In 2014 the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge swept the nation and children, teens, and adults of all ages were participating in what seemed like a fun activity to support a cause no one knew about. ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a neurodegenerative brain disease that affects the motor skills in a person. ALS is most commonly seen athletes due to multiple hits to the head and concussions. ALS, CTEs, and concussions are being more and more recognized as result of athletes being diagnosed with these diseases and in many cases, dying. However, sports organizations should be doing more to educate parents, athletes, and coaches about the dangers of head trauma and ways it can be prevented as well as improving equipment used by athletes..
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Head trauma is any sort of injury to the brain, skull, or scalp. A concussion is a result of head trauma and is defined as temporary unconsciousness due to a blow to the head or a violent shock from a heavy blow. Some symptoms of head injuries and concussion include noise/light sensitivity, difficulty focusing, and drowsiness. An example of someone who got a concussion and its effects is a girl named Sarah from an article called Students in High School with Concussions. Sarah played on the varsity soccer team as a goalie and one day at practice while blocking the ball with her head she received a concussion. After the incident, she needed to take time off of school due to difficulty focusing, it took her four months to recover. Once she returned, she was put on a 504 plan, a plan designed to ensure students are accommodated for disabilities. As a result of not only students like Sarah but professional athletes as well, all 50 states have passed concussion safety laws that require athletes, parents, and coaches to be educated on concussions. These laws also mandate any athlete suspected of having a concussion be immediately taken out of a game or practice. Athletes suspected of having a concussion will take a baseline, a basic cognitive test used to determine the condition of an athlete. A baseline test of every athlete on a team is required to be on file before the beginning of a season to use a reference. The test consist of simple tasks such as saying the months backwards, that would normally be simple, but for a person with a concussion may be very difficult. These precautions were employed to prevent second impact syndrome, which happens when a first concussion is not taken care of properly taken care of, can cause brain
ALS and CTE is a very serious topic, and many haven’t joined the conversation or don’t know much about the two subjects. In the sports world, many athletes are being diagnosed at a very young age with these awful diseases. I believe that in order for the number of athletes being diagnosed to drop, they must further their knowledge on the subject. ALS which stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is a neurodegenerative disease that attacks the nervous system. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease because of the famous New York Yankees baseball player Lou Gehrig, Gehrig had a strong bad and was on of the best first baseman’s.
Once a professional athlete has experienced a severe concussion they are required to take a neuropsychological test. Neuropsychological tests are assessments of cognitive given to measure psychological brain-functioning skills to professional football athletes to determine if they are qualified to return to play for the season. Once a athlete has experienced at least one concussion, they are twice as likely to receive more. Brain trauma affect one in three football athletes. To be more specific receivers, quarterbacks, defensive backers, special teams and corners are the players who experience the most concussions.
An NFL football player will endure somewhere between 900 to 1500 blows to their head over the course of a single season. With an immense amount of blows like this comes an immense amount of damage to a player’s brain. This extensive amount of brain damage has been decided, by Dr. Bennet Omalu, to result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Over the course of these discoveries and much controversy, the NFL has been targeted, denied all accusations, done very few things to lessen the risk of concussions in football, and the risks and number of concussions have steadily increased throughout the league’s
Staying off the playing fields could be based on recovery rates as well. Athletes often suffer the syndromes of dizziness, headaches and nausea after suffering head injuries. Referring back to article 3, head injuries might make someone 's ability to stay focus unstable. The symptoms of a concussion kicks in quickly, that 's why players should often get checked out right away. Once you have received one it becomes easier to receive another
Lately, injuries are starting to become more common as the sports start their seasons. A big topic on injuries that has come up a lot more recently is concussions. As little as five years ago society was not as informed on concussions as we are today. there are still much we don 't know on head injuries. Studies are being held to help improve our knowledge so this injury can be taken care of properly and efficiently.
