            Concussions have recently been a huge topic in the world of sports. There is research that is using new technology and has provided the public with new information about the short and long term effects that concussions can have on athletes. In the United States, concussions cause our professional football players extreme pain and misery throughout their lifetime. The long term effects of concussions are not good, for they cause early onset neurological impacts to the brain for a football player; therefore, concussions need to be prevented.

There are those who would argue otherwise and in fact have done so.  In 1994, NFL Commissioner, at the time, Paul Tagliabue, designed a whole committee or team of sorts to look into the matter more seriously.  This group of doctors found that "knees...drugs, and steroids," along with drinking were of far greater concern.  Further, this group asserted that concussions were just a risk of the profession (Timeline).  The same commissioner, asserted that concussions were not as much a reality as they were a journalism issue and noted that the number of concussions yearly was not a growing number, specifically noting that there are "about 180 incidences of mild traumatic brain injuries...the majority are minor injuries."  In these statements, his belief that concussions are not necessarily serious issues is clear.  In fact, through 1997, the rule in the NFL was if a player lost temporary consciousness, he was eligible to "return-to-play" (Timeline).  A decade later, so much more research has been produced, and was actually being produced during that time period to show those claims invalid and lacked research to support them.

  There are statistics that show the effect concussions have on athletes. Talavage et al. has done research which has concluded “Concussions fall within the larger category of traumatic brain injuries, which represents a significant component of brain health in the United States, with as many as 3.8 million sports related incidents occurring every year. [One of these categories has] approximately 50,000 deaths and 235,000 hospitalizations from all causes of traumatic brain injuries” (2). With these numbers being so high, you can see the severity of concussions and traumatic brain injuries. Furthermore, the increase concussions, as they pertain to sports, is not a new issue. There are a number of different studies done on the rising number of concussions such as a review of National Collegiate Athletic Association which showed data for 15 sports and noted that the overall reported concussion rates doubled from 1.7 to 3.4 per 10,000 athlete’s exposures between the1988-1989 and 2003-2004 academic years.” (Ford et al. 3) This statistic shows that the concussions have been relevant since the 80s and now concussions are even more significant today. Moreover, incidents involving concussions are becoming more prevalent in recent years and has reared its head as a major problem in American sports, particularly high contact sports like football and rugby.  This research is important in the lives of many athletes and future athletes, for though concussions are a big hazard for athletes, not much has been done to remedy or rectify some of the concerns addressed by said research.    

Additionally, research is rife with information that is very telling in the area of concussions. The research, for example, addresses and informs those in the sports and health care industry about the warning signs, the treatments, and the methods by which to prevent them. Those who might care about concussions would be those who are most affected by it, such as:  parents, coaches, and football players.  From one perspective exists the parents, who are worried about their child's risk for head on head collisions.  From another the coaches, who are tasked to prevent injury and of all parties directly tied to the sport, the coaches are in the best position to offer preventative care.  One of the tools they can utilize is their ability to change the practice routine.  For instance, they can schedule no contact days and in doing so eliminate some opportunities for concussions to occur.  Programs like this may be implemented in college, high school, and even in little league activities.  

In the arena of youth football, leagues can and should be more proactive if they want to avoid lawsuit. In effort to do so, "the Pop Warner youth league banned kickoffs for its 5- to 10-year-olds … to reduce head-snapping collisions among, youngsters racing down the field in emulation of professional players," according to the New York Times in an article titled "Head Trauma Haunts the Gridiron." 

To understand the importance of creating regulations, it is important to know what a concussion is and equally important to realize that a person's health should be taken care of."   In 2010, The New England Journal of Medicine reported on “Traumatic Brain Injury- Football, Warfare, and Long-Term Effects.”  They noted that traumatic brain injury has been elevated due to repetitive head injuries and high contact sports, such as “football and boxing.”  Additionally, to be noted vehicular crashes were also a factor and brain injuries.   In all of these instances, none were life threatening or even enough to send the victim to the hospital; yet, all of them caused notable injuries that did not include the loss of consciousness (DeKosky, et al.).  In essence, this type of injury can happen to anyone, no matter their age or athletic involvement; therefore, it is essential that public awareness is a necessity. 

  Ford et al. states “Athletes profess that the game and the team are more important than their individual health and that they may play through a concussion to avoid letting down their teammates, coaches, school, and parents” (289-290).  Most would consider this an illogical thought process, but to those who live the life of an athlete, commitment to peers, coaches, family, and friends are important.  This presents a problem, because when they do not exit the game to tend to their issues it affects their health.  This logic explains how traumatic brain injury has reached an all-time high.  Concussions need to be prevented to reduce injury to the brain. Talavage et al stated: “There is an urgent need to improve detection and characterization of head trauma to reduce future injury risk and promote development of new therapies.” (327) Research for concussions remains important because it helps athletes and others affected by brain trauma or their care-providers know what a concussion is and how to prevent it as well.

