Traumatic Brain Injury News

Concussion Awareness on the Rise as New Research Reveals Risks
January 27, 2011 | National Post

Four years ago, the New York Times reported on a former National Football League player named Andre Waters, who committed suicide at the age of 44. Waters spent his NFL career on defense as a safety, a position that has a high volume of direct hits to the head. He was often concussed, and the neuropathologist who examined him after his death told the Times that Waters’ brain tissue looked as if it belonged to a man double his age. So degraded was his brain tissue, in fact, that if Waters would have lived another decade, he would have been fully incapacitated.

A large number of studies and articles have been written since the Times reported on Andre Waters. Researchers in the United States recently studied the effects of concussions amongst 2,500 high school students from over three states. Teens that sustained two or more concussions reported experiencing an array of symptoms at higher levels than those of their peers that had never been concussed. It begs the question, with these symptoms already present at a young age, what will the brain tissue of these teens look like at age 40 or 50 if they follow their current path?

The growing body of research on the risks associated with concussions has received a lot of national media attention of late. Both the National Football League and the National Hockey League have made concussion awareness a prominent issue moving forward. Parents of high school teens actively involved in sports should be aware of the risks associated with concussions as well. Recognizing signs and symptoms can make a big difference in preventing long term effects that can be associated with concussions. 

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