What does the word concussion mean to you? Does it mean to become unconscious, or merely a change in consciousness? The definition of a concussion is just a change in consciousness. Common signs of concussions include; memory problems, confusion, nausea or vomiting, or balance problems. Concussions have been a problem in sports for many years. You will see what some experts have to say about effects of concussions and what they really are. David Camarillo, a former football player, discusses why helmets do not protect against concussion in his TedTalk. He starts off his discussion by saying “a repeated history of concussion can lead to early dementia such as Alzheimer’s…” (Camarillo, TedTalk). Mild traumatic brain injuries affect as many as It is a mouth guard that has sensors in it that are similar to the ones in cell phones. “when someone is struck in the head, it can tell you how their head moved at 1,000 samples per second” (Camarillo, TedTalk). While our brains are the softest substances in our body, our teeth are the hardest. Therefore, it can give the mouth guard a more precise reading of how our brain moves. This mouth guard gives three different colored LED lights to detect the severity of the blow to your head. Low risk is green, moderate is blue, and severe is red. Red lights indicate that the player be immediately removed from the field. This can be connected and monitored through a mobile app for coaches and parents. This app will be helpful for medical professionals to see the player’s history of impacts. FitGuard is the future for detecting early signs of concussions in His lab at Stanford focuses on understanding and preventing head injuries. Camarillo suggests that there is a certain amount of time it takes for the force of impact to disrupt the central wiring of our brain. He also claims that "If we can slow the head down just enough so that the brain does not lag behind the skull but instead it moves in synchrony with the skull, then we might be able to prevent this mechanism of a concussion." (Camarillo). While this is very good news, the question is how to come about this information and use it to create a helmet that can do this. Camarillo is currently working with a Swedish company to create a better helmet. Although the US will not see one for a while, it can bring about some hope for the
Wearing headgear has many positives, reducing injuries is the most obvious one and it could be argued that its help reduces the chance of injuries and even death. At an elite level, Chelsea goalkeeper, Petr Cech is convinced that wearing headgear saved him from suffering extended injuries after colliding with Fulham striker Orlando Sa back in September 2011. Headgear offers a form of padding when worn. It allows juniors and elite athlete’s the reduced chance of head wounds. By this it means it allows for less “cracked skulls”, scars, wounds and so on. It gives a stronger protection on the softer part of the skull which is more prone to damage...
Players are using their heads as a weapon which is careless, dangerous, and should be banned from the sport. A lot of time and money has been invested in improving football helmets. Quinn and Brachmann emphasizes that “There’s a strongly held belief that no matter how much time and money is invested into research and development there will never be a helmet that is truly concussion-proof ” (Quinn and Brachmann). Helmets have been effective in preventing skull fractures, but not concussions. Helmet manufacturers are researching and trying to develop safer protective head
This study was completed using 52 Bantam and Midget hockey players, 13-14 years of age and 15-16 years of age respectively [5]. Players were required to were instrumented helmets for the duration of two seasons where data was captured for 12,253 head impacts. The system used to instrument the helmets was the HIT system, which uses an on-board algorithm to create the Head Impact Technology severity profile (HITsp) [5]. Data was collected for acceleration values, player position, event type, and head impact location. Six-single axis accelerometers, a battery pack, and the telemetry instrumentation was attached to either a Reebok RBK 6K, 8K, or Easton Stealth S9 hockey helmet which was checked for proper fit biweekly. All data was time stamped, encoded, stored locally, and transmitted wirelessly to a sideline
Football is a sport your mother warns you not to play, but your father is on the other side of the argument, encouraging you to do it because it is a “man’s game”. Even though you don’t want ruin your manhood, your mother is always right. Football is in the top three of most injuries caused in sports (HEALTH GRADES, INC) and a majority of it comes from concussions. A concussion is a temporary unconsciousness caused by a blow to the head. Football helmets are used to prevent that from happening and is still a battle today on creating the perfect helmet to protect these young athletes. The football helmet has undergone significant transformation during the evolution of the game. To find out how this important head gear came to be, you have to
Ice hockey is a fast-paced and full contact sport whether you are in a body checking league or not. However with a full contact sports, concussions are unfortunately inevitable. There are numerous factors that play into the number of concussions in ice hockey. Body checking and numerous head impact injuries that occur in hockey are a huge reason for concussions. Although administrators are taking steps towards concussion prevention and education, this education is proving to be ineffective. This paper will take a look at the various injury mechanisms that contribute to concussions and other head-impact injuries in ice hockey, as well as discussing concussion education.
Concussions are an injury to the brain caused by bump, or blow to the head or body. They can occur even when you haven’t even been knocked unconscious. Concussions can not be seen, but you can notice when someone has received one. (Center for Disease Control). The symptoms are Headaches, nausea, vomiting, balance problems, blurry vision, and memory problems or confusion. Also difficulty paying attention, bothered by lights or loud noises and feeling sluggish are sure symptoms of a concussion. (CDC 2). Even though concussions can’t be fully prevented, scientists are doing their best to find ways to decrease the amount of concussions that happen per year.
