In this post, I need to give some love to my sons' youth football league. This league, which is for kids from 7-12 years of age (2nd-6th grade) from 6 different communities in Northeast Ohio. The Freeway Youth Football League, recognizing the issues of sports medicine in football, are taking some serious steps to educate themselves before it is a requirement by state law. They have already scheduled a conference for the coaches in the entire league. This includes approximately 50 teams with 5 coaches a piece. Hopefully, this awareness will translate into an attentive group that is willing to learn. Since the class is scheduled for later this month, I will update this post with how it goes.
Showing posts with label mTBI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mTBI. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Here we go again
Another professional athlete makes some irresponsible statements and a major newspaper is more than happy to perpetuate the mistake by publishing his comments. This time, Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears admits that he would hide potential TBI symptoms form the team's medical staff so that he could continue to play. The comments are incredibly irresponsible and they give kids terrible ideas on how to usurp their medical staffs and stay on the field. It is because of incidents like this that the education of the public slows to a crawl. It would be my hope that at some point, the NFL would be able to fine athletes for comments like this, but I don't see that ever happening without risking a lawsuit from the ACLU.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Sports mTBI myths and the history of helmets
It seems with two days in full swing it has been harder than expected to get this post written and a week has passed too quickly. Shortly before my last post, Dustin Fink of the concussion blog posted a great resource that he had found regarding the myths of TBIs written by Don Brady and Flo Brady that include a lot of other false ideas commonly perpetuated about TBIs. All of these myths are compiled into one pdf file for easy reading.
However, I believe that there is one myth that was left out of the document. The idea that a better designed helmet will prevent all concussions is one that continues to be thrown around at an irritating rate. This is the myth that has even driven many in Congress to pass laws to require better headgear for football and other sports. A waste of time on Congress's part, to be sure. Of course helmet manufacturers are going to continue to pursue better helmets. If they want to remain in business, the competition amongst the manufacturers is going to drive this without any government interference.
The problem isn't looking for the ideal helmet. The problem exists in the anatomy of the human head. The brain is not fixed to the inside of the skull, but instead, it is suspended in cerebral spinal fluid. It is floating inside the skull in fluid. Sudden accelerations and decelerations of the head will cause the brain to shift inside the skull and collide with its interior wall.
The best analogy that I've seen for this is the comparison to a raw egg. It doesn't matter how much padding I add to the exterior of the egg to prevent the shell from cracking. If I shake the egg hard enough, the yolk will collide with the interior of the shell and eventually become beaten inside the shell.
The truth of the matter is that helmets were originally designed to reduce the incidence of skull fractures, not TBIs. When in 1905, the Chicago Tribune ran the headline "18 FOOTBALL PLAYERS DEAD AND 159 SERIOUSLY INJURED!" President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed that football needed to change the rules or be banned. This led to the changes requiring helmets be used. Unfortunately, as helmet technology improved, players began to develop a false sense of security and started using their helmets as weapons. This included three kinds of hits. Butt blocking (leading with the head and making initial contact with the facemask to anybody except the ball carrier), face tackling (a butt block to the ball carrier), and spearing (leading with the crown of the helmet to make contact rather than the facemask) were all made illegal in 1976 due to the rapidly increasing number of neck fractures and head injuries. Spearing has been called consistently since that time, however butt blocking and face tackling have not. Further compounding the problem is the ESPN highlight reel that glorifies those hits from Saturday and Sunday games. This has quickly filtered down to lower level games as well and we see kids from elementary school to high school trying to make the same "highlight reel hits". This is what has led to the recent, rapid rise in mTBIs in the football and other collision sports.
This is not to say that creating a better helmet is a futile effort and should be abandoned. Any helmet improvements that can reduce the risk should be pursued and implemented. However, we need to realize that the risk is still present in football and other sports and that there is no "concussion-proof helmet." The effort to reduce these injuries in football have to be from many angles including rules enforcement and sportsmanship as well as improving helmet design.
