In the United States, there are approximately are between 1.6 and 3.8 million sports-related concussions in annually. These statistics caused the C.D.C. to conclude that sports concussions in the United States have reached an epidemic level. While most concussions are related to playing sports, there are other ways to get a concussion. Nevertheless, all concussions can have negative health effects.
Concussions have numerous symptoms and effects. For example, after a brain injury emotions can be hard to control. A traumatic brain injury can change the way people feel or express emotions. A person may experience bouts of laughing or crying, which have nothing to do with how the person is actually feeling. …show more content…
First of all, concussions can increase the risk for Alzheimer’s and other memory degenerative diseases. Several studies have found a relationship between head trauma and Alzheimer’s later in life. In the studies, people with a history of mild brain injuries had a higher than expected amount of Alzheimer’s pathology in the brain. Therefore those people were more likely to get Alzheimer’s. Additionally, a person with a concussion could suffer from second impact syndrome. In second impact syndrome a person who is recovering from an initial concussion sustains a subsequent concussive injury, resulting in diffuse brain swelling and a severe, permanent decrease in brain function or death. This is likely to happen to athletes because there is repetitive head trauma from participation in contact sports. Head injury can also cause an intracranial hemorrhage, or bleeding in the brain. Bleeding in the brain can lead to a build-up in pressure in the brain. This can cause the brain to shift. The patient may develop weakness on one side of the body, seizure activity and may go into a coma. Intracranial hemorrhages usually require surgery immediately. Concussions and other related traumatic brain injuries can lead to numerous syndromes and