Head Concussions

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As medical technology continues to advance and improve it’s become apparent that the sport of football has been causing massive amounts of head trauma to the athletes who play. These players go through thousands of head collisions throughout their seasons and each one leads to some degree, a level of damage that could result in serious issues for these athletes in their futures. In today’s society, many people call for immediate changes to the game, in attempts to make it safer for the people who actually want to play regardless of the risks involved. Although many people wish to keep it as it is, many agree changes have to be made in order to help players to be as safe as they possibly can. The rules of football should be changed, at least…show more content…
It is no secret that the helmet-to-helmet contact, though against the rules, does happen almost every play of the game and can leave devastating changes and damage to the player’s frontal areas of their brains. These damages may not be apparent now or even in a few years, but many studies have been conducted by the NFL and other groups that show a high rate of brain diseases developing in their long retired players much sooner, and at a higher rate than the general population. In an article by Ken Belson of the New York Times he says “They also appear to confirm what scientists have said for years: that playing football increases the risk of developing neurological conditions like chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease that can be identified only in an autopsy.” (Belson) This information is coming out at staggering rates showing conclusively that people who played the sport are at extremely high risk of getting a serious and possibly fatal brain disease. With study after study proving that the effects of multiple brain traumas such as those experienced by football player’s cause’s damaging changes to the brain, it is important new techniques in either preventing completely or fixing the problem needs to be found. Sometimes the damage to the player’s brain doesn’t result in a disease, but rather the damage causes mood, behavior, and memory. These changes are caused by micro structural damage in the hippocampus and the thalamus regions of the brain both areas are highly sensitive to head trauma or the collisions that football players go through every day. In one study it is said “…a growing body of evidence suggests that both concussions and subconcussive blows can alter mood, cognition and behavior while causing damage and structural changes to the brain.” (Hruby) these changes to our brains effect who we

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