GenInv – Health and Wellness

Remember the days when your parents threatened to knock some sense into you? Well, giving your noggin’ a good swat isn’t likely to do that. Current research is exploring the effect that concussions have on the development of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease in later life. The results so far are startling.

Concussion Facts

A concussion is the result of a blow to the head or any other body trauma that causes the head to move forcefully. The word “concussion” comes fro

m the Latin word “concutere”, meaning to shake violently. The brain is a gelatinous structure, normally encased in shock-absorbing fluid, but a severe blow can cause it to be banged against the bony skull. Result: concussion.

A concussion doesn’t necessarily mean a loss of consciousness, although that can happen. More likely, a concussion disrupts brain function for a bit. It is much like a broken phone connection that gets re-routed – and when it finally comes through, there’s lots of s

tatic and a time delay in communication.

Concussion can occur in any type of accident, but by far the greatest incidence is due to sports injuries. Believe it or not, 300,000 American athletes sustain a concussion each year.(1)

Head Banging Sports

Any contact sport can end up in concussive injury. Football, however, leads the pack. In a study conducted at Ohio State University, published in August 2009, 11.6% of injuries to high school students in sports were concussions. With 13,755 injur

ies reported from 2005-2008, football players had the most concussions.(2)

In another study, done at McGill University in Canada, researchers looked at data from 380 university football and 240 university soccer players for a one year period. 70.4% of the football players had experienced the symptoms of a concussion, while 84.6% of those players had more than one concussion. Only 23.4% of them realized they had sustained a concussion.(3) Not surprising since mental confusion is the major symptom.

NFL Research

Just released, on 10/9/09, is a new NFL study that has identified a higher rate of dementia and early onset Alzheimer’s Disease among retired players. More alarming is that the study demonstrates cognitive impairment in players under the age of 50.

The study was conducted on 1,063 retired NFL players by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research at the request of the NFL. Considering the occurrence of memory problems, dementia or Alzheimer’s, those conditions were present in 6.1% of players over age 50 – 5 times greater than the national average of 1.2%. Players aged 30-49 had a rate of 1.9% – 19 times more than the national average of 0.1%.(4)

Part of the problem is that a concussion is an injury you can’t see. When a football player goes down with a broken bone, everyone knows he won’t be back on the field until it is completely healed. But a concussion isn’t always obvious. Even the player thinks he should “tough it out” and stay in the game.

Unseen Risks

Once you’ve had a concussion, you are much more vulnerable to having another one. And according to Joseph Maroon, team physician to the Pittsburgh Steelers and vice chair of the department of neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh, “If you return to football while still suffering the effects, the chances of having a more severe concussion, caused by less force, are greater.” That’s primarily true during recovery, he adds, “but we are finding that individuals who have had one or two concussions are more susceptible beyond the recovery period.”(5)

Further, in a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Kevin Guskiewicz of the University of North Carolina says that sustaining a concussion increases the chances of another one. “Based on the study, once you have had a concussion, within a seven-year window, you are at greater risk of sustaining another injury…Once you have had three or more concussions in seven years, you have at least three times more risk of sustaining another injury.”(6)

Ongoing research will be gathering data as to what extent these repeated injuries lead to memory problems and Alzheimer’s Disease in later life. So it would be wise to keep your head about you. Most likely you are not a pro athlete, but if you have a child or grandchild playing sports, be aware of symptoms of head injuries. And after a concussion or two, it might be time to change sports. “Young athletes”, says Guskie