Cobbers on the Brain – Page 148 – Student Commentary on the Neurological Sciences

Legalize the Green

Posted on October 13, 2015 by / 0 Comment

Welcome to 2015. The era of social media, slacktivism, Donald Trump 2016, and so much more. I must say that even looking back just 15 years ago, our society has made major shifts in the way we communicate, the way we feel our lives should be led in a political sphere, etc. One of the shifts the U.S.A has made is on the topic of cannabis, both in its recreational and medical uses. And by shift, I mean anti shift, or even a reverse shift, or back track shift. Because you see, prior to the 1960’s, our culture here in the great U.S of A permitted the use of cannabis in both ways, but it was especially permitted it in the medical field. Journals from the era prior to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 had cannabis listed as treatment for ailments such as nausea, headaches, muscle spasms, etc. We understood back then how effective cannabis could be in a medical sense, but the consistent “politification” of the drug has caused the nonsense that we deal with today. Teens being thrown in jail on mandatory minimum sentences for a small amount of pot. Parents being arrested for trying to purchase cannabis oil off market to help their child with seizures. This is a sad reality we live in and frankly, I am sick of the BS.
So here are the facts:

Cannabis can be found in some many different forms besides the typical bud form. It can purchased in oil, wax, edible, and even tea form.
Its medical benefits are real and not just a hippie conspiracy, man. Cannabis is useful in treating nausea and vomiting due to cancer treatments, relieving chronic pain, dealing with migraines, combating seizures, and so much more.
Cannabis leads to the arrests of 750,000 people each year in the United States. That accounts for half of all the drug arrests in this country each year.
Endocannabinoids are compounds found within the body that modulate the nervous system and aid in processes throughout the body. So we actually have the compounds found within marijuana in our system already.
Cannabis has no addictive effects chemical wise, but can lead to the an addiction to the feeling that the usage gives you. Any “high” side effects are virtually eliminated with most forms of medical cannabis.
Marijuana today is stronger than it was in the past, but there are really two sides to this story. There are higher THC forms of marijuana in the market today, but they also offer THC at various different concentrations. The market is designed to cater to the user, which helps lead to safer usage.
Recreational cannabis in Colorado raised $70 million in tax revenues in 2014. This provides the state with a more money to support state-funded programs. This helps the government do its job. THAT IS A GOOD THING.

We need to stop living in a society where we backtrack on useful information and medical treatments and embrace a future where everyone should get the treatment they need and deserve. Cannabis in the body does a lot of wonderful things via neuromodulation, and scientists are now finding new ways that it could further aid us in the medical field. Endocannabinoids could play a role in leading to cell death in cancer cells. The CB2 receptor in pancreatic cancer cells induced apoptosis by ceramide accumulation. This information could lead to a future when cannabis is used to cure cancer. I personally hope that future becomes a reality. Stop spreading the stigma. Legalize the Green.

Community/Health/Hot topics

Medical Marijuana: A Fog of Misconceptions

Posted on October 13, 2015 by / 1 Comment

When you hear the term medical marijuana, does your mind automatically conjures images of an individual smoking a joint? Or do you picture a prescription bottle full of weed
?
Endocannabinoids and their receptors are found throughout the body: in the brain, organs, glands, immune cells, and connective tissues. The main goal of the endocannabinoid system is to maintain a stable internal environment within the cell despite a fluctuating external environment. Endocannabinoids promote the death of cancer cells and help minimize the pain and damage caused by an injury. Endocannabinoids also increase appetite, reduce nausea, and could play a role in many autoimmune diseases.
The body synthesizes two main forms of endocannabinoids: anandamide and 2-AG. Research laboratories can produce synthetic cannabinoids which mirror the actions of our natural cannabinoids. THC is the most common synthetic which activates the same pathways in the brain as endocannabinoids. THC can be found in a pill form which can be prescribed by doctors for patient use. Herbal cannabis or marijuana can contain over one hundred different cannabinoids, including THC, which all work together to produce stronger effects than THC alone. This is where medical marijuana comes into play. Synthetic versions of cannabinoids created within the lab do not produce the same medical effects as marijuana. Although smoking often produces the best results, cannabis can be utilized in a variety of ways including vaporizers and topical solutions.

