The NINR collected 632 college-level athletes, including basketball, hockey, football, lacrosse, and soccer players. The players underwent cognitive testing and had their blood analyzed to establish the baseline. Over the competitive season, the researchers followed the students’ performance on the field, as well as monitoring them for any sign of a concussion. 43 of the players developed concussions during the course of the research.

The researchers drew blood samples from the concussed athletes at the 6-hour, 24-hour, 72-hour, and 7-day mark after the concussion. The blood samples were compared not only to the samples taken at baseline testing but also against the blood samples of 37 non-concussed athletes and 21 non-athletes.

The testing discovered that the concussed athletes had higher levels of tau, a blood protein. However, here’s the kicker: tau levels rose significantly among the athletes who needed more than the standard 10 days of recovery time. The athletes with minor concussions had lower tau levels than the athletes who received more severe concussions.

The discovery of this blood protein and its relation to concussions may provide sports doctors with a simple way to diagnose the severity of a concussion. Athletes, trainers, and team physicians will be able to draw blood and measure it for tau proteins. If the levels of tau are significantly higher, it will give a clear diagnosis of the concussion. By extension, this may help to prevent players from returning to competition before their concussions are fully healed.

The science hasn’t yet been fully refined. Further research will be needed in order to examine other protein biomarkers as well as examine other physical effects of concussions. But this blood protein biomarker could provide a highly efficient way for sports physicians to identify players that need more time to heal. In the long run, it could save a lot of athletes from serious brain injury.

Reference

Gill, Jessica, Kian Merchant-Borna, Andreas Jeromin, Whitney Livingston, and Jeffrey Bazarian. “Acute plasma tau relates to prolonged return to play after concussion.” Neurology (2017): 10-1212.

The post The Tau of Concussion Recovery appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Since controversies of head trauma and concussion have hit the forefront in contact sports, companies like Reebok have begun designing products to increase head trauma awareness. Hospitals, doctors, and exercise physiologists all agree that parents, coaches, and players need to become more conscious about brain health. All too often, kids and adults experience a collision that could impair them in the long term. The problem is, these individuals unknowingly put themselves at risk by returning to the game too soon through a lack of education or failure to utilize technology.

The Reebok Checklight, named CES 2014 Best of Innovations, provides athletes with an inside track aimed at predictive impact measures. Ultimately, the device can’t diagnose impacts that result in concussion or similar brain injuries, but it does serve as a means for interaction and intervention.

I recently had an in-depth conversation with Mr. Dan Sarro of Reebok Sports, and we discussed the importance of brain impact studies. Unfortunately, no product is the end all, be all preventative measure that we want. What the Reebok Checklight does is provide parents with peace of mind. According to Reebok, the Checklight provides, “Consistent, reliable, actionable impact data.” What does that mean?

Essentially, the Checklight is not a concussion predictor or preventer. Every athlete is different. Some can sustain more severe blows with little to no occurrence of symptoms, while others aren’t so lucky. Concussion produces a magnitude of symptoms from nausea, to headache, to blurry vision, but further testing is still required to properly diagnose a concussion. Headaches can produce similar symptoms, but not be concussion-related. A sensor built into the Checklight uses specific algorithms to measure G-forces (forces acted upon the body as a result of gravity). By measuring these forces, the Checklight gives you three clear understandable criteria for impact severity.

The three lights on the back of the Checklight are your gauges. When an impact occurs, immediately the Checklight provides feedback. A green light means a less severe hit, a yellow light indicates moderate, and a red light warns of a more severe impact. No light being illuminated indicates no questionable impacts have occurred. Again, these lights are not a concussion predictor, but they do give parents and coaching staff reasons to check the impact data of their players and children to ensure safety. Any player who sustains a hit that registers a yellow or red light should be examined by a trainer or doctor to ensure that returning to play is safe.

I’ve been wearing the Checklight while playing hockey for a little over a month now. Fortunately, I haven’t sustained any red lights. In fact, I haven’t had any yellow lights either, so I guess you can say I’ve been fortunate. If I had noticed my Checklight indicator was lit, I wouldn’t have hesitated to get it checked out. While the game of hockey is highly competitive, there is no reason to risk your life for it. Wearing a Checklight ensures that you consciously take responsibility for your safety. Gone are the days when a player can pretend to shake off a considerable hit. The Checklight provides players and coaches with a sense of accountability.

As for fit, I have a pretty large head, so I required an extra large. Using the chart on Reebok’s website provides you with accurate sizing. The skullcap should fit snugly on the head, but comfortably under your helmet. I will suggest that you use a Reebok helmet, as well. I tested it with a Bauer 4500 and it was doable, but the Reebok 11k provided more comfort.

Turning the Checklight on and off is a breeze, so even young children can handle it on their own. The sensor is fully removable, allowing you to wash the skullcap. Just plug the sensor into a USB charger and you’ll have battery life for hours. One thing to note: if you don’t use the Checklight daily, then make sure you keep it charged. It does have a tendency to drain the battery when not in use.

Another key feature of this device is impact logging. Every time you turn the Checklight on, you will be provided with a set of flashes that indicate the number of impacts in each zone. With accountability being so important, parents and coaches can check for lights immediately following every practice or game. It eliminates the guesswork around the dangers of contact sports.

If you’re a parent who checks for a red or yellow light following practice, you can use the information to actively engage your child. Be proactive about your child’s brain health and ask questions about how practice went. In addition, with the Checklight, coaches become the first line of defense. A blinking light is easily noticeable and a clear indicator that the player in question should be pulled aside and examined.

