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Sports-Related Concussions & Subconcussive Injuries

Concussive and Subconcussive Blows May Speed Up Aging of Brain, Studies Suggest

Concussions, and even lesser subconcussive head trauma, may speed up the brain's natural aging process says a new study which found changes in gait, balance, and in the brain's electrical activity in areas measuring attention and impulse control in otherwise healthy college students with a history of concussion.

Traumatic Brain Injury in Kids and Teens Can Impact School Performance

Kids and teens suffering from traumatic brain injury, such as concussion, may struggle with speech, language, and thinking, which can lead to problems reading or memorizing. A school-based speech-language pathologist (SLP) can help a concussed student and his or her family and teachers to create a treatment plan.

Head Games Movie Review: Not The Film I Was Hoping To See

Head Games: The Movie paints the sports concussion picture largely in black and white terms, eschewing a more nuanced approach in favor of the sensational. It is a movie that is intended to evoke in viewers an emotional, not rational response but, in the end, it is the movie that is playing games with our heads.

Buyer Beware (Part Two): NFHS Has NOT Endorsed Use of Football Helmet Covers As Reducing Concussion Risk

In recent weeks I have written a number of blogs about claims by equipment manufacturers that their products prevent or reduce the risk of concussions.  

First, it was to call attention to a settlement between the Federal Trade Commission and Brain Pad, a mouth guard manufacturer, barring the company from claiming that its mouthguard reduced the risk of concussion.

Next, it was to deconstruct some carefully-worded claims in a press release by a company named Unequal Technologies touting supplemental helmet protective pads utilizing so-called CRT (concussion reduction technology).

Beware of claims that external football helmet pads, now permitted in high school football, actually prevent or reduce the risk of concussion, says MomsTEAM founder, Brooke de Lench.

Champion of Concussion Safety in California Legislature Caught In Shoplifting Scandal

California Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi is known best for her sponsorship of the state's youth sports concussion safety laws, but her voice in the legislature may be silenced by a shoplifting scandal.

MomsTEAM's Summer of Football (Part Two): List of N.F.L./USA Football Health & Safety Initiatives Is Impressive

 

"I spend more time on health and safety than any other issue."

~~ Roger Goodell, National Football League Commissioner

 

Last week I attended a luncheon in New York City hosted by the National Football League and its youth football partner, USA Football. In Part Two of my "Summer of Football" blog series, I will focus on some of the important information I took away from the luncheon. N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell and youth football player

While much of what the speakers at the N.F.L./USA Football luncheon I attended last week in New York City was concussions and football safety advice MomsTEAM has been giving parents for years, what impressed me the most was what we were told about the ongoing efforts by the league and its youth football partner to improve health and safety for football players from the pros down to the youth level, a topic which takes up more of N.F.L. commissioner Roger Goodell's time than any other.

King-Devick Testing Kits For Chicago Schools: Just One Tool In Concussion Tool Box

Last week's announcement that a foundation named in honor of the late Chicago Bear Dave Duerson had donated a King-Devick test kit to each of Chicago Public School's 80 high school football programs for use in assessing athletes for suspected concussion on the sports sideline, and that the foundation will work with CPS and the K-D Test manufacturer to implement system-wide testing, was welcome news.

So too was that the Dave Duerson Family Foundation, thru individual and corporate sponsors, plans to roll out its program in other cities in the U.S.

The announcement that the Dave Duerson Foundation was donating a King-Devick test kit to all 80 Chicago high school football programs was welcome news, but it isn't a magic bullet in sideline concussion assessment.

MomsTEAM Celebrates 12th Anniversary with Summer of Football (Part One)

Today is MomsTEAM's twelfth anniversary! It was on this day in 2000 that our website went live.

On our anniversary in years past I have blogged about what happened in the previous 12 months in youth sports, but this year the focus will be on youth football.

Why the narrower focus? Well, for two big reasons.

This has been the summer of football for MomsTEAM for two big reasons: first, we have been working on an exciting concussion project focusing on a football program in Oklahoma, and second, we have just returned from a visit to the Mecca of football: the New York City headquarters of the National Football League.
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