“Long-term effects of concussions are very rare. Moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause symptoms similar to a concussion, but individuals with TBIs often experience more severe problems with attention and short-term memory, have difficulty performing daily tasks, and report feeling ‘slower’ overall” (Long-term Effects of Brain Injuries). Brain injuries can always improve, but may never completely go away. “Difficulty making decisions or processing a lot of information, or trouble resolving problems, can have a significant impact on one 's life” (Long-term Effects of Brain Injuries). The matter is very serious and impacting the lives of many athletes around the world.
Head trauma, a major problem battled by countless present-day and former football players, is substantially impacting the league. Head injuries are becoming more common each year; they can lead to greater struggles such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is similar to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. In order to protect its current and upcoming
Concussions get a bad wrap. Concussions are becoming a very relivent part of todays sports culture. People are going as far as quitting their sport due to just one concussion. These head injurys have become a very hot topic and are debated heavily when it comes to contact sports. Athletes and parents need to be aware of these injuries, and a tough protocol should be placed on the amount of concussions an athelete can have before they become ineligible to participate in sports.
These findings are important because it could determine when a safe time would be for athletes returning to play in games after experiencing a brain injury. It increases the safety for those who participate in sports. Scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin want to continue their research, and they have been so successful that they are the winners of the Health Health Challenge, which is an award from General Electric and the NFL for developing faster and improved methods of treating
As concussion became the sports injury “issue” of the 1990s, numerous researchers began projects regarding concussions. It became apparent from the findings of the earlier projects that a variety of different methods of identifying a concussion exist. Some clinicians described a concussion as a loss of consciousness. Others identified a concussion only if memory problems were associated with the injury. Still other clinicians considered a very minor impact to the head, often called a “ding,” to be a concussion.
America is obsessed with sports and competition, and one sport that signifies America is football. Today many professional football players across the country suffer from a common injury which is a concussion. This injury can threaten an athletics career and most of all permanently injure the brain. Former retired NFL players now deal with short term memory loss, and depression because of this brain injury. The increased amount of concussions in athletics today calls for more education on diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of traumatic brain injury.
In the high school sports community, concussions remain a high threat to the athletes who do not receive sufficient awareness and the knowledge they need about concussions. Even though sports, such as football, are implementing penalties and different policies to try to reduce the amount of concussions that occur, high school student-athletes still suffer concussions at an alarming rate. Concussions remain a serious public health concern, as approximately 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related concussions are estimated to occur each year. (Covassin, Elbin, Sarmiento 2012). However, North Carolina has taken the initiative to increase the student-athlete 's education of concussions within the high school community.
Over 2 million children suffer concussions in sports every year. Many of these concussions go untreated and without proper treatment, these concussions can lead to serious health problems. Concussions are important because if they aren’t identified and treated it can lead to complications in an athlete’s life down the road, things like CTE can affect their mood and decisions later in life, possibly leading them to make choices they wouldn’t normally make like blowing their money, doing drugs, alcoholism and even committing suicide. People should be doing more to prevent and treat concussions in sports, specifically in football. Although people say that concussions are too hard to track and that the science is too new to rely on, symptoms of a concussion can be
THE INCREASING NUMBER OF CONCUSSION IN ATHLETES ARE DETRIMENTAL TO THE FUTURE OF SPORTS In the recent years, concussions have become a common accident related to various types of sports around the globe. A concussion is a traumatic injury of the brain, they can also be as a result of a sudden blow on the body. Such a blow may cause the head to jerk back and forth in a rapid motion. This may cause a bounce or twist within the skull, which may over stretch the brain, cause cell damage and alter chemical functioning within the brain.
Concussions in Sports In sports, concussions occur frequently across all age groups. From little leagues to high school sports to the professional leagues, concussions pose a high risk of long term Traumatic brain injuries. Because of the high rate of concussions in sports more attention should be paid to protocols and treatment to prevent traumatic brain injuries. High school athletes that partake in a sport that requires intense physical activity are the most vulnerable to concussion and need more time to recover. According to the Head Case “High school football accounts for 47 percent of all reported sports concussions, with 33 percent of concussions occurring during practice.”