Medical marijuana has many benefits that mirror those demonstrated by the endocannabinoid system:

Increased appetite
Reduced nausea
Induced apoptosis (cell death) of cancer cells
Acute pain reduction
Reduction of inflammation
Treatment of glaucoma
Management of chronic pain
Management of symptoms of autoimmune diseases
Management of a mental disorders
Reduction of seizures

These benefits are essential to the treatment and management of many human conditions. In some cases, cannabis and THC are the only or best option for treatment.
Why then is there such controversy surrounding legalizing medical marijuana? The negative side effects of marijuana, the potential for abuse, and the recreational use of marijuana provide strong arguments as to why we should not legalize medical marijuana. Side effects include:

Loss of inhibition
Reduced concentration and memory
Increased heart rate
Anxiety and paranoia
Reddened eyes
Restlessness
Hallucinations
Distorted perception of time and space
A feeling of relaxation and wellbeing (feeling high)

Future research is focused on developing a synthetic cannabinoid that mirrors the strong benefits of marijuana but lacks the negative psychotic effects that it has on individuals. This new product could potentially replace the medical use of marijuana. The abuse potential for marijuana is relatively low, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) only about 1 in 11 users become addicted. The main concern is marijuana’s potential as a “gateway drug.” A gateway drug is a drug used at a young age that can lead to future use of more addictive and dangerous chemicals such as heroin or cocaine. Although marijuana can be seen as a gateway drug, I do not believe that the legalization of medical marijuana will increase the recreational use of marijuana.
Although we as a society have many concerns regarding the negative side effects of legalizing medical marijuana, do we have the right to refuse treatment for those individuals who will greatly benefit from the prescription use of marijuana?
Sources:

Why People Smoke Weed.

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Medical-Marijuana-Scrapped-For-Now-in-Nebraska-305204651.html
http://www.crengineering.net/portfolio-medical-marijuana-facilities.html
nida.com

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Endocannabinoids and Cannabis as a Schedule I Drug

Posted on October 13, 2015 by / 0 Comment

Lately in politics, there has been a push for the legalization of marijuana whether be it for medical or recreational uses. Within this push for the legalization of marijuana, there is a call for more research on cannabis, and how it affects the brain to see its benefits and side effects on the body and in particular the brain. Cannabis is made up of more than 400 chemical compounds, and with some having good effects, others negative and some both. There are two known cannabis receptors, CB1 and CB2, and these receptors are the way in which cannabis (marijuana) affects the body. The CB1 receptor is largely found in the brain and is the key player in how cannabis affects one’s memory, movement and cognition. The CB2 receptor is a key player in the modulation of the immune system. The cannabinoids that are found in the body are called endocannabinoids. Their receptors regulate and modulate various enzymes and ion channels which leads to multiple effects on the brain and in cell activity. There are two endocannabinoids that are confirmed, AEA (anandamide) and 2-AG (2-arachidonulglycerol). These two compounds have various beneficial effects on the body, and when their levels are modified, this can lead to the various medical benefits that we see. AEA has a particular cause of causing apoptosis, or death, in cells. This is sometimes good, but often bad. In the cases this would be beneficial is endocannabinoid induced apoptosis of cancer cells, which has been observe to occur in pancreatic cancer cells and colon cancer cells. Yet, this apoptosis is not always beneficial, as it may be causing cell deaths that are not meant to happen and throws off the balance of the body. Now, there are certain compounds in the cannabis that can target these processes, but researchers have found that there is difficulty in delivering just the one compound appropriately with minimal side effects other than just administering the entire plant extract. This is where the lack of research on cannabis becomes a problem. Marijuana is a schedule I drug, along with LSD and heroin, yet it is not nearly as harmful or addictive as any of its counterpart schedule I drugs. This also makes it hard for researchers to obtain marijuana or other cannabis compounds in order to do research, as it is generally hard to legally obtain illegal things. Yet, without studies that further investigate the drug, it is hard to tell exactly how marijuana is affecting cells and the signaling pathways. You see, both arguments of the debate of whether to legalize marijuana can have strong arguments that seem to contradict each other, as the side of the debate that wants marijuana legalized can point out that cannabis benefits the body (largely as a relief of pain) but the side against the legalization can also argue that it is harmful to the body (mostly the psychotic effects or “high” are looked down on). Without more research, there is no way to tell which argument is more valid since in many cases science simply knows that endocannabinoids are changing, or modulating the processes in the body. If marijuana were to be removed from the group of schedule I drugs, then more research could be done to discover just exactly how it is changing the body, and when those changes are good and bad.