However, I believe that there is one myth that was left out of the document. The idea that a better designed helmet will prevent all concussions is one that continues to be thrown around at an irritating rate. This is the myth that has even driven many in Congress to pass laws to require better headgear for football and other sports. A waste of time on Congress's part, to be sure. Of course helmet manufacturers are going to continue to pursue better helmets. If they want to remain in business, the competition amongst the manufacturers is going to drive this without any government interference.
The problem isn't looking for the ideal helmet. The problem exists in the anatomy of the human head. The brain is not fixed to the inside of the skull, but instead, it is suspended in cerebral spinal fluid. It is floating inside the skull in fluid. Sudden accelerations and decelerations of the head will cause the brain to shift inside the skull and collide with its interior wall.
The best analogy that I've seen for this is the comparison to a raw egg. It doesn't matter how much padding I add to the exterior of the egg to prevent the shell from cracking. If I shake the egg hard enough, the yolk will collide with the interior of the shell and eventually become beaten inside the shell.
The truth of the matter is that helmets were originally designed to reduce the incidence of skull fractures, not TBIs. When in 1905, the Chicago Tribune ran the headline "18 FOOTBALL PLAYERS DEAD AND 159 SERIOUSLY INJURED!" President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed that football needed to change the rules or be banned. This led to the changes requiring helmets be used. Unfortunately, as helmet technology improved, players began to develop a false sense of security and started using their helmets as weapons. This included three kinds of hits. Butt blocking (leading with the head and making initial contact with the facemask to anybody except the ball carrier), face tackling (a butt block to the ball carrier), and spearing (leading with the crown of the helmet to make contact rather than the facemask) were all made illegal in 1976 due to the rapidly increasing number of neck fractures and head injuries. Spearing has been called consistently since that time, however butt blocking and face tackling have not. Further compounding the problem is the ESPN highlight reel that glorifies those hits from Saturday and Sunday games. This has quickly filtered down to lower level games as well and we see kids from elementary school to high school trying to make the same "highlight reel hits". This is what has led to the recent, rapid rise in mTBIs in the football and other collision sports.
This is not to say that creating a better helmet is a futile effort and should be abandoned. Any helmet improvements that can reduce the risk should be pursued and implemented. However, we need to realize that the risk is still present in football and other sports and that there is no "concussion-proof helmet." The effort to reduce these injuries in football have to be from many angles including rules enforcement and sportsmanship as well as improving helmet design.
Friday, August 5, 2011
This insanity needs to end!
In the latest updates, there have now been 4 young athletes and 1 coach that have passed away this in VERY young season. Three of these deaths have been attributed to heat illnesses and the other two are still awaiting autopsy results. Furthermore, one more athlete in Ohio in critical condition at the moment?
THESE HEAT ILLNESS DEATHS ARE PREVENTABLE!!!!
If this season's deaths don't finally push the envelope far enough to get certified athletic trainers at every school, then I wonder if anything ever will. Recently, a lot of events have occurred to push this issue to the very front of the line. There have been continuous discussions about the dangers that TBIs (see the concussion blog for more information) and heat illnesses present, a recent collegiate lawsuit involving sickle cell trait, and another high school lawsuit over heat illness deaths. I don't want to imagine what else needs to happen for this to finally get done. We need to take this momentum now and push this issue to the front. If we continue to wait, the liability of running an athletics program could become cost prohibitive regardless of the presence of a certified athletic trainer.
THESE HEAT ILLNESS DEATHS ARE PREVENTABLE!!!!
If this season's deaths don't finally push the envelope far enough to get certified athletic trainers at every school, then I wonder if anything ever will. Recently, a lot of events have occurred to push this issue to the very front of the line. There have been continuous discussions about the dangers that TBIs (see the concussion blog for more information) and heat illnesses present, a recent collegiate lawsuit involving sickle cell trait, and another high school lawsuit over heat illness deaths. I don't want to imagine what else needs to happen for this to finally get done. We need to take this momentum now and push this issue to the front. If we continue to wait, the liability of running an athletics program could become cost prohibitive regardless of the presence of a certified athletic trainer.
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