Cause And Effect Of Persuasive Essay On Concussions
Sports get physical no matter if it is contract or not, one of the major problems with getting tossed around is head trauma. Concussions happen when someone sustains a hard hit to the head and gets their “bell rung”. This is where the brain hits against the skull damaging part of it. This is a very serious injury that cannot be taken lightly because if not properly treated it can have ill effects down the road that can lead to more serious problems. In high school sports it's all about winning and some players and coaches lose sight of the safety aspect in sports. The big problem with this is if an athlete sustains a concussion and keeps playing, they are just setting themselves up for failure. What needs to happen is today's coaches and athletes need to be properly
…show more content…
educated how to recognize the injury and sit out and recover. With this in mind there are certain diseases down the road that are caused by not being educated in concussions and then going out and having several hard hits to the head and not properly recovering. One of the diseases that could follow many hard hits to the head and not properly recovering is ALS. ALS is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, which attacks the muscles in the body. This happens because the body will not produce the enzyme superoxide which helps keep muscles in working order. It first starts in the spinal cord and eventually will paralyze everything in your body, but your mind is perfectly in tact and you can still see. Just to put this in perspective you can not move you are on a respirator because your lungs can not function by themselves lose the ability to talk and you become very dependent on a loved one or a nurse to take care of, but all through this awful event your mind is completely fine. The life span of a person with ALS is 2-5 years and they eventually die of choking to death. The past decade scientist have made further research on this and linked hits to the head with ALS. It's not just one or two but several hits and not properly recovering from this head trauma. There is still no cure but there scientist have made leaps and bounds reseach wise with new equipment. This is how they linked many concussions to ALS.
Some of the professional athletes have been diagnosed with ALS. Some of these more popular ALS cases are football players, but there are more pro football players that are getting hits to the head and being diagnosed with ALS. Football is a very live contact sport. With high number of football players getting diagnosed with ALS the NFL is working on redoing their standards of hitting players in the head by eliminating no live contact in the off season. Then they are trying to reteach the players how to “properly” tackle each other. Now instead of going for a head butt they can only tackle under the hips. NFL players have said they would rather have a concussion and be out for a couple weeks, then blowing out their knee due to the new rules, which could bench them for a couple months to recover or if it is a really bad injury it could end their career as football players. Many players strongly oppose this new rule and have told their defenders on the opposite team to hit them in the head and they will pay their fine.
There is just more than football players getting ALS. For example a Baseball player, Lou Gehrig. He never missed a game, pretty fearless playing style and one of his more serious concussions his head swelled up so much he borrowed Babe Ruth's hat and then played an entire game. Lou Gehrig help start a global conversation on ALS by giving a speech after his last game. He was very open about his condition. Football is just being attacked in the US because it is the most popular sport, while some sports are not doing a thing to protect their players, for instance soccer player's head butt the balls or get hard hits and soccer has not made any rule changes to try and reduce the amount of concussions. Athletes are getting ALS at a younger age because they are bigger , faster, and stronger. There is a lot of pressure on little children in sports, because if they get a good grasp at first they will be able to understand the game at a younger age and advance higher than other teammates. Parents and coaches get into the mentality that the child just got their head bumped, while it could be a very serious head injury. If younger athletes are getting concessions at a younger age, this means they have a greater chance of being diagnosed with ALS at a younger age also. What needs to happen is that Parents, coaches, and the athlete needs to be properly educated how to recognize a concussion, and how to try and prevent them. If there are proper education in place it could totally change how the next generations play sports. But there will always be a slight chance that an athlete can get a concussion, which means they need to know exactly what they are getting into. Another type of Disease that is linked to many hard hits to the head is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or more commonly known as CTE. This is a disease that attacks the brain. What happens is there is an abnormal amount of the protein Tau. This protein affects the white matter in the brain. The white matter in the brain starts to deteriorate which affects the emotion part of the brain like; Impaired judgment, Impulse control issues, mood swings, depression. Unlike how a person can be diagnosed with ALS, players have to be dead in order for the scientist to properly analyze the brain and determine if they have CTE. When the person is alive doctors may have a general idea that they might have CTE, but it is not for sure. This is a brain degenation disease that breaks down the brain to eventually nothing. The hard part of recognizing this disease is that it is similar to other diseases for example Dementia, Alzheimer's. It would not be that hard for a person to be misdiagnosed with some else and receive the wrong treatment. Most of the time people with CTE go crazy and kill themselves from the crazy mood changes and depression. Scientist are doing research on CTEs but it is very difficult because it is a disease with no cure and attacks the white matter in the brain. Athletes are suffering from CTEs more than anyone else because they are receiving more subconcussive and symptomatic concussion hits than anyone else. Athletes in a live contact sport have a greater chance of receiving these types of hits that can lead to CTE. The sports world is trying to prevent more hits to head so the athletes have a lesser chance of having CTE. Just like how the NFL is trying to prevent ALS they are also trying to prevent CTEs by redoing some rules, telling the referees to look for head hits and eliminate live contact in the off season. But only so much can be done it's ultimately up to a player how they will react to this. In boys and girls there is a difference in concussions and who is more susceptible to getting them or how they are affected.
