in hospital emergency departments for TBI and released. According to 2004 report to Congress, traumatic brain injury in the United States, there are some factors to lead cause of TBI within the age between 0-4 such as emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths. About 1,300 US children experience severe or fatal head trauma of child abuse each year. Very young children (i.e., infants, toddlers and preschool children) often directly affected, such as crash on the head from a host of mechanisms (including being hit), car crashes, tricycle / bicycle accident, or as child abuse. Sometimes these events can be significant enough to cause a concussion. Determine what to hit a child who may be difficult to immediately assess concussions his head. It may have concussion-like symptoms, but young children do not express in the same way. For example, a child may describe the feeling of nausea and memory loss, or even they cannot explain the wound site. Parents and doctors when considering the presence...
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...reported and therefore not treated (“13 Things You”). Of all sports contributing to the concussion total, football is by far the main contributor. “High school football accounts for 47% of all reported sports concussions, while 33% of these concussions occur during practice,” (“Head Case - Complete”). The main reason for this could be improper technique and teaching, neglect, and other factors. But for these players, high school is followed by college and possibly the National Football League (NFL), where concussions get much more attention and criticism. Concussions in the NFL...
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...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...
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...problem and a risk to life. Concussions in american high school football is a very serious injury and can be career ending and even fatal. Concussions are the main reason people today are talking about that football is not safe enough to play. What is a concussion? The Merriam Webster definition of concussions is, “a stunning, damaging, or shattering effect from a hard blow; especially : a jarring injury of the brain resulting in disturbance of cerebral function.” Based on this definition concussions doesn't sound so bad but it's a very complicated injury. Even the pros (NFL) has suffered from concussions. Concussions is subject to be the cause of Chronic...
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