Football is America’s game. It is a game that families and friends gather to watch three days out of the week- Sunday, Monday and Thursday. At the end of the season, the entire world watches on Super Bowl Sunday in anticipation to witness the greatest football team in the world. I, personally, do not believe there is any other spectacle in America similar to football. However, over the last 10-15 years, the National Football League has been under scrutiny.
Football has a hard hitting culture; but, these hard hits co
me with a price. Concussions are sometimes the consequence of hard hits to one’s head that cause the brain to hit the skull. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that affects your brain function1. The effects are usually temporary but can include headaches and problems with concentration, memory, balance and coordination. Concussions have emerged as a serious and deadly injury that once shrugged off. Coaches used to tell players to suck it up and get back out there. Many injuries can be weathered; concussions are not one of them.
Repercussions of a Concussion:
Once someone sustains a concussion, their brain becomes over excited. The biomechanical impact of the brain causes excitatory neurotransmitters, such as glutamate, to randomly be released into the synapse2. This disrupts the brain’s environment because the brain is sending lots and lots of random action potentials. As glutamate is being released during a concussion, your brain’s ion channels are also getting disrupted2. These channels are responsible for maintaining ion levels to the correct concentrations. However, after a concussion, too many positive ions flow out into the cell, creating a better likelihood of the cell sending signals2. In turn, the brain is sending too many signals. The brain becomes unable to focus on the important signals and block out the unnecessary ones. Common symptoms described above stem from this issue.
So what can one do after they sustain a concussion?
The answer is rest to allow your body’s natural restoration mechanisms to occur!
However, this restoration costs a lot of energy. Energy, in the form of ATP, is required for powering the pumps that will work to restore the ion imbalance2. In order to produce enough ATP to power the pumps, the brain will gointo a metabolic frenzy by recruiting any available energy stores2. Moreover, this frenzy will overwhelm the brain. The brain soon uses all this energy, leading to the production of lactic acid. The mitochondria will then start to decrease in production of ATP needed to restore the brain’s proper environment2. As a result, neurons start to die as they are unable to perform regular functions that require ATP.
Therefore, concussions, should not be taken lightly. It is understandable the the NFL is under fire for their concussion protocol. The NFL says they are trying to take necessary actions to prevent concussions. It is not just a problem within football, every sport must be cautious with head injuries. It is not like any other injury. You cannot physically see the damage, but it is there. Concussions must be taken seriously.
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/concussion/symptoms-causes/syc-20355594
- https://moodle.cord.edu/pluginfile.php/708078/mod_resource/content/3/2014%20The_New_Neurometabolic_Cascade_of_Concussion.3.pdf
- Image from http://www.slma.cc/caution-on-concussions/