What is known regarding these causes of concussions is what is most obvious and that is any trauma to the head, even when deemed minor can result in one. Di Battista et al. indicates that “our current conceptual understanding of concussions pathophysiology consists of an acute disturbance of neurobehavioral function together with damage to neuronal and glial cells.” The physical response to this "disturbance or neurobehavioral functions" varies from one player or person to another as will be discussed later.  Another causes of concussions, according to DeKosky et al. is “Direct mechanical trauma injures cortical tissue; traumatic hematoma damage subcortical structures and precipitate vasospasm and ischemia; and sudden movement of the skull on its vertebral axis produces rotational, acceleration, or deceleration injury, damaging the long axons interconnecting brain regions.” (1293) That tells you how fragile the human brain is and how a collision to the head can really harm you. Concussions are caused by multiple blows to the head. Ford et al. describes the cause of concussions a little differently “damage to the brain tissue resulting from movement of the brain within the score, as mini occur with a head impact, indicates a cascade of molecular events that disrupt normal brain cells functions.” (67) There are many ways can people can get concussions. Athletes are more Likely to get a concussion then a normal person. The athletes who play contact sports such as hockey and football are the two major sports that athletes get concussions from. Talavage et al. argues “Athletes are a particularly high risk population for TBI, especially amateur hockey and football players. Of the two, football is the more commonly played sport, with approximately 1.1 million high school participants in the United States during 2008-2009. Each year, between 43,000 and 67,000 of these players are diagnosed with concussions.” (334)

         Impact sports are the ones who mainly have to worry about concussions. The two that have to worry about concussions the most are football and hockey because these sports are a 100% contact sport. When an athlete gets a concussion they show signs of it. It is important for AFLAC to report symptoms of a concussion. Talavage et al. says “Many young athletes do not appreciate the seriousness of concussion and failed to self-report symptoms sometimes intentionally, as they seek to remain on the field likely doubling the number of actual concussions (334). Symptoms are vital when figuring out if an athlete is suffering from a concussion. Ford et al. States “symptoms are self-reported by the athlete, often using a symptom scale. Reliance on an athlete’s self-report of symptoms as a fundamental part of diagnosing a concussion is complicated by the subjective nature of the assessment and by the possibility of an athlete under reporting the symptoms.” (102) Common symptoms that an athlete should know about Talavage et al. says “Currently, on set healthcare professionals evaluate athletes for the presence of concussion by explaining them from symptoms such as loss of consciousness, amnesia, headaches, dizziness, and an inability to respond correctly to specific, direct questions.” The author continues to talk about the symptoms of concussions” The symptoms often do not become manifest until several hours after trauma, that symptoms may not clearly indicate a specific, treatable neurological disorder, and the damage may accumulate overtime as a result of injuries that do not produce symptoms meet the clinical criteria for concussions.” (228) What the athletes tell the doctors helps them but the doctors need more information to diagnose them.  

Doctors need a certain amount of information to diagnose their patient with a concussion. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention there are four categories of symptoms. The first category is somatic the symptoms and somatic all are headaches causing his dizziness, drowsiness, sensitive to light, sensitive to noise, balance problems, and nausea. The Second category is cognitive the symptoms and cognitive are difficulty thinking clearly feeling slow down difficulty, concentrating difficulty, and remembering new information. The third category is emotional symptoms and emotion are irritability, sadness, feeling more emotional, and nervousness or anxiety. The last category is sleep and sleep there is sleeping more than usual, sleeping less than usual, and trouble falling asleep. One of the first things that doctors look for is the severity of the concussion. Doctors use the number of test to see how bad the concussion is. One of those has our clinical assessments Ford et al. Says “A comprehension concussion assessment includes symptoms scores, measures of postural stability and cognitive testing as is often done with neuropsychological testing.” (105) The second test was symptom assessment Ford et al. states “The self-reported reports symptoms not only for a provide information pertinent to concussion diagnosis but also serves as the foundation of monitoring recovery and decision making about the individuals returned to school in physical activity.” (106) The third test was balance testing Ford et al. “The dizziness and balance disturbances reported following him to the head or body may result from disruption of the central integration of vestibular, visual, and somatosensory information.” (106)  The fourth test was neuropsychological testing Ford et al. “traditionally neuropsychological test has not been used to make diagnosis but rather to characterize cognitive functions, testing memories, speed, and processing time.” (107) The last test is Ford et al. “The electroencephalogram provides a reading of the electrical activity on the scalp, which originates within the neurons (gray matter) that make up the surface of the brain.” (107) These are the steps doctors take to figure out how to diagnose a concussion.  

The world of athletics has bantered about several ideas to solve this issue.  Currently, at University of South Carolina, many college, and several high school’s players wear padding on top of helmets.  This padding contains sensors that gauge how hard players receive blows to their head and the frequency of blows.  Players who are in positions that receive more wear the sensors at practice.  Also, all players wear braces which dictate how fast players travel.  This data combined with the helmet monitors do more than just track heart rates.  It allows trainers and coaches to submit data which shows an accurate account of how fast players are traveling when the hits occur.  This data is the key to a solution.  According to Traumatic Brain Injury, data from helmet concussion monitors can aid in predicting the character and location of lesion from an impact of a given force at given coordinates.  These combined with diaries tell a great deal.  Too, other solutions point to the study of AB-Accumulation.  There are AB-lowering medications that are under study for Alzheimer's disease. These improve outcomes after traumatic brain injuries in rodents, suggesting a pathway toward potential therapeutic interventions (DeKosky et al.).

In conclusion, concussion are a very big problem for athletes. The long term effects of concussions are not good, they cause early onset neurological impacts to the brain for a football player; concussions need to be prevented. In the research I found are ways concussions can be prevented. I also found there are ways to point out the signs of having a concussion. 
