Athletes face potential long-term brain effects from concussions

Upon impact, the brain collides with the skull, causing damaging bruising. Different parts of the brain move at different speeds, colliding and recoiling, resulting in stretched and torn nerve tissue. This is what the brain undergoes when it suffers a concussion. In 2012, there were 3,800,000 reported concussions in the United States, double the amount from 2002. About one third of the concussions happened at a sports practice. Almost half of those concussions came from football alone; sports are second only to motor-vehicle crashes in the leading causes of concussions in people ages 15-24. Concussion patients may experience symptoms like nausea, headaches, depression, disturbed sleep, vomiting, amnesia and moodiness, all of which will normally go away in a few weeks. Sophomore Hannah Anderson has suffered two concussions. She said that what she remembers the most was really bad headaches. Other than that, Anderson said she can’t really recall any other symptoms. Anderson missed school for a week, but went right back to her normal activities after that. While concussions may seem like a minor injury, long term effects on the brain can cause problems later in life. Concussions can be linked to diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s disease. In a recent study at the University of Illinois, researchers put 90 student athletes that played a variety of sports through a cognitive dexterity test to measure electrical activity. Some of the students had suffered one concussion, some had suffered multiple and others had no brain injuries. They found that the students who had concussions and students that didn’t scored about the same on the tests. But, the researchers found that the formerly concussed students had less electrical activity in the parts of the brain that are associated with attention. The researchers speculated that even though the non-concussed and concussed students achieved the same scores, the concussed students had to dedicate a higher percentage of their brain reserves to the given task. Studies show that as we age, we slowly lose parts of our mental reserve. The research suggests that being concussed can accelerate the loss of the mental reserves. This could increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and other mental diseases. In other cases, formerlyconcussed people can have trouble moving limbs. New studies have found that a lot of concussed people may also have problems with their eyesight. Even with all these potential risks, some young athletes still decide to play and risk further injury. Once a concussion is even suspected Central York althetic trainer, Matthew Hoover said he will take them out of play. They can only resume their sport the next day if no concussion symptoms are evident. “It is better to keep them alive than the alternative.” Hoover said. The best thing for concussed adolescents is to rest. That means taking a break from activities like sports practices. Also, concussed patients need to refrain from participating in things that require a lot of mental concentration like texting, schoolwork, video games or watching TV.

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