Informative Speech On Concussions

Introduction

Opening statement: Nearly everyone has played or watched some sort of sport in their lifetime, but few people realize that potential injuries caused by them can completely alter or ultimately end your life.

Thesis: Concussions and other head injuries can have a massive impact on a person’s future, so they should be taken much more seriously, especially in professional sports.

Credibility: After performing a lot of research on concussion related diseases in sports and other realms of life, I believe I am adequately prepared to inform you of this topic.

Preview: I will discuss the large amount and severity of mental illness in former athletes, the incorrect, post-concussion procedures taken by many athletes that only enhance the

terrible side effects, and possible solutions to make athletes safer. Transition: Let’s begin with the problem.

Body
Main Point 1: Problem: There is an excessive amount of mental illness such as personality issues and learning disabilities, as well as a disease called CTE in former athletes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 300,000 mild to moderate brain injuries related to sports occur every year. In many of these cases, the athlete will experience persistent, disabling symptoms for possibly the rest of their life.
These brain injuries are obviously more common in high-impact sports such as football, boxing, and hockey.
One common injury caused by a blow to the head is a concussion.
In their article entitled “Enduring Effect of Concussion in Youth Athletes,” Moser and Schatz discuss how in concussions, rapid movement causes the brain tissue to stretch or be damaged resulting in chemical and metabolic changes within the brain cells.
Victims are more sensitive to increased stress or injury until the brain recovers by re-balancing the delicate combination of chemicals within the brain cells.
Another disease caused by single, occasional, or repeated blows to the head is CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered and began the study of this disease.
In CTE, brain trauma causes the build up of an abnormal type of protein called tau protein. This protein slowly kills brain cells.
This can be seen in this image taken from Boston University.
According to the Mayo Clinic website, symptoms of CTE include but are not limited to difficulty thinking, impulsive behavior, depression, short-term memory loss, emotional instability, suicidal thoughts or behavior, irritability, aggression, speech difficulties, motor impairment, and dementia.
CTE doesn't have to cause complete insanity, it can be more mild.
One common misconception is that concussions cause CTE, but in fact it is only brain trauma that causes CTE.

A person does not have to have a concussion to develop CTE, mild hits to the head over time can also lead to CTE.

Currently, CTE can only be diagnosed after death by brain tissue analysis.

Transition: Now that you understand the massive effects brain injuries have on the lives of athletes, I’d like to talk about what’s really causing them.

Main Point 2: Cause: Concussions and head injuries do not have to have such intense consequences, but many people do not take them as seriously as they need to be taken, causing the issues I just discussed.

It is really easy to not take an injury seriously when you cannot physically see it.

One of the biggest causes of further brain damage is athletes playing through concussions.

An article from the New York Times entitled “‘Don’t tell Coach’: Playing Through Concussions” discusses how many athletes feel the responsibility to not let their team of coach down by having to sit out because of a concussion.

Most concussions only take a few weeks to heal, but some severe ones can have long term consequences such as problems with memory and

concentration.
Getting another concussion in this time period compounds the consequences.
Additionally a study conducted by Brit Anderson at the Cincinnati Children’s hospital revealed that “92 percent of the players knew they risked serious injury if they returned to the field too quickly after a concussion. Yet only 54 percent said they would report such symptoms to their coach, and 53 percent said that even if they had a headache from an injury, they would continue to play.”
Overall, this is a cultural problem in which both the players, coaches, and families many times don't understand or just ignore the importance of the recovery time after head injuries.
Transition: Now that I’ve got you all worried that you have CTE from that one time you got a headache after a middle school hockey game, I would like to discuss prevention techniques and the appropriate post concussion protocol.

Main Point 3 Solution: The various sporting leagues have implemented multiple rules and guidelines to protect the athletes, but there is still more we can do to aid in the prevention of these terrible effects.
There has already been a step into the right direction because since the movie “Concussion” and Dr. Omalu’s research, there is more awareness of the issue, forcing the leagues to implement rules and guidelines.
For example, the NFL has been forced to put millions of dollars towards developing safer equipment and promoting awareness on the risks of playing football at this level.
Many people’s natural reaction is to completely take their children out of high-impact sports, and for them that might be appropriate. However, many people feel very emotionally connected to one these sports, and their lives simply wouldn’t be the same without it.
Some advice to those people would be to not have their children start so young.
Additionally, it would be extremely important to enforce recovery time after receiving a concussion, but like stated before, this is difficult to do and not a guarantee to avoid CTE.
Ultimately changing the culture to prompt just how significant adequate recovery time is as opposed to terrible consequences.
This could come from education for athletes as well as coaches to be able to recognize concussion and treat them accordingly.
Transition: Thankfully there is more awareness now than there was year ago, but it is still so necessary to do more to not only educate society but also change the culture to one that promotes mental health.

Conclusion
Call to Action: With the information I’ve given you, I hope you will promote head trauma prevention weather it be to your sports team, family, friends, or future children.
Review: I talked about the excessive amount of mental illness due to high-impact sports, the incorrect, post head trauma procedures that magnify the issue, and possibly solutions to decrease the amount of athletes that suffer from this illnesses.
Repeat thesis: Concussions and other head injuries should be taken much more seriously because of the massive impact they can have on a person’s future.
Closing Statement: In conclusion, I hope the information I’ve provided you will encourage you to take head injuries more seriously, and the next time you attend a sporting event you will understand what the athletes are really risking. 
Works Cited

Anderson, Brit.

"Newsroom." Study Raises Concerns That Teen Athletes Continue to Play with Concussion Symptoms.” Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center., 06 May 2013. Web. 03 Jan. 2017. .

Belson, Ken. "N.F.L. Introduces New Rules to Back Its Concussion Protocol." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 July 2016. Web. 03 Jan. 2017. .

Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Sports related recurrent brain injuries-United States. MMWR 1997;46:224-227.

"Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Symptoms." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Apr. 2016. Web. 03 Jan. 2017. .

Delaney SJ, Lacroix VJ, Leclerc S, et al. Concussions during the 1997 Canadian Football League season. Ctin J Sports Med 2000;54:1488- 1491.

Hoffman, Jan. "'Don't Tell Coach': Playing Through Concussions." The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Nov. 2013. Web. 03 Jan. 2017. .

Moser, Rosemarie Scolaro, and Philip Schatz. "Enduring effects of concussion in youth athletes." Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 17.1 (2002): 91-100.

Omalu, Bennet. "Chronic traumatic encephalopathy." Concussion. Vol. 28. Karger Publishers, 2014. 38-49.

Terrell, Thomas R. "Concussion in athletes." SOUTHERN MEDICAL JOURNAL-BIRMINGHAM ALABAMA- 97 (2004):

837-842.