As numerous studies have stated, concussions are mild traumatic injuries to the brain that result in swelling leading to further issues. So, being the sports crazed nation we are, how do we prevent brain injuries from occurring as well as taking the further precautions once they have happened? For starters, there have been a great deal of advancements from many equipment companies throughout sports that have been working to produce a helmet that both provides better protection as well as signaling when this protection was not quite enough to completely prevent someone from receiving a concussion.
From a hockey player’s prospective, I began skating before I was five years old and have gone from the Cooper helmets that were from the early nineties that offer about as much protection as if someone was to wear a 5-quart ice cream bucket on their head to wearing some of the newer brands like the recently bought out cascade helmets that were designed with concussion protection capabilities. Some companies are even beginning to work on placing sensors in helmets that detect the impacts taken during games and can signal when the impacts are reaching a severity that will require attention. How these work is they use a sensor that tracks both linear and rotational acceleration of the impacts and uses its signaling capabilities to transfer this data to a mobile app to keep record of the impacts taken during practices or games. The major piece being paid attention to is the rotational acceleration as that is the common factor in impacts that plays the greatest role in injuring the brain. During an impact that involves linear acceleration and no rotational acceleration, the brain is shifted in a front, back, or side-to-side fashion which is of course bad for the brain. At the same time these injuries have not been found to be as damaging the injuries that involve a bit of rotational acceleration as the impacts add another element to the brain injury. The rotational accelerations add a sheering force to the injury that causes not only a greater amount of damage but the twisting motion results in an overall faster, more forceful shifting of the brain resulting in more extensive injury.
Another attempt by companies to combat severe brain injury has been developed in the extreme sports market with a technology called MIPS or Multi-Directional Injury Protection System. MIPS has been an impressive advancement for brain protection as it works to protect from the extensive rotational acceleration injuries in athletes. This technology works by placing a layer that is fairly conforming to the top of the head as many helmets are designed to, but this thin layer is made from a material that has a very low friction coefficient allowing it to slide when a helmet receives an impact. By providing a sliding layer of protection, the brain has more defense against rotational acceleration as an impact occurs the outer shell may rotate as it hits the ground, but the MIPS layer will continue its normal trajectory thus preventing or lessening the added rotational element added to the impact.
These protective measures against concussions are not perfect but they are a good step in the right direction. It is important to continue the push for better technology to protect the heads of athletes especially children that have a great drive to be better athletes but do not understand the long-term consequences of brain injuries. Hopefully, in the future these advancements will keep getting more and more protective so parents don’t have to worry so much about the choice of whether it is a good idea to allow their child to participate in contact sports.
Brains Are Cool. Protect Them.
