I know there are a million hockey topics to discuss this weekend, but I happened upon this article earlier that made me go hmmmmm.... and wonder what you all thought on the topic. There is a terrifying thread on the girls' forum following concussions among elite athletes and it is an ongoing fear at every level of our favorite game. Thoughts?
http://m.startribune.com/minnesota-doct ... ection=%2F
The future of high school contact sports?
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Nevertoomuchhockey
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imlisteningtothefnsong
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Re: The future of high school contact sports?
I am certainly no expert, but the number of concussions in girls hockey in the NCAA is higher than most all other sports. They don't even allow open ice body checking. I feel that the speed of the game and the increased stick handling skills have allowed players to play with their heads down and the body opened up. Combine this with incidental contact and it's a recepie for concussions. Not sure of an answer but it is sad to see contact sports being so controversial. I even will say especially for our boys. Gym is a rarity, recess occasionally but with little running. Boys scoring lower on SATs and going to college at a lower rate than our girls. But when they can't sit still for 90 minute classes, just give them a pill, that's the answer. I have 2 boys & 2 girls so I say this with all openness, boys need to run more wrestle more and sit down with computer games less. How to fix concussions, not sure, perhaps more trap and neck core strength...Nevertoomuchhockey wrote:I know there are a million hockey topics to discuss this weekend, but I happened upon this article earlier that made me go hmmmmm.... and wonder what you all thought on the topic. There is a terrifying thread on the girls' forum following concussions among elite athletes and it is an ongoing fear at every level of our favorite game. Thoughts?
http://m.startribune.com/minnesota-doct ... ection=%2F
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greybeard58
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From the NY Times
not just football
New York Times Editorial by Dr. Bennet Omalu, 12/7/15
“We’ve known since 1964 that cigarette smoking is harmful to your health. We’ve known for more than 40 years that alcohol damages the developing brain of a child. We’ve known since the mid-70s that asbestos causes cancer and other serious diseases. Knowing what we know now, we do not smoke in enclosed public spaces like airplanes; we have passed laws to keep children from smoking or drinking alcohol; and we do not use asbestos as an industrial product.
As we become more intellectually sophisticated and advanced, with greater and broader access to information and knowledge, we have given up old practices in the name of safety and progress. That is, except when it comes to sports.
Over the past two decades it has become clear that repetitive blows to the head in high-impact contact sports like football, ice hockey, mixed martial arts and boxing place athletes at risk of permanent brain damage. There is even a Hollywood movie, “Concussion,” due out this Christmas Day, that dramatizes the story of my discoveries in this area of research. Why, then, do we continue to intentionally expose our children to this risk?
If a child who plays football is subjected to advanced radiological and neurocognitive studies during the season and several months after the season, there can be evidence of brain damage at the cellular level of brain functioning, even if there were no documented concussions or reported symptoms. If that child continues to play over many seasons, these cellular injuries accumulate to cause irreversible brain damage, which we know now by the name Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a disease that I first diagnosed in 2002.
Depending on the severity of the condition, the child now has a risk of manifesting symptoms of C.T.E. like major depression, memory loss, suicidal thought and actions, loss of intelligence as well as dementia later in life. C.T.E. has also been linked to drug and alcohol abuse as the child enters his 20s, 30s and 40s.
The risk of permanent impairment is heightened by the fact that the brain, unlike most other organs, does not have the capacity to cure itself following all types of injuries. In more than 30 years of looking at normal brain cells in the microscope, I have yet to see a neuron that naturally creates a new neuron to regenerate itself.
We are born with a certain number of neurons. We can only lose them; we cannot create new neurons to replenish old or dying ones.
In 2011, the two leading and governing professional pediatrics associations in the United States and Canada, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society, published a position paper recommending that children should no longer be allowed to engage in high-impact contact sports, exemplified by boxing, and willfully damage their developing brains.
Since then, researchers have independently confirmed that the play of amateur or professional high-impact contact sports is the greatest risk factor for the development of C.T.E. Where does society at large stand now, knowing what we know?