Hot topics

Endogenous Cannabinoids and Their Potential Medical Applications

Posted on October 13, 2015 by / 0 Comment

Throughout the past week in our neurochemistry class, we discussed the issue of medical cannabis and endogenous cannabinoids found within our body. Although a lot of the class discussion revolved around the political debate of the legalization of medical marijuana in the United States, I thought that the most interesting components of our literature article was the potential uses of endogenous cannabinoids. Endogenous cannabinoids (eCBs) can most simply be defined as molecules that are both similar physically and functionally to cannabis and are found naturally throughout our body. Endogenous cannabinoids are neurotransmitters that affect various functions in our body including pleasure, memory, thinking, concentration, movement, coordination, sensory, and the perception of time. The molecule of interest in marijuana, THC, mimics the endogenous cannabinoid transmitter achieving similar natural effects. Experimentation within the endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS) has identified molecules that are involved in various physiological processes. Advancement within this field will require both research about the mechanism in which Marijuana works in our body and the direct application of the ECS within our body.
To start off I think it will be beneficial to illustrate how cannabis derivatives achieve their effects in our body. Cannabimimetic molecules achieve their effects by binding to G-protein-coupled cannabinoid receptors (GPCRs) on the surface of a cell. GPCRs are further categorized into two main types, CB1 and CB2 receptors. Although not crucial in understanding the rudimentary effects that cannabis derivatives have in the body, CB1 receptors are found extensively in the brain and CB2 receptors in the immune system. When a cannabinoid derivative binds to a CB1/CB2 receptor, cellular activity within the cell is altered. Simply put, both the desirable compounds in marijuana and the endogenous cannabinoids bind to these receptors, which results in a physiological response.
With knowing this over simplified schematic, one may pose the question as to why we don’t just isolate these compounds and achieve the same desirable effects that come from marijuana? Although this solution seems to make sense, in practice it can’t be done as of now. Partially, this is the result of Marijuana being listed as a Schedule One drug in the United States. A Schedule One drug is defined as being a substance that possesses no medical benefit and is shown to be highly addictive. I am not going to get into my personal convictions, but the fact of the matter is that this label makes it extremely difficult for there to be credible research performed on marijuana. In turn, marijuana being listed as a Schedule One drug has limited our understanding of how the drug behaves mechanistically within our body. Another issue presented within our understanding of marijuana is something called the Entourage Effect. The Entourage Effect explains how all the compounds within marijuana “act together” to achieve its psychotic and medical effects that can be called desirable. The Entourage Effect further complicates how isolating cannabinoid molecules will affect us.
So, with all that said, where are we at? Well within the context of applying endogenous cannabinoids in our body, that’s difficult to answer. I believe that further research about the mechanism in which marijuana acts in our body and strengthening our knowledge of endogenous cannabinoids within our body is essential. With further understanding, I feel that we will be able to isolate the beneficial effects that marijuana can have in our body through naturally present endogenous cannabinoids. Applications could include increasing the appetites of cancer patients to aid in recovery, decrease in nausea, pain reduction, and anti-inflammatory symptoms. In summary, the endocannabinoid system presents a promising target for effective therapeutics without the entire effects marijuana can have on our bodies.

