An Injury You Can’t See
A concussion can affect anyone anywhere at any time. One can walk from their house to their car, slip, and hit their head on the ground. A football player can go into the game winning tackle with a hit that went wrong. A concussion alters the most important thing in one’s body, the brain.
A concussion occurs when the brain is moved rapidly causing the brain issue to change. This damage can cause chemical and metabolic changes in the brain cells. An ionic flux and glutamate release during this energy demands. This can cause a voltage- or ligand-gated ion channels to create a “depression-like” state. This change is the reason for post concussive impairments. The proper function of these gates are crucial for proper communication between cells.
A Love that Can Break the Heart
Children grow up finding a hobby to fall in love with. Even if people don’t continue to play them after high school, college or semi-professional they can always watch. In a study of a high school football team over a length of a season, a reduction of white matter in the brain was present. The white matter of the brain is vital for having a high abundance of neuron fibers. These neuron fibers are important for sending signals in the brain. Unfortunately, even at the young age of 14-18 there is an alteration in the brain. Around 300,000 concussions are diagnosed yearly in high school athletes from girls soccer to boys lacrosse.
One sport, football is a beloved sport of the United States. This loved sport is seen to have a high risk of chronic, long-lasting effects on the athlete. CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a degenerative disease due to repetitive brain trauma. This long-term brain injury seen in hundreds of NFL players is due to hundreds of blows to the head. Symptoms such as: cognitive impairment, depression, emotional instability, and memory loss may appear a few years after hits. Post-mortem, Boston University found 110 of 111 brains donated by NFL families had CTE. Oxidative damage to these proteasomes can occur just hours after a single hit causing the accumulation of tau protein clumps in an organized formation in the patient’s brain. These tau proteins are found in high abundance in the NFL brains studied by Boston University.
For more information: https://www.bu.edu/research/articles/cte-former-nfl-players/
A Hope for Future Technology
When conducting for the presence of a concussion, the lack of concrete detection available is concerning. Unfortunately, there is not a rapid test to help answer this but a new possible blood test is emerging. Blood tests look for ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase-L1 and glial fibrillary acidic protein that are present during the first twelve hours after a traumatic brain injury was just FDA approved in February 2018. Until this becomes readily available, the continuation of the IMPACT test will be the first test after a thought to be concussion.
Preventative technology is being produced quickly. New helmets for football players detecting the force, direction, and number of hits are making their way onto college and NFL players heads. The hope it to make the game safer for everyone and reduce the long-term effects.
Mouth guards with sensors in them to calculate the force are also making their way onto the field. Not only is there research and preventative care going on the soccer, football, lacrosse, etc. but also in the battle field. New patches that detect the force an individual experiences near an explosion are becoming more popular.
While, the best remedy for a concussion is still rest, reduction in stimuli, and sleep, there is hope for a more effective and faster elimination of the damage to one’s brain.
References:
- https://www.sporttechie.com/q-collar-bauer-neuroshield-concussion-prevention-canada-brad-keselowski/ ▲
- https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20180223concussiontest.html
- http://prevacus.com/concussions-101/statistics/