As physicians, it is our role to educate and inform an adult about the dangers of, for example, smoking. If that adult decides to smoke, he is free to do so, and I will be the first to defend that freedom. In the same way, if an adult chooses to play football, ice hockey, mixed martial arts or boxing, it is within his rights.
However, as a society, the question we have to answer is, when we knowingly and willfully allow a child to play high-impact contact sports, are we endangering that child?
Our children are minors who have not reached the age of consent. It is our moral duty as a society to protect the most vulnerable of us. The human brain becomes fully developed at about 18 to 25 years old. We should at least wait for our children to grow up, be provided with the information and education on the risk of play, and let them make their own decisions. No adult, not a parent or a coach, should be allowed to make this potentially life-altering decision for a child.
We have a legal age for drinking alcohol; for joining the military; for voting; for smoking; for driving; and for consenting to have sex. We must have the same when it comes to protecting the organ that defines who we are as human beings.”
Don’t Let Kids Play Football
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/opini ... .html?_r=0
New York Times Editorial by Dr. Bennet Omalu, 12/7/15
“We’ve known since 1964 that cigarette smoking is harmful to your health. We’ve known for more than 40 years that alcohol damages the developing brain of a child. We’ve known since the mid-70s that asbestos causes cancer and other serious diseases. Knowing what we know now, we do not smoke in enclosed public spaces like airplanes; we have passed laws to keep children from smoking or drinking alcohol; and we do not use asbestos as an industrial product.
As we become more intellectually sophisticated and advanced, with greater and broader access to information and knowledge, we have given up old practices in the name of safety and progress. That is, except when it comes to sports.
Over the past two decades it has become clear that repetitive blows to the head in high-impact contact sports like football, ice hockey, mixed martial arts and boxing place athletes at risk of permanent brain damage. There is even a Hollywood movie, “Concussion,” due out this Christmas Day, that dramatizes the story of my discoveries in this area of research. Why, then, do we continue to intentionally expose our children to this risk?
If a child who plays football is subjected to advanced radiological and neurocognitive studies during the season and several months after the season, there can be evidence of brain damage at the cellular level of brain functioning, even if there were no documented concussions or reported symptoms. If that child continues to play over many seasons, these cellular injuries accumulate to cause irreversible brain damage, which we know now by the name Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a disease that I first diagnosed in 2002.
Depending on the severity of the condition, the child now has a risk of manifesting symptoms of C.T.E. like major depression, memory loss, suicidal thought and actions, loss of intelligence as well as dementia later in life. C.T.E. has also been linked to drug and alcohol abuse as the child enters his 20s, 30s and 40s.
The risk of permanent impairment is heightened by the fact that the brain, unlike most other organs, does not have the capacity to cure itself following all types of injuries. In more than 30 years of looking at normal brain cells in the microscope, I have yet to see a neuron that naturally creates a new neuron to regenerate itself.
We are born with a certain number of neurons. We can only lose them; we cannot create new neurons to replenish old or dying ones.
In 2011, the two leading and governing professional pediatrics associations in the United States and Canada, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society, published a position paper recommending that children should no longer be allowed to engage in high-impact contact sports, exemplified by boxing, and willfully damage their developing brains.
Since then, researchers have independently confirmed that the play of amateur or professional high-impact contact sports is the greatest risk factor for the development of C.T.E. Where does society at large stand now, knowing what we know?
As physicians, it is our role to educate and inform an adult about the dangers of, for example, smoking. If that adult decides to smoke, he is free to do so, and I will be the first to defend that freedom. In the same way, if an adult chooses to play football, ice hockey, mixed martial arts or boxing, it is within his rights.
However, as a society, the question we have to answer is, when we knowingly and willfully allow a child to play high-impact contact sports, are we endangering that child?