Disease/Health/Hot topics

Endocannabinoids: Who am I to judge somebody else’s pain?

Posted on October 12, 2015 by / 0 Comment

Throughout this week, our topic of interest within our Neurochemistry course was endocannabinoids (eCBs). But before misconceptions take place, as marijuana is commonly associated with endocannabinoids, take a look at what we learned and conclusions that we came to within our discussion throughout the week. What I didn’t expect to learn this week, and what I believe is not generally known within the public, due to the negative stigma surrounding marijuana in particular, is that endocannabinoids are natural substances that are found within our body. There are many important functioning mechanisms surrounding this system. Cannabis, an active ingredient in marijuana, a substance not naturally found within the body, often associated with cutting loose and having a good time, has been shown to possess an active ingredient (cannabidiol (CBD)) beneficial to those suffering form cancer, epilepsy, as well as chronic pain, as it is able to bind in this newly discovered endocannabinoid system. Take a look and see:
Within the body, there is an endogenous cannabinoid system that is involved in various functions throughout the body: such as appetite, anxiety, learning, memory, growth and development. When looking specifically at the ligands or mediators that bind (endocannabinoids or eCBs) to the receptors, researchers have found that marijuana, specifically the active ingredient THC, is what can bind within this system on the membrane surface of a cell. Specifically in regards to cannabis, researchers are realizing it is important to keep in mind what is called the “entourage effect”. The entourage effect is an understanding that in order to get the best results, every ingredient within cannabis must be present. However, this is where the controversy surrounding this topic comes into play. If every ingredient in cannabis is present, negative side effects are going to occur, as is commonly associated with the recreational use of marijuana (disorientation, lack of physical coordination to name a few). As new treatments are being developed for those suffering from cancer, epilepsy or chronic pain, researchers are finding it very difficult to extract a specific component of cannabis without tinkering with the repercussions of this extraction. The other main ingredient found in cannabis is cannabidiol. This active ingredient has been shown to be fairly beneficial to those suffering from seizures, as this ingredient within cannabis does not actually bind to a receptor within the endocannabinoid system. However, as it does not actually bind, it must be used with THC in order to get the best results, but with these best results comes some negative side effects.
In regards to the ongoing controversy surrounding the legalization of marijuana or not, I cannot help but state, “who am I to judge somebody else’s pain?” I have never had cancer, epilepsy, or chronic pain. If cannabis in its totality, or one of the ingredients in cannabis, cannabidiol, has been found to be beneficial to those who suffer from one of those unfortunate diseases mentioned earlier, who am I to state that one’s quality of life is not as important as keeping marijuana off the streets? Those who want to get ahold of marijuana will regardless if marijuana is legalized or not. Future research hopes to be able to produce therapy treatments that can be beneficial without the negative side effects. Although I personally believe marijuana is a gate-way drug, the addiction comes in the form of a physical dependence, not a physiological dependence. As I stated earlier, I reiterate on the fact that who am I to judge someone’s long-term pain? We can only hope that research is getting closer to finding a solution that avoids the negative symptoms associated with cannabis, while benefiting the quality of life of the individual taking the therapy treatment.

Health/Hot topics

Why Medical Marijuana Should (not) Be Illegal

Posted on October 12, 2015 by / 0 Comment

The United States is currently struggling to decide whether or not marijuana ought to be used as medication. This seems like a pretty tough problem and houses of government all over the country have grappled with the issue. I think this is all a bit silly. The only reason this is even an issue is because marijuana has a certain negative connotation in our society. The google search “why medical marijuana should be illegal” yielded a large list of conservative political websites plump with scary headlines and photos of President Obama with silly expressions on his face. After wading through a few I decided a list of five reasons from townhall.com seemed the most practical and reputable. Here I will look at their five reasons and talk about how marijuana can be compared to the traditional treatment for chronic pain, opiates (vicodin, oxycodone etc.) since this is the most common reason for medical marijuana use. Here I will note I gathered all of this information from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Below this can be found a block quote from Dr. Pinsky which basically says that for a small subset of the population marijuana is extremely addictive. It is true that marijuana can be addictive and about 1 in 11 people who try marijuana become addicted. While marijuana addiction could lead to an unfortunate life style, there are currently an estimated 2.1 million Americans with abuse and dependency issues related to prescription opiates. While the number of people in the United States addicted to marijuana is much larger (4.6 million) this number is stable whereas the number of people addicted to prescription opiates is on the rise. Also it is important to point out that opiates are considered to be addictive; for everyone.

