I’ve written a number of times about concussions. We see them in our practice very often and they need to be taken seriously. Little bumps on the head have lead to serious brain damage and even death. The more the medical community looks at these injuries, the more damage is being found long term.
This past week, the New York Times looked into the long term affect of these injuries on former NFL players. They used a study from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research that interviewed 1,063 former players and found that 6.1 percent of players aged 50 and older reported that they had received a dementia-related diagnosis. The percentage is five times higher than the national average of 1.2 percent.
The NFL has been quick to point out that there are holes in the study, considering that it relies upon self reporting. They are presently working on their own study to look at the issue. But, looking at the concussion research out there already, it doesn’t seem to be a big leap to the connections or at least to accept that there is enough of a concern that the issue needs to be looked into further.
A founding partner with Bradshaw & Bryant, Mike Bryant has always fought to find justice for his clients—knowing that legal troubles, both personal injury and criminal, can be devastating for a family. Voted a Top 40 Personal Injury "Super Lawyer" multiple years, Mr. Bryant has also been voted one of the Top 100 Minnesota "Super Lawyers" four times.
2 Comments
steve
1.If you watch the Patriots game tape it’s obvious, Vollmer was wearing a $2 boil and bite mouth guard hanging of his cage.
The week prior, it appeared Neal had no mouth guard at all, like most players.
On field prevention is the only way, helmets have very high testing standards by independent bodies.
Mouth guards on the other hand have no oversight, Cantu has stated, concussion do occur from blows to the chin when the Temporal Mandibular joint contacts the skull base at the temporal medail area of the frontal lobe. He also has stated he would like to see some good mouth guard research. It’s already done:
http://www.mahercorlabs.com/pdf/Dental_Trauma…
CTE in this area is a concern, limiting these forces may be the key to protecting High School and youth athletes. A protocol used by the N.E. Patriots idenfities markers that make this energy tranfer more likely. Correcting these biological defects has been found in research to be a means of reducing susceptibility and severity of MTBI due to blows to the chin and chin strap forces.
Many NFL and NHL players are already using this protocol.
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting…
Mike Bryant
Mouth guards can play a big role, that's why we stress it with the kids I help coach. Thanks for taking the time to read and to leave the insightful information.
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