Our children are minors who have not reached the age of consent. It is our moral duty as a society to protect the most vulnerable of us. The human brain becomes fully developed at about 18 to 25 years old. We should at least wait for our children to grow up, be provided with the information and education on the risk of play, and let them make their own decisions. No adult, not a parent or a coach, should be allowed to make this potentially life-altering decision for a child.
We have a legal age for drinking alcohol; for joining the military; for voting; for smoking; for driving; and for consenting to have sex. We must have the same when it comes to protecting the organ that defines who we are as human beings.”
Don’t Let Kids Play Football
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/opini ... .html?_r=0
So, we shouldn't let kids ski, skateboard, roller blade, run, wrestle, etc. because those activities can lead to concussions too?
I don't think it makes much sense to take what happens to an NFL player's brain and compare it to a kid's brain. Obviously, an NFL player is taking many, many hits at the fastest and most violent level of the sport over many years, while the vast majority of kids will take a few big hits over only a few years and the hits are mostly innocuous.
Of course kids get concussions, but to connect CTE seen in NFL players to kids playing a few years of local hockey or football seems excessive.
Here's an interesting story about a study that shows NFL players live longer on average than other men: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/sport ... .html?_r=0
These guys were heroes when they played (and after), made great money, and can do what they want with the rest of their lives (if they were smart with their money). The price for their lifestyle was that they would sacrifice their bodies, so forgive me if I don't feel bad that CTE affects some of them. If they are concerned about CTE they can do what Borland did and retire.
I got two concussions as a kid: when I fell off a skateboard and when I jumped on to the fort I built and hit the fireplace mantle; never in all my years of football, baseball, hockey, and basketball did I get a concussion. Perhaps my parents should have burned the skateboard and forbade fort building.
I feel like the whole concussion craze is on over-correction to years of not giving concussions enough attention. It is good it is recognized and treated better now, but this is swinging too far in the other direction.
I don't think it makes much sense to take what happens to an NFL player's brain and compare it to a kid's brain. Obviously, an NFL player is taking many, many hits at the fastest and most violent level of the sport over many years, while the vast majority of kids will take a few big hits over only a few years and the hits are mostly innocuous.
Of course kids get concussions, but to connect CTE seen in NFL players to kids playing a few years of local hockey or football seems excessive.
Here's an interesting story about a study that shows NFL players live longer on average than other men: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/sport ... .html?_r=0
These guys were heroes when they played (and after), made great money, and can do what they want with the rest of their lives (if they were smart with their money). The price for their lifestyle was that they would sacrifice their bodies, so forgive me if I don't feel bad that CTE affects some of them. If they are concerned about CTE they can do what Borland did and retire.
I got two concussions as a kid: when I fell off a skateboard and when I jumped on to the fort I built and hit the fireplace mantle; never in all my years of football, baseball, hockey, and basketball did I get a concussion. Perhaps my parents should have burned the skateboard and forbade fort building.
I feel like the whole concussion craze is on over-correction to years of not giving concussions enough attention. It is good it is recognized and treated better now, but this is swinging too far in the other direction.
"You can't triple stamp a double stamp." -Harry Dunn
I agree with rainer but also think that we need to do a little bit more training about injury prevention for the kids. I am pretty sure that the kids are bigger, stronger and faster now than they were even 10 years ago. How many kids did you know who played hockey year around 15 years ago? Not many. Football camps, weight lifting and etc year around? Not really. Now days in the rush to be able to compete we have maxed out what our protective technology can provide us with (sure the helmet is good but the concussion comes from the brain bouncing off of the skull on the inside) and are increasing the amount of pain reduction with it which allows the kids to keep going longer and harder. My father used to say that a little bit of pain is a good thing because it keeps you from crossing that line sometimes. We have a generation of young athletes now who train all year, start lifting weights and perfecting their techniques while in middle school sometimes or for sure in high school all in an effort to compete. I am not against it but do think that we are ahead of what the technology can provide and need to start to rely on training (heads up hockey and etc) to prevent and/or reduce these injuries.
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SCBlueLiner
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