What is a Concussion?
Concussions are one of the most difficult injuries to understand. Over the last 15 years or so, there has been an increasing awareness over the high number of concussions that occur in sports and particularly, the harmful, long-term effects that people can develop later in life as a result. While concussions can happen in any competitive sport or physical activity, they are especially common in contact sports. Science and medicine have come a long way in understanding and treating traumatic brain injuries, but there is so much more that technology can do to improve treatment and minimize long-term damage to the athlete. But first, it is important to understand what concussions are and the effects of repeated trauma to the brain.
A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that is typically caused by a hard blow to the head. What makes it difficult to assess is that the symptoms and severity differ for everyone. Some people may get a concussion and have no symptoms within a few days while others may still be experiencing symptoms months after the incident. While X-Rays and other medical scans can show a broken bone or torn ligaments, CT scans and MRIs do not show if someone has a concussion. This makes concussion testing difficult if the patient is unwilling to cooperate. While many athletes want to play through injuries to show toughness and help their team, concussions are one of the worst injuries to not give adequate time for recovery. The best recovery from a concussion is time.
This article will be the first in a series about concussions based on personal experiences of members of the Extropian team as well as our own research. Our goal with this series is to continue to educate people regarding the ambiguity that surrounds traumatic brain injuries. In the future, we will go more in depth on the symptoms and recovery of concussions, the dangers of concussions, and how Extropian plans to make an impact. Concussions is also a topic we have discussed previously on the Extropian Built Different Podcast and plan on revisiting in future episodes. Check out our Concussions 101 episode to learn more!
