Concussions: The Harmful Effects Of Concussions

Waking up the day after sustaining a concussion is probably one of the weirdest feelings I have ever had to experience. For the next two weeks, I felt like I was in a cloud. After sustaining four concussions myself, I have experienced the powerful effects that concussions have on our body first hand. My senior year of high school I sustained a concussion that ended my football career. This is the reason I chose to compare the different styles of research between peer reviewed journals and popular press articles when investigating concussions. First off, I had to find two articles to compare. I decided on a peer-reviewed journal article on concussions in sports and then an Article from Time magazine looking at concussions in youth sports.
However this article had many personal stories to go along with the author’s facts. He seemed to really hit on the effects of concussions in youth sports and the lasting affects they can have. Concussions are very serious at the youth level because this is when children’s brains are growing and learning. Substantial damage can impact children years later and have lasting effects. The author went in and talked about a dangerous condition, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a medical condition in which the brain is repetitively injured and causes some alarming actions in individuals that would not normally be present, such as increased aggression and depression. Scientists believe CTE may be the explanation for the recent suicides and unexpected outbursts of professional and collegiate athletes in recent years and researchers believe it could be linked to their
First off, I felt that the peer-reviewed article focused on examining concussions among all ages by using facts and cited sources. The Time magazine article seemed to look more at youth sports and attempted to tug at the readers hearts a bit with personal stories and scenarios from families of young concussion victims rather than as much research evidence to support their claims. The Peer-Reviewed article gives an overview of all aspects of concussions and how to prevent them rather than focusing on the long-term affects of concussions. The Time magazine article goes more in depth with serious (but not as likely) long-term effects of repeated concussions and their effects on individuals in the future. They go into detail about CTE and how if affects professional athletes later in life. Finally, The Time magazine article writer has direct interviews placed in his article from people with concussions. He has their exact statements in his article while the peer-reviewed article has no interviews with patients or doctors but rather facts and trends from their