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New documentary demands more attention to prevention of head injuries

A lot of good work is being done to educate parents and coaches about preventing athletic head injruies.  A new documentary called Head Games  blows a loud whistle to remind us that there is much more work to do.. 

 

From the Head Games website:

Inspired by events from the book Head Games written by former Ivy League football star and WWE wrestler Christopher Nowinski, and featuring interviews with Nowinski, Bob Costas (NBC Sports), Keith Primeau (NHL All-Star), Cindy Parlow Cone (Olympic Gold Medalist, Women’s Soccer), and many more, HEAD GAMES exposes viewers to one of the leading public health issues of our time, raising the question: “How much of you are you willing to lose for a game?”

From the New York Times:

Steve James’s troubling new documentary, “Head Games,” reckons some of the terrible costs of modern American sports culture. Focusing on football, hockey and women’s soccer, the film looks at the widespread incidence of head injuries that threaten the well-being of competitors at every level, from youth leagues to the pros. Recent neurological research suggests that even mild and infrequent concussions can have terrible long-term consequences. Repeated impact, of the kind that is routine in football, especially, can lead to dementia and severe psychological disorders.       

Guiding us through this grim medical information is Christopher Nowinski, a former Harvard defensive lineman who went from the Ivy League to professional wrestling. He is now the public face of an institute at Boston University specializing in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a brain disease that is believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head, and that seems to occur with alarming frequency among athletes.

Please check out Head Games.  It might help you save a life.

 

 

Concussions Can Cause Long-term Effects For Young Athletes

Through May 15 of this year, the IHSA has reviewed 145 reports that have come into their office from sports officials who have had to remove a student-athlete from a game. Of those 145 cases, 118 players did not return to the game in which they sustained the injury. 

Tragedy can strike if a concussion is not treated properly, causing further brain trauma, chronic headaches, psychological disorders, long-term memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and even death. Cumulative injury can cause serious mental impairment later in life even if immediate problems aren’t evident. 

Even with all these potential long-term effects, and media coverage being hyped recently, not enough people are actually aware of how serious the consequences are.

Read the full Medill Reports article here

Study Finds Female and Younger Athletes Take Longer to Recover From Concussions

New research out of Michigan State University reveals female athletes and younger athletes take longer to recover from concussions.

The study, led by Tracey Covassin of MSU's Department of Kinesiology, found females performed worse than males on visual memory tests and reported more symptoms postconcussion.

Additionally, high school athletes performed worse than college athletes on verbal and visual memory tests, and some of the younger athletes still were impaired up to two weeks after their injuries.

Read the full Medical Xpress article here

 

Study: Greater Risk of Concussion for Young Female Athletes

Experts in the field of head trauma can't fully explain it, but young female athletes have a higher rate of concussions than do their male counterparts.

Football players, as you might expect, have the highest rate on concussions among all athletes, but girls who play soccer have a higher rate than their male classmates who play the same sport. The same goes for basketball and softball/baseball.

Read the full York Dispatch article here.

 

Study Finds An Increase in Traumatic Football Injuries

University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, researchers determined that catastrophic brain injuries associated with full-contact football appear to be on the rise, according to a new report released by the university. The researchers also found that this increase was seen especially among high school students. 

Read the full news story from Physical Therapy Products here.

Louisville Cardinals basketball team uses helmets for player protection

Louisville is taking a proactive approach to preventing multiple concussions: mixed martial arts helmets.

Looking to protect players who have had previous concussions, Cardinals trainer Fred Hina came up with the idea of having them wear the padded helmets in practice.

Hina approached Louisville coach Rick Pitino and he was all for it, especially because three Cardinals had suffered multiple concussions. The helmets aren't mandatory, but the players have bought into the concept, even if it does make them look a bit odd in practice.

Read the full ESPN article here.

NCAA grant funds groundbreaking study of concussions

A grant from the NCAA will kick off a groundbreaking, long-term study of concussion and other head injuries among athletes, led by University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues around the country.

Researchers hope to track over 1,000 male and female college athletes who participate in eleven different sports at three schools. The group eventually wants to expand funding enough to be able to enroll athletes starting in high school and then trace them through their college and possibly professional careers.

Read the full article from The Wall Street Journal on University of Michigan's study 

 

Survey finds limited awareness of concussion issue among coaches

A survey by Korrio and Axon Sports showed that 75 percent of 250 youth coaches surveyed were aware of sports-related concussions in youth sports, with 80 percent of respondents indicating their organizations have protocols for handling concussions in their athletes. However, 49 percent of them, according to the survey, were not familiar with baseline testing. 

“We were certainly encouraged by the high-level of concussion awareness, but with one in four coaches still professing a lack of awareness regarding serious brain injuries to young athletes, we believe there is still a lot of work to do,” said Korrio CEO Steve Goldman in a press release. 

Read the full National Soccer Wire article here.

New football study to measure impact of hits with helmet sensors

Virginia Tech has been studying the impact of hits to the head for its football team since 2003. Now, a joint study with Wake Forest University will examine the effects on younger participants in the sport, including members of the Blacksburg Middle School team and children playing in recreational leagues in Montgomery County.

The Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences — a collaborative effort between the graduate schools at both universities — will conduct research by placing sensors in the helmets of young area football players.

The sensors will measure the pounding their heads take during the next season as part of the study, which will take a closer look at head impacts among a pool of 240 players from 6 to 18 years old.

Researchers in the study, called the Kinematics of Impact Data Set, hope their information will help them better understand child brain biomechanics and ultimately result in improved helmets for younger players and better practice and game techniques, said Joel Stitzel, a professor of biomedical engineering at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Read the full Richmond Times Dispatch article here.

 

New York to Require Benching Students with Concussions

According to the Wall St. Journal:

The legislation recently signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo directs state health and education officials to draft regulations for how schools handle mild traumatic brain injuries, starting in July. It requires immediate benching for suspected concussions in a school-related activity, including interscholastic and intramural sports and gym classes. Students can play again only after they are symptom-free for 24 hours and cleared in writing by a doctor.

Read the full article at Wall St. Journal online.