Concussions in Hockey Essay

Concussions in the NFL have been a big topic over the years and will continue to plague the League and the Players. In fact in 2015 alone 271 players suffered a concussion over the whole season (CNN). However People don’t realize what happens to the player after they get a concussion in the NFL. Concussions change players lives after playing the NFL. As a result of concussion sustained in the NFL, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and dementia occur.

Concussions can truly mess with an athlete’s brain and can give him or her lifelong troubles.

Concussions are a recurring problem among athletes of all ages. Each year, thousands of athletes are sidelined with concussions. The treatment for those with concussions are being questioned every day, but the athletes are not alone. Trainers are the first members of the sports medicine team to assess the injury. A great deal of stress comes with this duty because the trainer must make decisions regarding the athlete’s health in a matter of minutes. The athletic trainer plays a dominant role in providing initial care for athletes with concussions.

Concussions are becoming more and more commonplace in today’s world. Some say it is because of the aggression of play, especially in hockey and football. Others will argue that “an increase in the recognition and reporting may be primarily responsible for the increase in incidence since 1997” (Minigh 42). With the increase in concussions in the sports world today, it is imperative that sports medicine physicians and athletic trainers have a standardized way to diagnose and treat traumatic brain injuries. Providers believe standardization is important because it will help teach upcoming physicians how to go about treating concussions generally, as well as giving patients an idea of what to expect from their treatment. This is where technology gets put in the game.

Concussions are a rising issue in the daily life of many athletes in the sports of hockey, soccer, football, and skateboarding. Every 21 seconds, someone in this country encounters a brain injury. Concussions are brain injuries caused by jolts or hard hits around the head. When the tissue of the brain slams against the strong, thick skull in your head, a concussion is very common. This leads to either swelling of the brain, “torn blood vessels, or injury to the nerves.” (Haas) Eventually, the result will be immediate, delayed, or even permanent loss of your own brain. In the next four paragraphs, I will describe to you how a concussion is important to you and others, what the world can do to stop this issue, and what you can do to prevent

In a society where sports have become the focus for most youths, there has been increased attention to identification, diagnosis and prevention of sports-related

Millions of people are registered throughout North America for participation in Canada’s national sport and pastime, ice hockey. Most young hockey players have the dream of making it to the National Hockey League (NHL). Because of this incentive to keep striving towards their ultimate goal in their hockey career, they idolize the players in the NHL. Therefore, youth players may obtain certain habits from the elite, whether those habits are good or bad. Some cases are of bad influences, such as young players obtaining the dirty playing habits of the professionals. The primary action that influences the youthful population is body checking. With the thought of losing a game, it is no wonder why players have the urge to play rough and

The treatment for a concussion used to be as simple as taking time to rest, or smelling bath salts before returning to play. In today’s world, concussions are more appropriately recognized as a serious head injury. In order to correctly diagnose and treat concussions, professional action needs to occur. Preventative measures, proper assessments and diagnosis, correct treatments, and increasing awareness are a few ways to reduce an issue down to a more manageable position. Concussions are a common threat in many aspects of life today. From contact sports to accidental falls, head injuries are an increasing issue that needs to be recognized as such. Two to four million concussion injuries occur from sports and recreation settings in the United States every year (The American Academy of Neurology). Most of these injuries result in a full recovery, but there are people who are left with dehabilitating injuries for the remainder of their lives. Thankfully it is becoming well known that these problems exist, and many people are starting to take action.

Concussions have a huge impact on athletics and student athletes in our generation today. They effect people's lives for the worse and cause setbacks in education and athletic opportunities. Many students who get concussions from athletic activities return to play their sport too soon after getting the concussion, which can cause even more serious issues. Considering 300,000 sports related concussions occur each year, they are very relevant to our everyday lives. Returning to play a sport too soon after suffering from a concussion can result in the risk for a further injury or worse concussion, severe symptoms and healing, and the very likely chance for another concussion to occur.

In the sports world today, there are many different injuries that athletes experience and one of the most devastating injury is a concussion. Concussions can happen to anyone, in any sport, but we tend to see most concussions in contact sports (Świerzewski 1). While having an informal conversation with my dad about football, he told me it was common for athletes to receive a head injury in a game and continue to play as if nothing was wrong. While watching SportsCenter, I found that some of the greatest retired athletes don’t remember the best moments of their careers due to the lack of treatment. The worst aspect of concussions is that the symptoms can be delayed; in some cases, it’s only a headache so athletes don’t seek medical treatment. Multiple concussions over time can lead to life-threatening complications due to the damage they cause to the brain. Concussions can happen to anybody at anytime, but there is more to concussions than meets the eye.

Studies show that retired professional football players showed a three-fold increase in depression in players with a history of three or more concussions (Cifu). Evidence has also been gleaned from other sports that involve head impact. Nonrandomized studies of soccer players who have had multiple minor concussions have demonstrated that these individuals performed worse on neuropsychological tests compared with a control group (Neuropsychological testing is the standard for monitoring cognitive recovery after a concussion) (Cifu).

The sound of two helmets bashing together sends a piercing crack through the stadium, soon to be followed by a roar of thunderous applause from every fan in the stadium. The next day the paper reads that one of the players in the collision suffered a concussion, nut the only thing people care about is watching the highlight on SportsCenter. Yet, people watching the games, coaching the games, and playing the games have never fully understood the danger of concussions. It is important for people in the football community to become aware of what head to head hits in football cause because they do not know the true danger of concussions and how often they occur, what concussions can lead to, and how drastically football can decrease the quality

Concussions are a major issue in all professional sports today. Football is the highest culprit for this type of injury but hockey is right up there in second place. Some of the main reasons that hockey is such a dangerous sport in terms of concussions are because of the amount of equipment the players are wearing, and the high speed and pace of the sport. There are measures in place to prevent concussions, but it would seem that every year they still happen, making them inevitable in a contact sport such as hockey.

Many private companies and researchers have taken the issue of concussions head on. Research has drastically increased throughout the 21st century. In the words of Mark Lovell PhD. founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program, “90% of what we know about concussions we’ve learned in the past five years.” These private researchers have taken different approaches to solving the issue but they are all working to achieve one goal: the reduction of concussions and the prevention of their long-term effects.

NHL players suffer concussions at a very high rate. In 1997, the number of concussions among NHL players suffered during games was reported at 559. This does not include incidences where the player didn’t inform the team physician of symptoms that he was having, which would have made this number a lot higher. Players actually lost consciousness in 18% of these cases. Fortunately, there has been a significant improvement in these numbers over the last several years. The rates that these injuries are occurring have