All Articles by Lindsey Barton Straus, JD

Are men who played high school football in Minnesota in the twenty-five years after World War II at increased risk of later developing dementia, Parkinson's or ALS compared with non-football playing high school males? Not according to two studies by researchers at the Mayo Clinic.

Despite widespread media coverage and speculation regarding the late-life or post-retirement risks of cognitive impairment in athletes who engaged in sports involving repetitive blows to the head and high concussion risk, and assertions that CTE causes them to be at high risk of suicide, there have been virtually no peer-reviewed, well-designed scientific studies that establish, much less quantify, such risks.

Brooke de Lench, Executive Director of MomsTeam Institute, Inc., and Jim MacDonald, M.D., M.P.H., a member of the MomsTeam Board of Directors, and a sports medicine physician at Nationwide Children's Hospital presented MomsTeam's Smart Teams Play Safe concussion risk reduction program at the International Olympic Committee's World Conference On Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport in Monaco.

The National Athletic Trainers' Association has issued best practice youth sports health safety guidelines. Hailed as the first of their kind, the guidelines largely mirror best practice recommendations that MomsTEAM Institute has been advocating that independent sports programs adopt as part of its SmartTeamsTM program.

A comprehensive vision assessment should be part of return-to-learn protocols to help determine when children are ready to return to the classroom following concussions - particularly in children reporting academic difficulty, says a new study.

With participation in high school and college sports and injuries, including to the teeth, on the rise, the National Athletic Trainers' Association has issued new guidelines on preventing and managing sport-related dental and oral injuries through the use of mouthguards.

High school football players who sustain concussions while wearing improperly fitted helmets are at higher risk of experiencing more symptoms and taking longer to recover, with concussions of longer duration also more common in players with an air-bladder helmet. High schools should ensure proper adult oversight of football helmet fit throughout the season, says the study.

The public's perception that a direct causal link exists between repetitive head contact and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is largely the result of one-sided, sensationalized, and biased reporting, argue four head injury researchers in a provocative editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

High school athletes who continue to play with a sport-related concussion (SRC) take nearly twice as long to be cleared for a full return to sports than those who are immediately removed from play, finds a new study.