The Pros And Cons Of Concussions

Sports are entertaining to watch and play. The athletes are having the time of their lives playing the sport they enjoy. However, playing sports come with a disadvantage. Concussions are apart of the list of disadvantages. Concussions are a result of a traumatic brain injury. Symptoms of concussions can be headache, dizziness, and even lack of consciousness. Some collisions can cause permanent damage, sometimes even death. Unfortunately, there are many sports where concussions are very common. High school athletes are more susceptable to concussions, although they occur at any age and in any sport. Agencies should enforce rules to prevent the amount of concussions occuring as a result of high contact sports and provide adequate funds for adequate safety equipment.

Hockey is a very physical sport. Players are skating on ice at fast speeds. Players have to be aggressive in this sport which causes frequent collisions. Most players experience concussions in practice, usually starting off as a headache. The younger the player, the more likely they are to suffer with from a concussion. Most of the time, if a player suffers a traumatic brain injury in hockey, its the result of an illegal hit. Former NHL player,

Football doubles the number of concussions in most sports. Studies suggest that professional football players will receive between 900- 1500 hits to the head during a season. Multiple hits can cause long- term health problems such as, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE can cause memory loss, dementia, thoughts of suicide, etc. CTE is only diagnosed after death, and is found in mostly football players. During the games, there are penalties given to players who perform head- to- head contact. They call this penalty “targeting”, which prompts immediate disqualification from the game. Some head injuries are gone unreported. One- third of the head injuries are causes by helmet-to-helmet contact