Introduction:
What is a concussion? This seemingly innocuous word has dominated the forefront of a plethora of sports and has threatened to take down billion dollar corporations like the NFL. Therefore, we need to dissect what makes concussion so threatening to these giant corporations and what their adverse effects can be on the human body. It all begins at a young age. Head impacts caused by contact sports such as Football, are a strongly growing prevalent among young athletes. Contact sports can be dangerous because they cause negative long-term effects of head injuries, for instance neurodegeneration (Alzheimer’s or ALS). In addition, some athletes have committed suicide, presumably the result of head trauma-induced depression. These disorders occur almost as often in other sports in which players receive repeated impact to the head such as football, hockey, lacrosse and boxing. State of the art technology is used to develop safer head protection to prevent sports related head injuries.
(https://concussionu.wordpress.com/what-is-a-concussion-signs-and-symptoms/)
What is a concussion:
A concussion is considered a minor head trauma or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). To form a basic understanding about how head Injuries such as concussions can affect our brain one should know that our brain is protected from most damage. For starters the brain sits inside our bony skull. Along with membranes and fluid as additional padding the brain has a good natural protection.
Nevertheless, our brain can get damaged by any blow that is hard enough to affect its function. That is what we call a TBI (traumatic brain injury). In this case the brain shakes inside the skull, resulting in bruising, broken blood vessels, or nerve damage. A TBI can be mild or severe. But what happens exactly with your brain when you experience a TBI?
At the moment of impact, the athlete’s brain begins to twist and spin in the opposite direction of the hit and inside the skull’s cerebrospinal fluid, a clear fluid that cushions the brain. The brain’s nerve fibers stretch and rotate. The spinning during a rotational concussion can cause significant structural issues to the brain. Because of the severity of the blow the athlete’s brain continues swirling back and forth before coming to a stop. At this point everything fades to black. The damaged brain cells are unable to transmit nerve impulses any longer. Those cells are still alive, but nonfunctioning.
This can last for just minutes or even months, which means that the cells can’t do their job. Memory, speech, vision or rage control may be affected. But one thing is for sure, if the cells don’t have enough time to recover because for example an athlete resumes his sport activities to soon, the cells die. One way to recognize this is when cells die near the inner ear an athlete might suffer dizziness. Depending on which part of the brain is affected by the blow you might experience problems with memory (storage and retrieving of information), movement (Balance and walk) and mood (depression, sadness and sleeplessness, anxiety). A serious brain injury can cause long term-effects. Problems thinking, moving, and controlling your emotions may not go away. Even more so in case one took many hits to the head.
Prevention:
In order to prevent concussions and head trauma, the goal is to develop technology that effectively reduces the force received from both head-on (linear acceleration) and off-center hits to the athlete’s head (rotational acceleration). Most researchers agree that rotational acceleration is the more dangerous one. On average a player sustaining a concussion experiences a force at least 95 times greater than gravity. The average hit delivered by a football player of any skill level is 103 g’s, and when a professional player delivers an off-center hit that creates rotational generation, that hit can generate up to 190 g’s of force due to the increased torque caused by the head’s rotation. Given such physical forces one can imagine why concussions are so prevalent in the sport. Simply adding thicker layers of padding to helmets (as the great manufacturers do) is not enough, nor are helmet shells that redirect linear impact to other areas of the helmet. Both of these precautions reduce linear acceleration, but neither addition solves the problem of rotational acceleration.
Micro lattice padding absorbs impact energy instead of distributing it. This technology features a flowing plastic layer in an attempt to reduce rotational acceleration. And the MIPS helmet is the first design that combats the dangerous rotational acceleration in addition to linear acceleration, by keeping the head in place while the shell of the helmet moves with the acceleration force.
Recently, some former NFL players publicly admitted to suffering effects from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition linked to repeated head traumas such as concussions. This finding has sparked a movement to prevent concussions and the resulting conditions. Lamar Campbell, director of media relations for the NFL Players Association in Atlanta, says this is significant. “It’s important for players to be forewarned to see if there is anything they can do to prepare for what’s to come,”
(https://web.colby.edu/cogblog/tag/concussion/)
Recovery:
Herein lays a problem because students, on the opposite, want to use all their cognitive potential to keep up with academic demands. It is stressful for those with a concussion to feel quite okay and not be able to go ahead as planned. This implies that student-athletes hesitant to report concussions are doing more potential harm to themselves, but also to their teams because they are more likely to miss additional playing time. The importance of assessment, adequate care and management by an athletic and medical staff in case of a possible concussion is better known by athletes nowadays.
The data seem to show that ensuring adequate time for recovery is being taken seriously on campuses across the country. However, the determination of adequate recovery time remains a question based on many different individual factors.
If one does not rest enough to let the concussed brain fully recover, chances are that you injure your brain again because a healing brain is extra vulnerable. In case you experience dizziness, nausea or vomiting, blurry vision, headache, and trouble thinking clearly after a blow to the head these are all signs that you need to see a doctor immediately. You need to rest your brain after a concussion. Get plenty of sleep, and ease back into activities when you start feeling better. Stay off the playing field until your doctor gives you the OK. Some people feel normal again in a few hours. Others have symptoms for weeks or months. It is very important to allow yourself time to get better and to slowly return to your regular activities. If you start to get symptoms as soon as you pick up your normal life than this is a sign that you are pushing yourself too hard. It is also important to call your doctor if you are not improving as expected or if you think that you are getting worse instead of better. Rest is the best way to recover from a concussion. You need to rest your body and your brain.
Your brain can bleed if it’s injured and blood vessels inside it are damaged which can form a hematoma. If the hematoma puts pressure on the brain a medical emergency arises. Headaches, vomiting and trouble with balance are signs of a possible hematoma. Do not hesitate to see a doctor after a blow to the head.
A person who might have a concussion needs to immediately stop any kind of activity or sport. Being active again too soon increases the person’s risk of having a more serious brain injury. Be sure to see a doctor before returning to play. By asking questions to check your memory, concentration, problem-solving ability, and other brain functions, the doctor will determine if you have a concussion. In general, every person who may have had a concussion needs to see a doctor. If a doctor thinks that you have a concussion, he or she will ask questions about the injury. Your doctor may ask you questions that test your ability to pay attention and your learning and memory. Your doctor may also try to find out how quickly you can solve problems. He or she may also show you objects and then hide them and ask you to recall what they are.