The Dangers Of Concussions In Sports

While in recent years there has been increasing awareness of the topic of concussions there is still much to be accomplished in the way of education of youth sport participants including

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.

Because athletes do not take the responsibility to manage their injuries it leads to long term health concerns over a period of time. “The NFL must go further and clarify the rules even more, Durando contends, especially when it comes to hits on defenseless players, and they should continue to focus on decreasing the number of concussions to players in order to protect a player's long-term health” (par. 1). Stu Durando, a sportswriter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, acknowledges the fact that the National Football League has more work to do in decreasing concussion injuries. He not only stresses the cases of concussions, but shows a motive to help protect players along with their future mental wellness. Given these points, brain injuries tend to display as athletes age. Post Concussion Syndrome is what typically disarrays a former football player in the long run. Post-concussion syndrome is a complex disorder in which a variable combination of post-concussion symptoms — such as headaches and dizziness — last for weeks and sometimes months after the injury that caused the concussion. Post-concussion syndrome can include psychological, physical and emotional problems including headaches, difficulty focusing on tasks, dizziness, or simply a state of mind that some would describe as “not feeling yourself”. “Sleepless nights were followed by partial amnesia. His grades plummeted. As his memory faltered, he grew embarrassed and anxious. Football had been the center of his life, but now he couldn't even exercise. Finally, he withdrew from college. Most players, like Reed, will recover completely after a period of headaches, sleepiness and difficulty focusing in class. Others--one in 10, some experts say--suffer long-term symptoms. They are more likely to develop post-concussion syndrome, where fogginess, headaches, poor

“There are between an estimated 1.6 and 3.8 million sports-related concussions in the United States every year”(“Statistics”) Concussions can lead to death or permanent injury. A concussion is a brain injury that causes long term brain damage. Some football players will hide injuries, so that they can continue to play the game. Rules have been changed to protect the players health, for example if a player is suspected of have a concussion they are not permitted to play without getting checked out. Football concussions have a long lasting effect on physical and mental health. Concussions also affect how the game is played and regulated.

As college sports become more competitive, head injuries are increasing and cause many athletes to be diagnosed with concussions. Concussions are common in football, but many other sports have just as many or higher numbers of concussions (Grasgreen 2). According to the NCAA, they oversee “89 championships in 23 sports each year. There are more than 400,000 student-athletes competing in three divisions at over 1,000 colleges and universities within the NCAA” (Rivera 4).

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 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

A concussion by definition is a “traumatic brain injury that alters the way your brain functions.”(Mayo Clinic) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) records about 2.5 million traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year. Concussions can happen anywhere but many come from physical sports such as hockey, lacrosse, soccer and especially football. The symptoms for a concussion

When participating in a sport, the players are aware of the risks. Physical damage is always a strong possibility, but what about the mental damage that a player can receive. Concussions have been known to occur frequently in contact sports, making the rules based on injuries in need of change. The current rule is that after an injury occurs, players have to have a medical professional sign off before they are allowed to play. This is great for injuries related to the physical form of a person, but when it comes to the mental aspects, these rules need to be re-written. Things such as the types of people affected by concussions, how vulnerable concussions can be on the mind, and how concussions can affect everyone around a person that has been inflicted by a concussion, should be brought into consideration while deciding a specific set of

This experiment is a descriptive research study that was used to see the amount of knowledge and amount of education college coaches have been given on the topic of Concussions. To see if coaches know the signs and symptoms of a concussion, how to identify if an athlete has concussion symptoms and if the coaches know the recovery protocol for an athlete to return to play. For this experiment, 28,183 coaches of division l, ll, and lll, colleges all over the country were sent an email asking to participate in this study to see how much knowledge and education they have on concussions. This lead to some limitations because they can only do the study on the coaches that choose to participate. But of those 28183 asked, 1818 coaches responded

In America, the sports industry is one of the largest and most powerful country; whether the sport is football, baseball, basketball, or any of the other sports the country has. Recently reports and documented cases have risen involving some of these sports’ greatest athletes, as well as current players, dealing with concussions (Famous sports concussions, 2012). Numerous athletes, some of them being the sport’s highest profile players, were found to have several mental illnesses and diseases, that have been attributed to head injuries sustained while they were playing their sports. The biggest and most predominant of these injuries is concussions. They can cause not only immediate issues, but also a lifetime of health problems (Smith, 2009). Sports related concussions lead to brain deterioration, which leads to long lasting effects throughout life.

A concussion is a temporary loss of brain function usually resulting from a mild injury to the brain or head (“Concussion”). Some of the most-common causes of concussion include motor-vehicle accidents, bicycle accidents, falls, and sports-related injuries. During the accidents, any type of straight contact to the head or just the movement of the body that transmits force upwards will usually lead to a concussion.

This paper will talk about sports concussions and how they affect people. I will explain what a concussion is and how they occur. I will also make the comparison between boys and girls that will show how many boys and girls get, and in which sports concussions are the most common. Some of the questions some people might ask are, Do concussions have any long term after effects on people when they get one? This paper will answer that question and give some real life examples.

Memory and intelligence loss, suicidal thoughts and action, and lack of sleep are some of the many serious and severe side effects from the head trauma that can last from a couple weeks all the way up to months. Guskiewicz explains that sportsmen who have reported at least one concussion have a risk of a 1.5-fold chance of depression but those who have reported at least three concussions they are then exposed to a threefold of having depression from the medical expenses, suicidal thoughts, or even the thought of their life being ruined and never being able to play football again (Guskiewicz ). Later in the player’s life, dementia or ALzheimer's are not rare when previously having a concussion. The article of NCBI-Journal of Athlete Training, the author, John Powell mentions concussion and brain injury rates because of football have dramatically increased since 1879. Equipment provided to the athletes are not up to date or protective. Powell even states within the article that the victims who are experiencing concussions who drop an extreme amount if the sports community would improve and advanced the equipment (Powell 307-311). More severe issues will come later in life to the victim. A lot of the retired football players are suffering from the long term consequences of playing