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Pros and cons of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football
Effects of concussions in youth football
Impact of concussions on athletes
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Motivation
From my review of the literature, there are almost no studies investigating the effects of a concussion on stress pathways, and only a handful have looked at concussions in children. My hypothesis is relatively simple: adolescents who have received concussions have higher levels of cortisol in their saliva than those who have not received concussions, indicating that concussions may have some influence on stress pathways. Concussions in children are on the rise, with football as the largest cause of the injury (Zuckerman, et al, 2012). Of the possible sprained ankles, tennis elbows, or strained muscles, concussions account for 9% of the injuries that athletes receive.
One can assume that the individuals who receive concussions
“Concussion rates for children under the age of 19 who play football have doubled in the last decade, even though the overall sports participation has declined” (Youth Football Concussion Statistics). Football is extremely popular in American culture. Children all across the world love watching and playing the sport. However, many studies have shown numerous possible long term effects of starting the beloved sport when young. Undeveloped brains have a harder time recovering from bumps and blows that occur during playing time. After examining the long term effects of children playing football, it is clear that the tradition of tackle football in youth should be held off until the brain is more fully developed,
Football academies are environments in which promising footballers are trained and developed with the goal of becoming elite senior athletes (Crust, Nesti & Littlewood, 2010). English academies operate a dual sporting goal according to Isoard-Gautheur, Guillet-Ducas & Duda (2013), in which they aim to teach and help athlete’s master skills, but also have an obligation to ensure enough athletes break through into the senior team. Academies train athletes from the ages of 10 to 18 on a part time format, using elite coaches and elite competition between other academies to enhance their player’s ability (Crust, Nesti & Littlewood, 2010). Academies are very much utilised as a progressive filter, which begins with a large number of athletes at the youngest age, with progressively smaller numbers of athletes in each age group as age increases (Crust, Nesti & Littlewood, 2010). Whether an athlete is retained for the next year is subject to player evaluation by coaches and directors within the academy, thus requiring athletes to demonstrate competency as well as achieving success (Isoard-Gautheur, Guillet-Ducas & Duda, 2012; Crust, Nesti & Littlewood, 2010).
Concussions and the effect they have on people ranging from the young to the old has become a very popular discussion in recent years. Generally people watch sports for entertainment and then there are those who engage in high impact sports from a very young age on. The people at home know how fun playing in a sport is, however they may not know the brutal consequences for some participating in that sport. Injuries to the brain are a main concern among those in the world of high impact sports. Football, soccer, wrestling, lacrosse, and rugby are among sports that athletes receive injuries in. The injuries vary from sprains, to fractures, to torn MCL or ACL, and bruised organs. Concussions are a severe type of injury endured by athletes in the sports world and this life changing injury is one that people are becoming more aware of.
At the snap of the ball a whole players world could come crashing down. The game of football holds a whooping 47% of all concussions reported in the world, while ice hockey and soccer trail behind. Football is America’s sport and its athletes become the world’s pride and joy, but what happens when an athlete is injured and is struggling to mentally get better. This topic hits close to home for me because it was the one sport my family praised and adored. My older brother who is now twenty five, played highschool football for the Laconia Sachems. Just the name Sachems is enough to make me get the chills. In 2007 the Laconia Sachems the only undefeated team to go on to win the New Hampshire state championship saw success, but my brother went
Even though the devastation of concussions is just rising to the surface, they have always been around. In 1994, the NFL started a committee called the MTBI (Mild Traumatic Brain Injury). Dr. Elliot Pellman was appointed as chair, and he was quoted saying, “We think the issue of knees, of drugs and steroids and drinking is a far greater problem, according to the number of incidents” (Ezell). This quote shows how concussions did not hold much importance, even though it should have been the committee's main focus. This is ironic, because in today’s sport world concussions are a highly talked about topic. They hold such significance that some rules are even being changed to lower the risk for players.
Through sports or through everyday life, concussions tend to happen. An estimated 300 000 sport-related traumatic brain injuries, predominantly concussions, occur annually in the United States. Sports are second only to motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of traumatic brain injury among people aged 15 to 24 years. (U.S National Library of Medicine). Coaches and parents often do not go through the right procedures or protocols when dealing with a teenager who has received a blow to the head. The usual questions that are asked when there is a head injury are, “what day is it, what’s the score, and how many fingers am I holding up?” Now these are not poor questions, but these questions alone cannot determine if a person has suffered a concussion. The correct method, which they are now implementing in most professional sports leagues, is for anyone with a head injury to take a legitimate concussion test performed by the team doctor. (WebbMD) At present the symptoms can be hit or miss. After receiving a concussion, research shows that an “estimated 80 to 90% of concussions heal spontaneously in the first 7 to 10 days”. (Barton Straus) But, it is important to remember not to return until all symptoms are
How can a concussion be prevented? What is the minimum time an athlete needs to be out of the game after a concussion? What are the chances of an athlete suffering post-traumatic stress disorders after a blow to the head? In all sports athletes are prone to injuries, they can happen at any time and at any given moment. Nevertheless, people that have suffered from a head injury or concussion will also have problems dealing with their learning processes in the long run.