So far I’m pleased with the feedback the Checklight has provided me. Comfort, ease of use, and accuracy are key features required in sports, and the Checklight delivers in all these areas. Likewise, Reebok is proud to provide athletes with an opportunity to increase awareness. During my conversation with Dan Sarro, he was adamant that the real goal for Reebok is to open the minds of consumers, increase awareness that concussions and brain injuries should be taken seriously, and provide a product that will aid in prevention. As a player and coach, I think Reebok has definitely accomplished something here.

Reebok Checklight is available for $149.98 at Reebok.com.

The post Product Review: Reebok Checklight appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But our brain is fragile. We hear about maladies boxers, football players, and MMA fighters suffer from receiving repeated blows or impacts to their head. You may not personally have had experience with any of these activities, but you may have had impact to your skull from a fall, hitting your head on the ground, or another activity. Think about it. Even a car accident can leave lasting impressions on the skull. Has your head ever received any type of impact? My guess is the answer is “yes.”

If you can relate, then seeking medical attention is the foremost priority. After that, visit with a massage therapist or cranial sacral therapist to relieve pressure from the tensed muscles of the face and bones. Muscular tensing can pinch nerves that provide our ability to sense and navigate our world.

Common symptoms that may result from head impact:

• Headaches
• Migraines
• Dizziness spells
• Congestion
• Sinus Pressure
• Forgetfulness
• Feeling pressure, a squeeze or vice grip feeling in your head
• Ringing in ears
• Twitching eyes
• Snoring
• Internal pressure behind eyes
• Pressure increases when inverted (as in handstands or down dog)
• Clenching of jaw

There are 22 major bones that make up our skull, fourteen facial bones and eight cranial bones. They are like the tectonic plates on the Earth. Even with their many sutures, cavities, sinuses, and fontanels, these bones have the ability to move. There are layers of connective and fibrous tissues outside and inside the skull. Three layers of fibrous tissue make up an impermeable membrane enclosing the cerebrospinal fluid and protecting the brain. These are called the meninges or pia mater, arachnoid mater, and dura mater.

Our skull is the helmet of protection for our brain, and only these thin layers of fluid-filled membranes cushion impact. The specific location of impact on your skull can cause that cranial or facial bone to move. I am not talking about a gross movement, but the bone does have the ability to shift out of alignment. In the event of collision, muscles may tighten around the bone and cause prolonged tensing.

The number of blows my own skull took from boxing, MMA, accidents, and impact are too great in number to count. Over the years, the above symptoms continued to stack up until I could literally feel squeezing around the inside of my eyes and upper palate. I had twitches around my left eye, dizziness spells lasting for days, and an overall feeling of pressure on the inside of my skull.

Within three sessions of having my therapist work on the muscles in my mouth, and around my nose, sphenoid bone, and cervical vertebrae, I felt huge relief from the internal pressures, snoring, squeezing, jaw clenching, congestion, and twitching. The most interesting finding was my body’s new sense of balance and mobility. My proprioception and vestibular functioning changed dramatically. Basically, my entire body was realigned by focusing on my facial bones and sphenoid bone.

Review your medical history and recall moments of impact. Receive treatment to your neck, face, jaw, and skull. Ask your therapist to send you home with a long-term treatment plan including stretches, exercises, and points for self massage. The health of your brain is essential in your ability to function in life. Anything you can do from here on out will help in keeping your brain healthy for the rest of your life.

Think about it.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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MMA and boxing aren’t the only sports concerned lately with the safety of their athletes’ brains. Last month a study published by the American Academy of Neurology reviewed nearly 3,500 past NFL players who had played in at least five seasons. What they found was pretty shocking. They looked specifically at three neurodegenerative diseases (diseases that kill through problems with the nervous system): Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The chance that professional football players would die from these diseases was three times more than the general population.

In a response to the study, another researcher noted an even bigger risk of death for soccer players from ALS, but not from the other two diseases. Soccer, like football, is known for traumatic head injuries.

Does this research translate to the combat sports as well? First things first, the researchers studying football and soccer do not fully agree that head trauma alone is responsible for the increase in neurodegenerative disease. The studies performed so far do not agree in the type of disease that results from head trauma, which, as one researcher noted, could indicate differing causes of disease among sports. The bottom line implication is that different types of head trauma, and differing levels of head protection, might yield different consequences for premature death. An even stronger possibility is that something else entirely increases, or augments, the risk of neurological disease. This might be physical exertion or performance enhancing drugs.

As a result of the need for more data on head trauma, it isn’t fair to say that combat athletes are as likely as football or soccer players to suffer from neurodegenerative disease. One thing is for certain, with a proper training camp that limits heavy shots to the head, the competitive season for professional fighters is shorter each year than in other sports. Despite the combative nature of MMA and boxing it might be true that the number of significant blows to the head each week throughout the year is significantly less than for other sports.

Going ahead it will be important for all sports to determine how each variable, from head trauma to drug abuse, impacts the long term neurological health of the athletes. For combat sports specifically, it would be good for further research in mitigating the damage to fighters who do lose via knock out, or even technical knockout.

References:

1. Everett J. Lehman, et. al., “Neurodegenerative causes of death among retired National Football League players,” Neurology, vol. 79 no. 19 1970-1974 (2012)

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How Bad Is a Hit to the Head? Very, Says Science appeared first on Breaking Muscle.