You Can't Ignore Head Issues Any More.

The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in sports is rampant. Players don’t want to report potential Sports Brain Injuries for fear of losing playing time or hurting their team’s chance for glory. Sometimes, players even feel pressure to “shake it off” and remain on the field.

Only an estimated 42% of high school teams have access to a certified athletic trainer. That means a professional isn’t always there to see if a player is trying to mask symptoms of a concussion. Plus, coaches and athletic trainers may not have access to appropriate tools to monitor, track and quantify potentially harmful impacts. Injuries then go undetected and players are allowed to continue to play, though already exposed to dangerous impacts.

It is time to know what is affecting the heads of your athletes on the field. Ignoring head impacts can lead to serious issues such as concussions. Trainers need data about what is happening during play.

What is a concussion?
A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body, a fall, or another injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. Although there may be cuts or bruises on the head or face, there may be no other visible signs of a brain injury. Source: WebMD.com

Concussion in athletes is not becoming an epidemic. It already is one.

Concussions in the media

In Kids, Injury From a Concussion May Last Longer Than Expected A blow to the head might injure a child’s brain differently than it would an adult’s, a new study shows. The study also found that the changes in a child’s brain often outlast symptoms like decreased reaction times, memory and concentration problems, irritability, insomnia, and fatigue. That means coaches and parents might be clearing kids to return to their sports while they’re vulnerable to re-injury. children.webmd.com

Heading in Soccer Linked to Concussions, Study Says Concussions to seven different players in 2010 caused Chaminade Julienne High School boys soccer coach Matt Money to limit head balls during practices this past season. The preliminary study found abnormalities in the brains of 32 avid amateur soccer players who headed the ball more than 1,000 times a year. Those abnormalities ranged from memory, attention, planning, organizing and vision. www.springfieldnewssun.com

More Schools Using Computers to Test for Concussion Computerized testing to evaluate concussions among high school athletes appears to be on the rise, with an impact on return to play, national injury surveillance data indicated. www.medpagetoday.com

Chartis Joins Forces with the National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS) To Help Reduce Concussions for Young Athletes Chartis Insurance announced that it is working jointly with the National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS) to make information available to help reduce the risks of concussions and other head injuries in youth sports through its aHead of the Game initiative. www.chartisinsurance.com

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More than 3.8 million Concussions and Sports Brain Injuries occur each year.

What do many professional hockey players, professional football players and professional fighters have in common?

During the course of their careers, they all suffered from a concussion or multiple concussions. In some cases, their injuries abruptly ended their playing career.

But professional athletes are not the only players susceptible to concussion.

Fact: 250,000 concussions in high school football each year.

Any athlete - especially those who participate in collision sports like football, hockey and lacrosse - can sustain a concussion. However, collision sport athletes are not the only ones susceptible to Sports Brain Injury. Concussions have been reported in players from many different types of sports including boxing, soccer, BMX, softball, cheerleading, diving, among others.

Concussions don’t just occur in games, either. Anytime an athlete suits up, for practice or performance testing, they’re at risk.

Fact: 300,000 of these Sports Brain Injuries will result in a loss of consciousness.

WebMD.com states that you don’t have to pass out (lose consciousness) to have a concussion. Some people will have obvious symptoms of a concussion, such as passing out or forgetting what happened right before the injury. But other people won’t.

According to this University of Pittsburgh study, concussions can often cause major, long-term brain impairments in information-processing speed, problem solving, planning, and memory. In simpler terms, concussions can destroy your brain’s ability to function normally.

These impairments are worse with multiple concussions.

Fact: Since 1984, at least 26 deaths have been attributed to Second Impact Syndrome, 20 of them occurring in the past 10 years.

One concussion is bad enough. Multiple concussions can be deadly.

Typical symptoms of concussion as reported by SportsMD.com include:

• Headache
• Dizziness
• Nausea/vomiting
• Delayed verbal/motor response
• Confusion/difficulty concentrating
• Disorientation
• Slurred or incoherent speech
• Incoordination
• Ringing in the ears
• Inability to remember recent or past events
• Loss of consciousness
• Sleep disturbances
• Photophobia (sensitivity to light)
• Sensitivity to loud noises
• Fogginess

Several studies in the 1970’s and ’80’s documented the cases of three athletes who died after suffering more than one concussion. Now, more than ever before, medical professionals and athletic trainers understand the catastrophic impacts repeated concussions can have on athletes.

Fact: If a Sports Brain Injury is undetected, it may result in Second Impact Syndrome.

Second Impact Syndrome is a rare condition that occurs when a second concussion occurs before a first concussion has properly healed causing rapid and severe brain swelling that could lead to permanent disability or death (BrainandSpinalcord.org).

Even with all of this newfound knowledge, there hasn’t been a concrete platform that coaches and trainers could use to evaluate an athlete’s injury and recovery from a concussion.

Until Now.