Thesis: Concussions affect children and adults of all ages causing physical, emotional and metal trauma to a person and their brain.
Football is America’s favorite sport. It is a fast-paced, hard-hitting game. Every week thousands of men and boys all across the country take part in football and every week these men and boys receive violent hits during the game. Frequently, as a result of these violent hits, the player receives a concussion. However, the long-term effects of concussions on players are not fully understood. New research shows that even a slight concussion in a football game can have lasting effects on a player. As a result of this research, children under the age of fourteen should not play tackle football.
Scientific American 306.2 (2012): 66-71. Print. The. Brady, Erik. “Changing the Game on Youth Concussions.”
There has been a debate on whether concussions and head injuries can affect the cognitive functions such as memory. Concussions are fairly common in many sports, in the United States 300,000 sports related concussions are reported each year (Convassin, Stearne and Elbin’s, 2008). Some of the key factors, which influence concussion and cognitive functioning, are age, sex, previous concussions and high intensity activity. There are a few different studies that argue about concussion and how it can affect cognitive function such as memory. Iverson (2004) et al reported that high school athletes with a history of three or more concussions presented more symptoms and poorer memory performance on neurocognitive testing at baseline than athletes with no history of concussion (Iverson et al, 2006). In Moser’s study he found the opposite that high school athletes with a history of two or more concussions demonstrated similar cognitive performance as high school athletes who had sustained a concussion in the past week (Convassin, Stearne and Elbin’s, 2008).
The majority of teens who had encounter a concussion are due to sports. A concussion is a pathophysiological process that impacts the brain, typically caused by a trauma to the brain. Concussions are mainly caused by bumps, falls which makes the head move rapidly back and forth, or by a jolt. The brain is a 3 pound organ floating inside the skull. It’s surrounded by a cerebrospinal fluid, which shocks when its impacted. When the brains starts to move rapidly inside the skull, a concussion has taken place. One common cause is a direct hit to the head. The force makes the brain hit the inside of the skull. When the brain starts to slow down, it hits the other side of the inner skull. The other common scenario is a rotational concussion. This happens when the brain rotates from one side to another. As a result, the brain tissues are strained and sheared. In both cases, fragile neural pathways can be damaged, creating neurological disruption. Scientists suggest if an athlete has already experienced a concussion before, they’re 1-2 times more likely to have a second; 2-4 to have a third; and 3-9 to have a fourth. Surprisingly, research has shown females are more likely to have a concussion, and experience more symptoms compared to males. In addition, women take longer to recover than men. Concussions have shortterm and longterm consequences, or in some cases death.
Due to the nature of sport, athletes will always be faced with the possibility of becoming injured. Empirical research has demonstrated that injury has a psychological impact on athletes (Quinn & Fallon, 1999). Indeed, sports practitioners often witness negative psychological impacts such as depression and in extreme cases suicidal tendencies in the injured athlete (Jevon & Johnston, 2003). Injuries have a dramatic impact upon an athlete’s life (Deutsch, 1985), Crossman (1997) interviewed athletic trainers and established that 47% of respondents believed that every injured athlete suffered psychological trauma. Walker, Thatcher and Lavallee (2007), explain there is a need to advance current knowledge of the way injured athletes psychologically respond, with deeper understanding it would be possible to aid rehabilitation professionals and help the athlete cope better psychologically. Psychological issues have an important role in the athletes ability to recover from injury (Arvinen-Barrow, Penny, Hemmings, & Corr, 2010), understanding how an athlete responds will have multiple practical implications. Ford and Gordon (1997) suggest that if an athlete experiences negative emotions then it will lead to non-complinace of the rehabilitation process. In order to understand athletes psychological responses to injury several frameworks have been suggested. These include the: integrated model of response to sports injury and rehabilitation (Wiese-Bjornstal, Smith, Shaffer, & Morrey, 1998), the Bio-Psychosocial model of sport injury rehabilitation (Brewer, Andersen, & Van Raalte, 2002), the staged-based grief response models (Kubler-Ross, 1969) and the stage model of the return to sport (Taylor & Taylor, 1997).
Lately, concussions have been a hot topic of discussion around sports teams, especially the procedure of getting a concussed athlete back into the game playing as soon as possible. However, what people are missing to focus on is the difference in concussions between boys and girls. Surprisingly, “girls may run a higher risk of suffering concussions than their male counterparts engaging in the same sports, researchers say” (Unit). A new study to be published in the Journal of Athletic Training found that in high school soccer, “girls sustained this type of head trauma 68 percent more often than boys did. Female concussion rates in high school basketball were almost three times higher, and girls took longer to recover and to return to play compared with boys” (Unit). From the risks of receiving a concussion, to the symptoms, and even to the recovery process, concussions...
medals. An example of this could be a player who is offered a lot of