No facts needed here, remember we need to think about marijuana as medication, not a common street drug. Fear mongering about recreational marijuana use has nothing to do with medical marijuana. Marijuana is prescribed just like any other medications and therefore we can think of possible back door illicit use as being just as common as back door illicit use of prescription opiates, which might be more common than you would think. Overdose deaths due to prescription opioid pain relievers have more than tripled in the past 20 years, escalating to 16,651 deaths in the United States in 2010.

So let me just say that this is a valid point, but I would rather have 8 less IQ points than be dead from lung cancer, but that’s just me. Also, cigarettes have nothing to do with medical marijuana, no one is prescribed a pack of Marlboro Reds for chronic pain. Long term effects of prescription opiate abuse are not great. Opiates bind to opiate receptors and when they are used on a habitual basis your body stops producing its own opiates, so when a person attempts to stop taking them they can experience severe withdrawal. Also after a while addicts develop a very high tolerance for opiates, so if they do manage to stop, their tolerance will drop quickly. This means that if they start abusing pain medication again they are prone to overdose which often results in death. So I guess if I had to choose one of the two methods for pain treatment to become addicted to I’d probably take the 8 IQ points.

First off, the first two points about how toxic the smoke is are completely irrelevant because medical marijuana is available in the form of edible products that contain cannabis oil, not to mention that they aren’t even close to completely accurate. I found no mention of temporary sterility from the use of marijuana. It is true that babies born from mothers who used marijuana had higher rates of mental birth defects including attention and communication issues. That being said babies born from mothers who abused opiates during their pregnancy are also born with birth defects, this is referred to as NAS and the rate among newborns increased by over 300% between 200 and 2009. Also nobody is suggesting you use meth or crack for your pain, just saying.

I won’t say that any of that isn’t true, mostly because I can’t because it is just random scenarios not at all based in any information (kind of like those funny stoner movies). Let’s now look at a worst case scenario for an opiate addict since that is what they did for marijuana addict. If they don’t die of an overdose, which a lot of people do (44 every day in the US according to the CDC), they often become addicted to other opiates like heroin when they can no longer afford or obtain prescription medication. I think pop culture has taught us enough about heroin addiction. This graphic from the NIDA sums it up pretty well.

In short, we need to look at medical marijuana for what it is, medication. We need to compare it to other prescription options and look at the advantages and disadvantages of all pain medication fairly.
If you’re interested this is the link to the website I looked at, and this is the link to my source for information.

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Potential Benefits of Legal Marijuana

