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Concussions Sports : Dangers Unknown

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Concussions in Sports: Dangers Unknown

The hit is quick and powerful. Sight is blurry; memory is hazy. The hand in front of your face has six fingers instead of five. JFK is president and the Grand Canyon is in Alaska. Concussions are the most frequent of traumatic brain injuries and they are receiving similar treatment as a rolled ankle. Sports of all kinds, ages, and gender need to increase the precautions set forth to preventing this life threatening injury.

Over 300,000 TBIs, traumatic brain injuries, occur annually in sports alone (Harvey). Concussions being one of the most common yet severe of injuries in sports require more regulations and guidelines toward preventing such a traumatic injury. One of the few laws set in …show more content…

When the athlete returns to play too soon, this creates another dangerous issue. Returning too soon after being concussed can possibly impose an injury known as Second Impact syndrome. This occurs when the athlete returns too soon after receiving a first concussion and is followed by a second blow to the head. This second concussion typically brings even more extreme and severe health consequences than an average concussion (Harvey).

Although an athlete receives a blow to the head, it does not necessarily mean he or she has a concussion. A concussion occurs when one is hit in the head and the brain initially lags behind movement of the skull, and then boomerangs back toward the direction of the impact (Edwards). Even though the actual impact only lasts a few split seconds, the consequences of concussions can last a lifetime. These consequences are categorized into short-term, medium-term, and long-term effects.

The short-term effects last for several hours and even up to a couple days. They consist of mostly acute symptoms however; one severe consequence is SIS or Second impact syndrome, which was mentioned earlier. The medium-term effects have similar results as short-term including persistent headaches. However, mid-term effects include even more consequences, the most common being light-headedness, lethargy, poor attention, anxiety, and even depression. These medium-term consequences usually last around

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