Concussion Risks in the NFL Among the potential risks and injuries that may result from playing professional football, brain injuries may be some of the most severe because of their short and long-term effects on the individual. The brain is very susceptible to injuries from the harsh impacts that come with playing football. Concussions are classified as a mild-degree traumatic brain injury that results from one’s body or head being hit hard enough to cause the brain to shake or twist inside the skull. This type of blow often occurs during tackles and falls in football practices and games. During the impact, the brain bounces back and forth between the inner surfaces of the skull. The danger of concussions in football is a hot topic and has
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Physical effects include headache, nausea, balance issues and dizziness, and sensitivity to light and sound. Mentally, a concussed individual could have slurred speech, memory problems, fatigue, or lack of ability to sleep. Emotionally, an individual may feel very intense negative emotions. Usually, the brain heals after a period of time devoted to recovery, making long term effects of a concussion uncommon. However, after an individual experiences one concussion, his or her chances of experience more concussions in the future along with more severe damage increase. Giza and Hovda (2001) believe this vulnerability is a result of the discrepancy between the energy requirement in the hypermetabolic brain cells following a concussion and available energy resources. Long-term effects of multiple concussions in football players include mild cognitive impairments and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is a degenerative tauopathy disease that frequently occurs in individuals, like football players, who experience repeated head injuries. Symptoms of CTE are typically delayed years after injuries and progress from headaches and attention deficits to depression and memory loss, followed by cognitive impairment and dysfunction. The final stage of the progressive disease includes dementia and aggression. Physical problems may also result. The heightened vulnerability of a post-concussed brain stresses the importance in football players taking time to heal entirely after a
Physical effects include headache, nausea, balance issues and dizziness, and sensitivity to light and sound. Mentally, a concussed individual could have slurred speech, memory problems, fatigue, or lack of ability to sleep. Emotionally, an individual may feel very intense negative emotions. Usually, the brain heals after a period of time devoted to recovery, making long term effects of a concussion uncommon. However, after an individual experiences one concussion, his or her chances of experience more concussions in the future along with more severe damage increase. Giza and Hovda (2001) believe this vulnerability is a result of the discrepancy between the energy requirement in the hypermetabolic brain cells following a concussion and available energy resources. Long-term effects of multiple concussions in football players include mild cognitive impairments and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is a degenerative tauopathy disease that frequently occurs in individuals, like football players, who experience repeated head injuries. Symptoms of CTE are typically delayed years after injuries and progress from headaches and attention deficits to depression and memory loss, followed by cognitive impairment and dysfunction. The final stage of the progressive disease includes dementia and aggression. Physical problems may also result. The heightened vulnerability of a post-concussed brain stresses the importance in football players taking time to heal entirely after a