Essay On Concussions

Concussions
According to the University of Pittsburgh Neurosurgery, US athletes suffer from roughly 300,000 concussions every year. Many athletes get concussions from playing contact sports and the number is increasing. “Even subconcussive blows cause brain damage if an athlete sustains enough of them.” (The hits keep coming.) Concussions are a big problem in today's sports, some solutions would be to wear better equipment or change some rules.
Too many athletes in today’s sports are getting concussions. “Frequent blows to the head have effects that may last a lifetime, a condition known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or (CTE)” (Firger). Some symptoms of CTE are depression, memory loss, dementia, anxiety, and aggression. CTE is found in players of all sports, but mainly the NFL.
The Department of

Veterans Affairs and Boston University, partnered with the Concussion Legacy Foundation, found that 87 of 91 former NFL players who played in the Early days of the NFL, had CTE. They also did a study on 165 players who have played more recently and found 131 of them showed signs of CTE. Other sports are also researching this rising problem. The Rugby Football UNion also did a study and found that for every 1,000 hours of rugby played there was 6,7 concussions.
“The brain can bounce back after a single hit but multiple hits in quick succession do not give the brain time to recover” (Sanders). Just one concussion most likely will not cause any problems. It is when a person gets multiple that it starts to become a problem.
Mark Burns and colleagues of Georgetown University Medical Center did a study with mice and a single hit and also multiply hits to the head. After one hit the brain lost 13 percent of dendritic spines, which help connect brain cells. Three days later not only did the number of dendritic spines rebound, it actually passed the original number. “ “The cells were not dying, they were responding to the injury.” says Burn.” (Sanders)
They also tested recurring hits to the head and were surprised with the outcome. The mice here hit 30 times over 6 weeks. At first they saw the same thing as before, the dendritic spines disappeared then came back. After a while though the spines stopped fluctuating. A year after the mice who got hit multiple times, they showed inflammation in the white matter of their brains. The mice who got hit only once showed no signs of damage.
The NFL has already made changes to things to minimize concussions and is currently looking for more ways to do so.

They have changed some of the rules and penalties. They moved the kick off line up five yards to increase touchbacks, because kick returns are the most dangerous type of play. They have increased the penalties for helmet to helmet hits. They are talking about changing the materials that the helmet is made out of to provide more protection. They are also taking about getting rid of the three-point stance. The three-point stance is what the players on the line of scrimmage use to get off the line as fast as they can. Getting rid of this would slow down the players and there would be less of an impact when they hit each other.
One problem in today's sports are concussions, a couple solutions would be a change of rules or better equipment. Concussions are found in all sports but mostly the NFL. One concussions is not always bad, but multiply concussions are. Multiply concussions can cause CTE. Some symptoms of CTE are dementia, anxiety, memory loss, depression, and aggressions. “After enough concussions the head injuries blur together.” - James

Nicoll.