Abstract
With Football becoming the most popular sport in society today, injuries are bound to occur despite all the safety measures taken. As a result, Concussions are one of the most common injuries football players receive throughout their careers. This review of literature will take a look at symptoms of concussion’s, and their effect on retired NFL players later on in life. The research will show that players who receive concussions during their career will show signs of depression, Alzheimers disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and even suicide in some cases. There are three stages of concussions such as mild, moderate, and severe all with the potential to affect overall cognitive abilities later on in life. Along with
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With all the studies performed and medical discovery about this concussions, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and Neurological Brain disease’s proving to cause symptoms of depression, suicide, and cognitive abilities later in life, there needs to be measures taken to help ensure safety of former and current football players.
Introduction
Over one million people are projected to play football in today’s society. With that being said, football may possibly be the most popular sport in America. The game of football has a violent nature that takes a toll on person’s body, physically and mentally. In Today’s game with athletes becoming bigger, faster, and stronger injuries are inevitable, especially concussions. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury sustained from a blow to the head that causes the brain to rapidly bounce back and forth creating a chemical change to the brain ultimately causing a loss of vision and cognitive functions (CDC, 2017). In terms of concussion’s, they are graded on a scale of mild, moderate, and severe with most concussion’s appearing to be mild. Symptoms of a mild, or grade 1 concussion, are signs of disorientation for nearly fifteen minutes or less with no loss of
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In recent years, a number of studies have been conducted with former NFL players with emerging evidence that shows some former NFL players have mild cognitive impairment, neuroimaging abnormalities, and differences in brain metabolism’s while autopsies of former football players show diverse forms of neuropathology showing the protein P-tau has infiltrated the brain and spread, killing brain cells (Manley, GT, et al., 2017). Through numerous studies, neuroimaging, structural imaging, magnetic response spectroscopy, and neuropathology autopsies, evidence is shown that concussions have lingering effects on former NFL player’s daily lives years after they stop playing football. Neuroimaging cases showed that although players brain showed sign of abnormalities, there was no signs of neurological effects long term to study participants. Studies on cognitive function and mental health have shown there is a frequency response relationship with cognitive impairments to those with constant exposure to concussions (Manley, GT, 2017). Of 3819 studies, Guskiwietz and colleagues surveyed 2552 retired football players, more than half of the participants, and found that a physician had a diagnosis of Alzheimers disease. This is significant because 1.3% of players with Alzheimers is actually a pretty low number, contrasting
This paper will go into detail about the mental and physical health effects of CTE and address what the NFL is doing to reduce concussions. CTE affects players not just mentally but also physically. One out of every three NFL players are affected by CTE and it is becoming a bigger issue everyday. CTE used to not be as common in football payers, but more in boxers, it was very common due to various amounts of headshots taken by the
From 2003 to 2009, the NFL 's presently disbanded Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee deduced in a progression of investigative papers that "no NFL player" had encountered constant cerebrum harm from rehash blackouts, and that "Proficient football players don 't support incessant dreary hits to the mind all the time. A sum of 87 out of 91 previous NFL players have tried positive for the mind infection at the focal point of the open deliberation over blackouts in football, as per new figures from the country 's biggest cerebrum bank concentrated on the investigation of traumatic head damage. That discovering underpins past examination proposing that it 's the rehash, more minor head injury that happens consistently in football that may
An NFL football player will endure somewhere between 900 to 1500 blows to their head over the course of a single season. With an immense amount of blows like this comes an immense amount of damage to a player’s brain. This extensive amount of brain damage has been decided, by Dr. Bennet Omalu, to result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Over the course of these discoveries and much controversy, the NFL has been targeted, denied all accusations, done very few things to lessen the risk of concussions in football, and the risks and number of concussions have steadily increased throughout the league’s
With the recent advances in technology the head injuries experienced by National Football League players has been made more noticeable to the public. So the public has raised an eyebrow, questioning who will take responsibility to battle the issue of brain injuries in the National Football League. This subject involving player safety isn’t anything new, “In fact, a quick search of historical press reports shows that football related concussions have been associated with deaths and debilitating injuries since the late 1800s”(Lange 178). In football one of the most important parts are player safety. In fact, players wear equipment such as helmets, to help prevent head injuries.
Some of the tests revealed damage to the amygdala which controls mood. Additionally the NFL players scored much lower on memory tests, and had worse verbal skills (Hedin, 2015) 5. Due to the recent number of suicides & violent crimes committed by former players, there is more of a need to research the correlation between the head injuries in the NFL and brain disease even more C. Thesis Point 3: What steps the National Football league has taken to protect players long term health and safety 1. With the scrutiny the NFL has come under, they have developed a new protocol for the diagnoses and treatment of players with concussions 2. Under the new protocol, any player who exhibits sings of a concussion, even the most remote sign, must come out of the game and be checked out by the medical staff, they may not return to the same game if they undergo tests for concussion.
