Long Term Effects Of Concussions

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Since the beginning of football, there has been too much head to head contact. According to Dr Weil (2016), “4,500 former professional football players filed a complaint of the consequences of concussion (long term effects).” These long term effects include such as Alzheimer 's, Parkinson 's, or severe cognitive impairment. About $870 million has been spent on National Football League(NFL) players for concussion related injuries. NFL players are literally being paid to play the game, but what they don 't think of is having to suffer the long term concussion effects. For example, Mike Webster, former Steeler player, was said to be one of the greatest centers alive. However being a Center in football, requires tons of head to head contact. For every snap that is made, Mike made contact with another player with his head. It is said to be that Mike played throughout his years suffering from a concussion but did not attempt to let his mind rest. After his retirement, Mike was said to …show more content…

Concussions are considered functional, because it only affects the biochemical process of the brain, but the trauma changes the brain function temporarily. Although, in sports like football, repeated head to head contact can lead to long term brain damage. Many former football player’s have suffered from long term head injuries, this lead to things such as, “ long-term health consequences of concussion, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer 's disease, and other forms of dementia, Parkinson 's disease, or severe cognitive impairment.” according to Weil(2016). When suffering from a concussion, you must deal with many symptoms such as, brief loss of consciousness after the injury, memory problems, drowsiness or feeling sluggish, confusion, dizziness, double vision or blurred vision, nausea, headache,or vomiting, sensitivity to light or noise, balance problems, and slowed reaction to stimuli. It can also effect the student- athletes behavior, thinking, or physical