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Are Sports Related Concussions?

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Professional and amateur sports in the United States are big money. It is big money for the teams and the companies manufacturing sports equipment and clothing. It is also a literal headache for many participants. Sports concussions that occur frequently have terrible outcomes. We live in a sports oriented culture, which promotes a hard-nose on field mentality. Athletes learn early on to not report injuries or to play through an injury, especially an injury causing problems with mental processes. This denial has dangerous consequences. The attitude begins with youth sports and is reinforced by parents and society. For the past twenty years, reevaluation of sports-related concussions has become a real and pressing need. This interest has …show more content…

The factor that adds importance to the research being done on sports related concussions is large numbers of young athletes competing in contact sports with high risk of injury.
Current United States statistics indicate approximately 7 million head injuries occur each year. Seven hundred thousand of these relate to sports and recreational activities, and three hundred thousand relate directly to sports. Eight deaths occur each year in professional football due to brain injury (Genuardi & King, 1995). These deaths most commonly result from subdural hematoma, when blood collects within the brain, and the associated brain injury. About 20% of participants in high school football suffer a concussion in a single season. Ongoing studies by the National Athletic Trainers Association showed, “a 17% increase in minor head injuries and an 85% increase in moderate head injuries in high school football comparing the 1980s to the 1990s” (Powell, 1998). A portion of these increases is because of better and more comprehensive reporting systems but the risk of concussion remains. Further, a football player who suffers one mild brain injury (MBI) has four times the risk to sustain a second MBI (Young, Jocobs,Clavette, Mark, & Guse, 1997).

These statistics reflect only reported MBIs. Researchers estimate this makes up only one half of the total number of concussions occurring in football each year. The other

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