Since scientist have begun studying the effects of concussions on the brain with professional football players it has become apparent that concussions can lead to permanent brain damage and memory loss. Also, studies show that because of the speed and hits they receive every day, retired football players have developed brain diseases and short term memory which has made their lives a blight. Since the link of concussions to brain damage has been made, the NFL has made changes in the league to prevent these traumatic diseases. The league has changed the way they practice on the field and even the equipment they use. Even though there is no definite answer to solving the serious amounts of concussive cases in football, the game of football still goes on and precautions are being taken to prevent dramatic
Concussions in sports have been on a rise more than ever, not only just in football but also in other sports such as kids’ soccer and ice hockey. There are major outcomes that can occur with concussions, as in C.T.E. (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). This condition occurs when a player is hit, gets a concussion and part of the brain vessels block off with dead brain vessels. This has caused multiple deaths in many athletes like Mike Webster, a former Pittsburgh Steeler, who lived in his truck while going insane. He would taser himself just to go to sleep because of concussions in his former football career.
From youth football to the NFL, concussions are prevalent at every age group and skill level. The NFL has helped to look into youth football in a variety of ways including heads up tackle which is a program that teaching athletes to use proper technique when tackling a player as well as fitting these athletes for equipment. By doing this, youth football players learn how to properly tackle someone to absorb a hit as well as give these athletes the least likely chance of having a major traumatic brain injury (Goldberg). Goldberg’s Hypothesis was that if you teach youth players in the sport of football the proper technique of tackling, concussions would not be an issue. Although the NFL has helped make dramatic impacts on the youth games including leagues such as pop warner which roughly over 40% of NFL athletes played in as a child, there are over 650,000 youth players in the United States and because of this large number, they do not track
If the NFL is prompted to explore new technology in order to make the game safer, that could have a huge effect of the number of people with brain disorder following their career. Many players have experienced these life threatening disorders that cause tragic results. Frank Wycheck was a tight-end who played for the Redskins for the majority of his career. Wycheck was interviewed following an NFL concussion case settlement. He called it a “joke”(Red), and explained how he, himself, suffered from CTE.
In the United States today there is a big problem with concussions in all levels of football. “An estimated 3.8 million sports concussions occur in the U.S. each year ‘, said by Dr. Stanley Herring of the University of Washington, a concussion expert and team doctor for the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners. ”(McCrabb) A concussion is an injury due to a hard hit or fall to the head. It can cause permanent brain damage if not treated correctly.
As technology continues to advance and scientists begin to understand more about the long term effects of sports injuries, one increasingly frightening topic for athletes at all levels--high school, collegiate, and professional--is the concussion. Nearly every contact sport yields the possibility of trauma to the head. What does a rough body check from an opposing hockey team, a stray 95 mph pitch to the side of the head, a soccer header, and a dangerous tackle in football all have in common? Yes, you guessed it: the possibility for a concussion. But before we explore the possible effects of repeated concussions over a sports career, let’s first define a concussion.
Recently over the previous decades, concussions have increasingly received attention in the world of sports. A concussion is a serious head injury that can happen to any player, and in just about any sport. Indeed, it has been happening to a countless number of athletes for centuries. However, it is also important to note that a concussion can also take place outside of sports, meaning it can happen to anybody. For instance, there have been incidents where a person tripped while running, fell, and the impact of their head’s contact with the ground has caused a concussion.
The long-term side effects of these traumatic injuries have led spectators and doctors to speculate the dangers of head on collision in sports. Furthermore, concussions lead to TBI which leads to depression and problems with their functioning. Brain injuries have led to famous NFL players committing suicide and losing their families and
Concussion injuries have been a big speculation in the National Football League (NFL). Documents filed in federal court showed the NFL expects nearly a third of all retired players to develop some form of long term cognitive problem- such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia in their lifetime as a result to head injuries or concussions suffered on the field. After years of denial the National Football League is starting to come clean. In this editorial the author is trying to inform the public about these accusations.
Many football players get hits through their helmets that could cause a brain disease called CTE, which affects the lobe of their brain that is vital for emotion control and aggression. The number of football players arrested for domestic violence and murder has increased over the years. Aaron Hernandez, a player who was sentenced for murder, killed himself, leaving doctors to find out later that he had CTE. The disease cannot be seen until the football player is deceased and it is too late. More people are becoming aware of this disease because of movies such as, “Concussion,” based on a