Posted on October 11, 2015 by / 0 Comment

Legalizing marijuana for medical use has not been the only major topic surrounding the drug, legalizing it for recreational use has also become a major topic. As of right now 23 states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical use and of those 23, four states and the District of Columbia have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. While many states have legalized marijuana in some way the most notable would be Colorado. Colorado legalized the recreational use of marijuana in November of 2012 and have started to answer two huge questions that people keep asking. Does legalizing marijuana lower the crime rate? How much money has marijuana raised for the state?
First a brief description of Colorado’s laws. The brief description below is for the laws and regulations of Denver, Colorado. Each individual city or county can have variations of these same laws. As of January 1, 2014 marijuana became available for purchase for adults that are 21 years or older. The use of marijuana is not permitted in public places. Adults who are citizens that are also 21 years are older are allowed to carry a maximum of 1 oz of retail marijuana at a time and those adults that are not a citizen can only purchase 1/4 of an oz at a time.
Does legalizing marijuana lower crime rates?
According to a report released by Drug Policy Alliance Colorado has seen a large decrease in marijuana related crimes. According to information of the Colorado Court System marijuana possession arrests have dropped 84% since 2010. In 2010 they saw 9,011 people arrested for possession and they were expecting a total of 1,464 people in 2014. At about $300 dollars a case that means that the state is saving approximately 2.26 million dollars in adjudicator costs for possession. As for Crime rate Denver saw a 2.2% decrease in crime i the first 11 months of 2014. In this time burglaries dropped by 9.5% and property crime has also decreased by 8.9%.
How has Colorado benefited financially?
Beside saving about 2.26 million dollars in adjudicator costs the state has also seen other financial benefits since the legalization of marijuana. Between January 2014 and October 2014 the state has a total tax revenue of $40.9 million and that is not including the revenues from medical marijuana or the revenue from licenses and other fees. Of that money 2.5 million when to increase the number of health professions in the public schools. A lot of the new officials that are being hired going to be health workers, nurses and social workers that will focus on mental health support and on programs to help educate students about drug abuse. Other financial benefits in ruled approximately $30 million in total economic output can be achieved by just two dispensaries which happens to be 10 times the tax revenue that a typical restaurant or retail store could generate.
As one can see there has been positive benefits from the legalization of marijuana in Colorado whether it is finically or criminal. But the question that has yet to be answered is what are the long term affects of the legalization. This is answer we will have to wait to see but as of right now the legalization of marijuana seems to be positive and seems to be something other states should consider. These are not the only benefits that should be considered on a national level the legalization could allow for more extensive research into the drug that will allow the medical industry to discover the true therapeutic potential of marijuana.
Sources:
https://www.drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/Colorado_Marijuana_Legalization_One_Year_Status_Report.pdf
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/marijuanainfodenver/residents-visitors

Health/Hot topics

Endocannabinoid antagonists: The next diet craze?

Posted on October 10, 2015 by / 0 Comment

It seems that American society is constantly on the lookout for the next miracle diet drug or weight loss pill. After certain ideas go awry due to ineffectiveness, side effects, or costliness, the American people are left waiting for the next thing to try. After reading about endocannabinoids in Neurochemistry class this week, it left me thinking – is this system the next target for dieting and weight loss?
For centuries, it has been known that smoking cannabis leads to appetite stimulation. It was just recently, within the last ten years, that the endocannabinoid system and its role in appetite was discovered. Endocannabinoids are natural chemicals within the brain that act on the same receptors that drugs like cannabis do. The receptor involved in appetite stimulation is called the CB1 receptor. When endocannabinoid concentrations are high in the hypothalamus and/or the nucleus accumbens regions of the brain, CB1 receptors are activated more often, increasing appetite. For a better idea of how this mechanism plays out, see the figure below depicting how an overactive endocannabinoid system can lead to obesity and weight gain.

Endocannabinoid antagonists have been introduced recently in hopes of combatting an overactive endocannabinoid system and subsequent weight gain. An antagonist is a drug that binds to the CB1 receptors that endocannabinoids use in order to block them and dampen the effect of activated receptors. These antagonists have been used primarily in the treatment of obesity to curb appetite. They work to bring the endocannabinoid system back to homeostasis because diets high in fat are known to increase endocannabinoid concentration in the brain, leading to an imbalance in these molecules.
For example, after eating a meal high in fat, instead of lowering endocannabinoid levels in the brain, the meal actually increases the levels, making appetite stronger and the urge to continue eating higher. These responses in the brain stimulate a positive feedback loop slowly escalating into a person eating not just a handful of French fries, but the whole bag. It is this type of behavior that is habit forming, not only because French fries taste delicious, but also because the endocannabinoid system in the brain is continually being pushed out of balance. Endocannabinoid antagonists are useful in stopping this cycle when treating obesity, but what if they were available for anyone looking to shed a few pounds?
As with any weight loss regimen or supplement, I think this type of treatment would need to be studied extensively before deciding if it would be safe to administer. Furthermore, the treatment would need to be modified according to the person, simply because weight gain is due to multiple factors and it may not be primarily endocannabinoid imbalance. I would not be surprised to see some derivative of these antagonists on the shelf in the future claiming to “lower appetite” and “increase weight loss”. Researchers may even discover a timeline of action and be able to sell the drug while ensuring customers that “pounds can be lost in weeks!” Keep your eyes open for the next diet craze, and make sure to read the fine print. It may be that the next best thing is endocannabinoid antagonists.

