Concussions In Sports Research Paper

If you’ve ever seen a football game you know that the fans react loudest when players score. The second loudest reaction by fans occurs when a player takes or delivers a nasty hit. When there is a direct blow to the head in these collisions players may get a mild traumatic brain injury, also known as a concussion. Sports related concussions have been on a steady rise with more and more people getting involved in organized sports. From the youth league to college and all the way up to the pros, concussions have been tormenting the game of football. The main question that coaches and doctors ask is can concussions be prevented? The answer is yes; with new concussion protocols and protective equipment athletes have more protection than they did …show more content…
More often than not after experiencing concussion-like symptoms, players are quick jump back in the game and not report their injury. What makes it worse is that the risk of long-term cognitive impairment is doubled when a player gets another concussion after not fully recovering from the previous one. (emedicine.medscape.com, 1). Although the majority of concussions should heal completely in about one to six weeks, a few people encounter post-concussion syndrome (PCS) and experience the symptoms for a longer period of time. “Post-concussion syndrome can include physical, cognitive, and emotional problems, including headache, dizziness, difficulty concentrating or completing tasks, Irritability, the sense that you “just don’t feel like yourself” (weillcornellconcussion.org). Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), “is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. Brain trauma can cause a build-up of an abnormal type of a protein called tau, which slowly kills brain cells” (concussionfoundation.org,1). At the moment these changes begin, they continue to develop even after a concussion has