Essay On Concussions

Concussions have been known for a long time to occur mainly in car accidents and contact sports. Recently in the past decade, doctors have been looking into more of the effects of concussions and studying them more with the use of MRI’s. There are also computer tests which rate your reaction time and memory. All teenagers playing sports in high school are required to take this test in the case that they are injured. Concussions can be defined as a blow to the head that causes brain swelling. There are symptoms that come along with concussions such as memory loss, mood swings, and sensitivity to light and even difficulties balancing. It has been a much recent concern with kids playing sports suffering from concussions. It is known that the brain
Therefore, the main question being asked is, are contact sports becoming a long term health risk for adolescence due to, the long term effects, longer recovery rate, and difficulties in school? Even with all of the new technology advancements such as, newer helmets and better mouth guards which are supposed to help prevent concussions, there has been a much higher increase of children with concussions who are playing sports. Depending on the severity of the concussion for example, when someone is knocked out and unconscious the concussion could be very damaging to the person who got the concussion. This is even truer if it is a child; the brain is still growing in adolescence and having injuries to the brain could be very dangerous and pose long term effects. Mark E. Halstead from The American Academy of Pediatrics said, “ Three months after a concussion, children 8 to 16 years of age have been found to have persistent deficits in processing complex stimuli” (Halstead, Clinical Report—Sport-Related Concussion in Children and Adolescents). The complex stimuli in which Halstead is talking about has to do with the functions of the brain such as, reaction. Also it is
Field and Collins say, “ High school athletes with concussion had prolonged memory dysfunction compared with college athletes with concussion.” Prolonged memory dysfunction can have a huge impact on the kids’ everyday life. It can affect them in many ways such as school, driving, being with friends. Another important part of this is that, with prolonged symptoms and recovery it takes the kids out from doing what they love to do and that is the sport. In the same article it was said, “High school athletes performed significantly worse than age maintained subjects at 7 days after injury. College athletes, despite having more severe in season concussions, displayed commensurate performance with match control subjects by day 3 after concessions” (Field, Collins, Does age play a role in recovery from sports related concussion). It is clear that kids in high school suffer from prolonged recovery even when the concussion was not as severe as those at the college level. With prolonged recovery and long term effects it seems like it is becoming more and more of a threat to put a child into contact sports after sustaining even one concussion. However there is another issue, it has become more and more evident that going back to school can increase the symptoms of a concussion because the use of the brain occurs