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How Many Fingers am I Holding Up?: The Truth About Concussion

Posted on October 7, 2015 by / 0 Comment

I think we have all seen it before. That scene in various movies where somebody takes a hit to the head, and the coach comes over and asks “How many fingers am I holding up?” When they happen to guess correctly, that means they are still okay to keep playing. Of course, this practice is not widely accepted today, however, the theme behind these actions may still perseverate throughout our culture. I mean, who really knows when you’re actually good to go? It’s exactly this problem that leads to the ill effects that are becoming more and more common in many sports today, especially football.
The truth is it is actually very difficult to determine when a person can safely return to competition, and frankly the system we have in place right now isn’t really working. Many times, the physical symptoms of headache, dizziness, and nausea go away before the brain is actually done healing. If a person then returns to competition preemptively, they risk getting second impact syndrome which can result in severe brain damage and even death.
The brain contains many different neurons and glial cells that can pretty easily become damaged or stretched during a sudden impact. The damage to these neurons is what causes the symptoms seen in concussion, although sometimes the symptoms do not necessarily portray the full extent of the damage. In this case, the damage might not even show up on your typical MRI or CT scan. There are new imaging techniques that have recently become available called MRS, MRE, and DTI that are much better at visualizing the damage in a concussion, but right now they are still very uncommon. I think some research and development definitely needs to be done in order to make these techniques a little more common.
There definitely has been some steps in the right direction in the last decade. For one, I think many more people have been educated about concussions and their potential severity. This, however, is just the first step in preventing concussion. Now the scientists and researchers need to get some hard evidence to show what is really going on in a hard impact to the brain. There are new technologies that could make it possible to detect how hard a person gets hit in games like football and hockey, but the research hasn’t determined the physical threshold that when passed, a person must sit out. Obviously, there are also many ethical and legal questions that get raised when trying to implement something like this, but first we need to focus on getting the real data. Only then can we move in the right direction.

Health

Concussions: Education Matters

Posted on October 6, 2015 by / 0 Comment

How serious are concussions? Well, before taking this course, I was largely unaware of how dangerous concussions are. Of course I knew that they were not “good” for the brain, but I didn’t know the extent of their negative effects.
There are several immediate symptoms of concussions including vomiting, headaches, swelling of the brain, and decreased reaction time. But in addition to this, there are also long-term effects that may include decreased blood flow within the brain, memory loss, migraines, trouble sleeping, and water imbalances, just to name a few.
Since I have graduated from high school there has been increased discussion surrounding the topic of concussions within schools. It is extremely important for kids to understand the severity of a concussion since it can have life-threatening effects, especially if someone receives multiple concussions. Most importantly, the teenage brain isn’t fully developed, which is what causes most of my concern. Since there is not a lot known how concussions and how long it takes to recover from one, how do we really know when it is appropriate for a child to return to playing a sport? Because even after the symptoms appear to be gone, there may still be damage to the brain.
So the question remains, “Should sports be banned?” due to their degree of danger. Well the answer is of course not! Children need the exercise and it is a great way for them to form new friendships. But as a society, we need to be more educated about the serious effects of concussions, in order to better prevent them. For society to become more aware of the seriousness of concussions, there needs to be more research focused on better diagnosing and treating concussions, and also more time spent informing the public of the dangers of concussions.