By Megan Butter

Concussions are a problem is every sport, but they have been on the rise in hockey. In fact Pittsburgh Penguins Captain, Sidney Crosby, is the poster boy for concussions in the NHL. It all started for him with a hit in the 2011 Winter Classic against rivals, the Washington Capitals. David Steckel hit Crosby and then four days he suffered another hit against Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman. Those about did it for him, and he had been battling the issues since this past season. He did make a short lived comeback only, to be sidelined again after a game verse Boston that resulted in another blow to the head.

Concussions are a seriously head injury and need to be taken seriously. Concussions happen when the brain comes in contact with the skull and changed the way have brain cells work. They mainly occur in contact sports such as hockey, football, and soccer.

Their are several signs of a concussion and some of the prominent symptoms are: being dazed/confused, headache, sensitive to light, vomiting, loss of conscious, slurred speech, and poor concentration. If you think you have a concussion there are some tests that you can go through in order to determine if you have sustained the injury:  if you are in a game situation a common thing to do is to ask who you are playing, what the score is, and what period/half/quarter it is. Also just talk normally and see if they are paying attention to the conversation or if they are too distracted (poor concentration), and touching a finger to the nose a few times is also a common idea that people do to evaluate a concussion (http://www.minnesotahockey.org/concussioneducation). Of course if you think that a player on your tea does have a concussion, seek medical attention immediately.

As for treating a concussion, they is not much you can do but rest until the symptoms stop. Also a lot of times some doctors will recommend that patients stay away from tv’s, computers, and electronic devices because those can trigger headaches.  After the symptoms have stopped, the player can go back and get evaluated by a doctor and they can start them on light exercise routines until the player can get back on the ice/field.

For hockey there are a number of steps that can be taken to ensure that concussions don’t happen and those include: making sure the helmet fits properly, no hits from behind, no hits to the head, and getting a correctly fitted mouth guard (http://cdn.agilitycms.com/hockey-canada/Hockey-Programs/Safety/Concussion/Downloads/concussion_card_e.pdf).

The New York Times published in article in February stating that hockey player’s who experienced concussions had “acute micro structural changes in their brain.” They studied 45 male and female Canadian College Hockey Players. They had to undergo M.R.I.’s before and after the season, but if you received a concussion you were given additional M.R.I.’s 3 days, 2 weeks and 2 months after the diagnosis. The 11 players that suffered concussions that season had, “microscopic white matter and inflammatory changes in the brain,” (Klein, 2014).  These players are showing what happens to athletes when they get injured during the game they love. While you might be saying well everything is microscopic, this affects them later on in life. The article goes on to say that hockey players who had concussions developed chronic injuries due to the head trauma they suffered for the concussion later on in life.

The brain is the most important part of the body and we need to protect, and sports these days are getting hit wit concussion lawsuits left and right. There needs to be a new system in pace to protect player s from concussions because it affects them  not only on the ice but off it as well.

While this research was very well done I think that more needs to be done on children playing hockey that are dealing with concussions. Studies on children can show how their brain changes upon the impact of the hit and the aftermath of having a concussion. Your brain is not fully developed until you are 25 and doing studies on children when their brain is the most fragile would be highly beneficial to the ongoing research on concussions.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/sports/hockey/study-finds-changes-in-brains-of-hockey-players-who-had-concussions.html?_r=1

http://cdn.agilitycms.com/hockey-canada/Hockey-Programs/Safety/Concussion/Downloads/concussion_card_e.pdf