In the article “ With player safety preeminent in college football and the NFL, more attention is on helmets” Lee Hanson the founder of the invention “Guardian Cap”, a padded cover that goes over the football helmet to help reduce the risk concussions for football players wants to spread Guardian caps to football athletes
One article states a major advancement in football gear would be football helmets with pressure sensors in them that gives the team’s medical staff the ability to tell if a hit could have caused a concussion so the player can be pulled off the field and be examined carefully. ("N.F.L. Players’ Union Weighs the Benefits and the Pitfalls of Helmet Sensors.") This technology helps prevent a player with a concussion that he doesn’t know about from continuing to play during that game and cause more damage to his head that can last forever. Another good advancement is helmets that have a design that uses energy managing materials and a facemask attachment system that disperses energy of frontal impacts. This helps prevent the head from taking the main part of the blow and disperses the energy to lessen the likelihood of becoming seriously injured from a hit. These types of helmets have a certain shelf life meaning you can only use them for so many years before they have to be replaced this is beneficial so that the equipment stays up to the new standards of safety for the players as well as prevents them from becoming stressed over the years and
To understand the issue of concussions in the NFL we must first understand exactly what a concussion is. A concussion is a minor traumatic brain injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. Severe concussions can cause loss of consciousness and/or forgetfulness. However, you do not need to lose consciousness to have a concussion. Minor concussions usually cause headache, nausea, dizziness, and tiredness. An NFL study showed that most concussions occur when one player delivered a hit to the side of the head of another, and when the player was either standing still or moving slowly. These hits that cause concussions pack an average force of 980-pounds. Concussions affect professional athletes as well as amateur or youth football players. Studies have shown that high school football players are nearly twice as likely to get concussions as college football players and high school athletes in other sports. Also, they show that 47% of high school football players say they suffer a concussion each season. As a result about 250,000 people under the age of 19 went to the emergency room with concussions in 2009, compared with 150,000 in 2001.
Specific Purpose: My audience will understand the dangers of concussions, know the symptoms and be educated on ways to prevent concussions.
Mouthguards were not made mandatory for high school football players until 1962; college football teams did not require mouthguards until 1973 ("The History of Athletic Mouthguards"). Overall, any mouthguard is better than no mouthguard. “Athletes who don’t wear a mouthguard are 60% more likely to suffer damage to the mouth” ("The History of Athletic Mouthguards"). Playing football without a mouthguard leads to mouth injuries since constant bumping and jarring to the head cause interior and exterior mouth damage. The few mouthguards that were used in 1965 were made of latex and not fitted for the individual’s mouth ("The History of Athletic Mouthguards"). Because they were not fitted, the mouthguards usually were uncomfortable and did not protect as well as fitted mouthguards. Today, every high school and college football player is required to wear a mouthguard. Most NFL players also wear mouthguards, although wearing one is not mandatory ("The History of Athletic Mouthguards"). But, wearing a mouthguard while playing the fast game of professional football would be a good idea. When people think of mouthguards, they think mouthguards simply protect the teeth. However, studies have shown newer, custom made, polyethylene mouthguards are also more likely to protect against concussions compared to store bought mouthguards (Stone). Custom made mouthguards are fitted to the player's teeth
Concussions are an injury that falls under the Traumatic Brain Injury category. A concussion occurs when a force causes the brain to rock back and forth inside the skull, and hit the interior walls of the skull. When this happens it can result in bruising on two parts of the brain, the Coup and the Countercoup. This may result in Loss of consciousness, confusion, headaches, nausea or vomiting, blurred vision, and loss of short-term memory. I know from experience the nausea and blurred vision. I noticed that during what I thought was a concussion though after the initial hits my ears would ring and give me very painful headaches.
“A football helmet gives you an awful lot of protection….but you don't have to be a doctor or an engineer or even a football player to realize that the football helmet does not block all the measured force produced when some 300-pound player, with hands the size of a Christmas ham, whacks you in the head dozens of time in a game and season after season.” (Quoted cyril wecht), Football helmets need to be designed so that no one will suffer needless head injuries.
Specific Purpose: My specific purpose is to convince my audience what needs to be done to decrease the number of concussions in football.
A study of players shows that off only the 52 players who wore headgear during the season, the unprotected majority of the players in the study were 2.65 times more likely to have been injured: 52.8% of participants who did not use headgear reported being injured, compared to 26.9% of participants who did. Also some studies show that females are more likely than males to get a concussion, and tend to have more symptoms and require more time to recover. Headgear today resembles an enlarged headband, and weighs less than 2 ounces, and covers the forehead, temples and occipital bone in back of the head. The headgear is made of shock-absorbing foam situated between an outer layer of Lycra and an inner layer of sweat-absorbing polypropylene. Lycra is a synthetic fiber known for its great elasticity. It is stronger and more durable than natural rubber while polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer that is just like plastic but more durable and flexible. The challenges that are facing most scientists and developers of this headgear today, are to be able to protect players from concussions and other head related injuries. Also a new form of protection is a headband that is an alternative to full concussion headgear that is the concussion headband. It has the benefits of being lighter, easier to clean and more stylish while having measurable protection benefits. While still unsure of the