CONCUSSION & CTE

Magdalena V. Ambriz

RWS 1301
 Introduction

Concussions are something I know all too well, having two of them and almost having a third!

Is not the best experience? Throughout high school I played soccer all four years and none of

my injuries that I had are as worse than a concussion, I got my first concussion my sophomore

year, in all honesty I didn’t even know I had one I got hit in the head through the first half and

got a little dizzy but still played. The next day I couldn’t even look at any lights they hurt so bad I

later went to the trainers and found out I had a concussion. I went to the hospital and was

taken in for a MRI, they looked at my brain and saw my brain was bruised and ruled it a

concussion and a contusion. My senior I got my second concussion from hitting a pole from the

goal post. To this day, I have major headaches and migraines from my concussions.

Concussions and what they are

A concussion is a when you get hit in the head really hard and

soon have symptoms after the blow. The symptoms after are

nausea, unable to look at light, and headaches that hurt more

than usual. You will notice the symptoms soon after maybe

around 30 minutes after the hit, some it just maybe a mild

concussion but other you can lose consciousness. When losing consciousness blacking out is

common for a certain amount of time, also not knowing where you may be at the time has also

been reported. Where can concussions happen? They can happen anywhere at any time, even

in the house just by hitting the head to hard against an object.

 The most frequent places where concussions happen are in sports mainly Boxing, Football and

soccer, they have the most recorded blows to the head and are the closest range to hitting each

other. Although a concussion does not mean that you need to lose consciousness (Ted Talk,

protecting the brain on concussion). In some cases, mostly high school when getting hit and

getting a concussion some people don’t even need to go to a hospital or seek medical attention

after. In most cases they should seek medical attention.

What is a concussion and the effects after?

Concussions start as small things that you would never think will hurt you in the future but in

reality, they do they come back in different ways one ways being CTE or also known as chronic

traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is caused by having too many blows to the head during a long

period of time, this is mostly seen in boxers, football players, soccer players its even been seen

in people who were in the military. CTE is a detrition of the brain, it slowly goes away, and you

may never know it. Pathologists such as Bennet Omalu who is a neuropathologist found the

first form of CTE in a professional football players brain. The football player was Mike Webster

he played for the Pittsburg Steelers, Mike had been dealing with CTE by himself no one to help

or look out for him.

The pathologist Omalu was made famous for his discovery through Mike Webster’s brain, CTE

was never easy to find he had to go through so much to find it. It is not something that is visible

to the eye when you look at the brain, there were test that were run just to find this disease.

Looking under a microscope to find this disease, they discovered that they aren’t blood clots,

but they are small forms of detrition. Mike Webster was the first of many to have this disease,

the New York Times had an article of how many were found with this disease there were 202
 football players who passed away. Out of those 202 football players

more than half had CTE 110 football players were diagnosed with CTE.

(The New York Times, 110 NFL Brains Joe Ward). In the picture below, it

was taken from a news article it shows CTE and where it is in the brain

Figure 1 CTE in the brain of a
football player. Retrieved
from the New York Times.
and what it looks like. The tiny miniscule dots are what cause so many
issues and what is known as CTE.
Not seeking Medical Attention After a Concussion?

In high school sports there are athletic trainers and they are well certified to understand

when a child has a concussion or not. Do they really make the right call, some kids after a blow

to the head don’t have any symptoms and say they “feel fine” when in reality some symptoms

hit after and the trainers say “you are good to go back in” the child goes back into the game not

knowing they have a concussion? Then soon after might getting hit again or just continue

playing, when getting hit in the head there should be more regulations before a child can go

back to playing and maybe getting hit in the head again.

There should be more precautions and actions taken to ensure that people do not have a

concussion. If a child has a concussion during the game and an athletic trainer says you have a

concussion and you have to follow the concussion protocol, the concussion protocol is two

weeks and one week is getting back into training before you go back into the game. This is all

they get before they go back out on to the field, none in which is going to a doctor to seek

better help. After the blow has happened, the athletic trainer says “you have a concussion”

immediately they should be taken to the emergency room or just in general the hospital. With
an actual certified doctor or Neurosurgeon to check and run a head CT or MRI to be sure or just

in general a full concussion test.

Concussion conclusion

In conclusion to this more should be done to ensure safety to athletes everywhere from

professional to colligate athletes. More safety measures such as protocols and equipment

should be worn to make it safer to play the game they love. Soccer has concussion headbands

they are padded so they do not hit the ball to hard when they head it or so that there are no

head to head collisions in the game. Football are soon working on a new helmet, but it has yet

to be released. There can be more done all that is needed is the right research and to be well

aware of what is going on in sports today. Athletes are getting bigger and stronger every day

and we have to now keep up with it to ensure safety.

 Abstract

Concussions are not meant to be played around with because in football or in soccer they may

seem like nothing. But soon they add up the brain get damaged more and more after everyone

you get, soon after you can develop multiple brain diseases after multiple blows to the head.

One in this case is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopthy which is a brain degenerative disease in

this disease it causes many issues such as Bi polar disorder you can have many moods and many

different personalities. It can also cause you too see things that aren’t there, which isn’t good

because it can cause sleep depreviation. Concussions are not something to be playing around

with medical attention is needed for a concussion, not severe medical attention but just

medical attention is needed for it. Just to be looked at and making sure it couldn’t be

something else than a concussion.

Key words:

#CTE #Concussions
 Sources

Gorgens, K. (Speaker). (2010, May) Protecting the brain against concussion. TED talk.
https://www.ted.com/talks/kim_gorgens_protecting_the_brain_against_concussion/up-next

Camarillo, D. (speaker). (2016 April) why helmets don’t prevent concussions

- and what might.
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_camarillo_why_helmets_don_t_prevent_concussions_and_
what_might/up-next

Yi, June young MD1; Padalino, David J. MD; Chin, Lawrence S. MD, FACS1; Montenegro, Philip
BS; Cantu, Robert C. MD. January/ February 2013. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Current
sports medicine report, Volume 12 - issue 1- p 28-32. https://journals.lww.com/acsm-
csmr/Fulltext/2013/01000/Chronic_Traumatic_Encephalopathy.10.aspx

Joe Ward, Josh Williams and Sam Manchester (2017, July 25) 110 N.F.L. Brains. The New York
Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/sports/football/nfl-cte.html