Brain Injury In Hockey

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Do you know anyone who’s ever been injured in hockey? Ice hockey? Ice hockey/hockey is a contact sport usually played in an ice rink. Two teams of skaters use hockey sticks to score a rubber puck into their opponent's’ goal. Teams usually have 6 players, one goalie and five skaters. Since playing hockey causes concussions, bodily injuries, and brain damage, youth must not be allowed to play the sport.
Hockey players are at risk of severe physical injuries. The article “Ice hockey is Dangerous” by CoachUpNation talks about the different and common injuries players in hockey can get. In the article it states that “Some common injuries that occur from aggressive game play are lower back problems, neck injury, foot injury, tendonitis, head injury, …show more content…

In the article “Hockey Hits Can Lead to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury." by ABC News, it states that “Blows to the head and body cause a series of changes in the brain, including mechanical injuries to brain cells and their connections, stress on cells that are not receiving enough oxygen, and, in more severe cases, damage to specific regions to the brain that are next to sharp interior surfaces of the skull, Doctor Turkstra explained.” (ABC News 1) Dr. Turkstra’s discovery has proved that the brain can easily get damaged during contact hockey. The brain can heal after some time for mild injuries, but not correctly. After multiple injuries, certain regions of the brain can get permanently damaged. Also in the article “Concussions in Hockey May Cause Brain Damage” by H. Laird, it talks about the occurrence of concussions in the sport of hockey. The article states that “Each year, more than 300,000 sports-related concussions (SRC) occur in the sports of hockey in the United States, according to a 2013 ‘Ice Hockey Summit II’” (Laird 1) Concussions have been occurring more and more often through the years in ice hockey, and the risk is increasing. Many neurologists advise that hits to the head be penalized for the safety of the …show more content…

In the article “Injury Rates in Minor Hockey” it states that “The overall injury rate was 30.02 injuries per 100 players per season (95% confidence interval, 27.17–32.99) or 4.13 injuries per 1000 player hours (95% confidence interval, 3.67–4.62). Forty-five percent of all injuries occurred during body checking.” (American 1) Injury rates have been continuously rising in ice hockey since 2004. Most of the injuries that occur are during body checking. Some are minor, and some are major. Also in this article it talks about how age causes differences in injuries in hockey. In the same article it also states that “Significant differences in injury rates were found by age and division of play. The public health significance of body checking injury in minor hockey is great. Future research will include expansion of surveillance to further examine bodychecking injuries and prevention strategies in minor hockey” (American 2). Injury rates differ depending on the age of the players. There are higher rates of injury in younger players then there are in older

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