Girls have an easier time getting a concussion because they don't have a strong necks like boys and smaller heads. Their mood changes to irritable, sluggish and keeping to themselves. With guys they still get concussions and they do get pretty bad but their mood is totally opposite how they act, for example they lash out, really irritable, aggression, and tried. Generally it is easier to spot a concussion in guys because they act completely different from their normal selves. But with girls they keep to themselves. More girls than guys will report that they have a concussion. The different test out in the sports world to test for concussions are baseline test and impact test. The baseline test is a test that happens before season starts and it sets the bar so coaches can tell during game that they have a concussion. An impact test is a test that happens after the player gets hit and to tell if they have a concussion. In both groups there are small differences that pull the individuals out that they have head trauma, it's all about the early recognition that needs to
happen. ALS is more complex than just getting your bell rung, it's about multiple hits to the head with no rest, which leads to muscle degeneration. In the sports world Football is getting the most publicity on the topic but many other sports are affected by ALS. Athletes are getting ALS at a younger age because they are a lot stronger now days and have pressure on them to perform well. CTEs is another disease that is caused by hits to the head but it affects the brain not the muscles. More athletes are getting CTEs because they keep hitting each other in the head which is very harmful. Out of boys and girls, girls have a higher chance of getting a concussion because they do not have as strong as necks as guys.
educated how to recognize the injury and sit out and recover. With this in mind there are certain diseases down the road that are caused by not being educated in concussions and then going out and having several hard hits to the head and not properly recovering. One of the diseases that could follow many hard hits to the head and not properly recovering is ALS. ALS is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, which attacks the muscles in the body. This happens because the body will not produce the enzyme superoxide which helps keep muscles in working order. It first starts in the spinal cord and eventually will paralyze everything in your body, but your mind is perfectly in tact and you can still see. Just to put this in perspective you can not move you are on a respirator because your lungs can not function by themselves lose the ability to talk and you become very dependent on a loved one or a nurse to take care of, but all through this awful event your mind is completely fine. The life span of a person with ALS is 2-5 years and they eventually die of choking to death. The past decade scientist have made further research on this and linked hits to the head with ALS. It's not just one or two but several hits and not properly recovering from this head trauma. There is still no cure but there scientist have made leaps and bounds reseach wise with new equipment. This is how they linked many concussions to ALS.
Some of the professional athletes have been diagnosed with ALS. Some of these more popular ALS cases are football players, but there are more pro football players that are getting hits to the head and being diagnosed with ALS. Football is a very live contact sport. With high number of football players getting diagnosed with ALS the NFL is working on redoing their standards of hitting players in the head by eliminating no live contact in the off season. Then they are trying to reteach the players how to “properly” tackle each other. Now instead of going for a head butt they can only tackle under the hips. NFL players have said they would rather have a concussion and be out for a couple weeks, then blowing out their knee due to the new rules, which could bench them for a couple months to recover or if it is a really bad injury it could end their career as football players. Many players strongly oppose this new rule and have told their defenders on the opposite team to hit them in the head and they will pay their fine.
There is just more than football players getting ALS. For example a Baseball player, Lou Gehrig. He never missed a game, pretty fearless playing style and one of his more serious concussions his head swelled up so much he borrowed Babe Ruth's hat and then played an entire game. Lou Gehrig help start a global conversation on ALS by giving a speech after his last game. He was very open about his condition. Football is just being attacked in the US because it is the most popular sport, while some sports are not doing a thing to protect their players, for instance soccer player's head butt the balls or get hard hits and soccer has not made any rule changes to try and reduce the amount of concussions. Athletes are getting ALS at a younger age because they are bigger , faster, and stronger. There is a lot of pressure on little children in sports, because if they get a good grasp at first they will be able to understand the game at a younger age and advance higher than other teammates. Parents and coaches get into the mentality that the child just got their head bumped, while it could be a very serious head injury. If younger athletes are getting concessions at a younger age, this means they have a greater chance of being diagnosed with ALS at a younger age also. What needs to happen is that Parents, coaches, and the athlete needs to be properly educated how to recognize a concussion, and how to try and prevent them. If there are proper education in place it could totally change how the next generations play sports. But there will always be a slight chance that an athlete can get a concussion, which means they need to know exactly what they are getting into. Another type of Disease that is linked to many hard hits to the head is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or more commonly known as CTE. This is a disease that attacks the brain. What happens is there is an abnormal amount of the protein Tau. This protein affects the white matter in the brain. The white matter in the brain starts to deteriorate which affects the emotion part of the brain like; Impaired judgment, Impulse control issues, mood swings, depression. Unlike how a person can be diagnosed with ALS, players have to be dead in order for the scientist to properly analyze the brain and determine if they have CTE. When the person is alive doctors may have a general idea that they might have CTE, but it is not for sure. This is a brain degenation disease that breaks down the brain to eventually nothing. The hard part of recognizing this disease is that it is similar to other diseases for example Dementia, Alzheimer's. It would not be that hard for a person to be misdiagnosed with some else and receive the wrong treatment. Most of the time people with CTE go crazy and kill themselves from the crazy mood changes and depression. Scientist are doing research on CTEs but it is very difficult because it is a disease with no cure and attacks the white matter in the brain. Athletes are suffering from CTEs more than anyone else because they are receiving more subconcussive and symptomatic concussion hits than anyone else. Athletes in a live contact sport have a greater chance of receiving these types of hits that can lead to CTE. The sports world is trying to prevent more hits to head so the athletes have a lesser chance of having CTE. Just like how the NFL is trying to prevent ALS they are also trying to prevent CTEs by redoing some rules, telling the referees to look for head hits and eliminate live contact in the off season. But only so much can be done it's ultimately up to a player how they will react to this. In boys and girls there is a difference in concussions and who is more susceptible to getting them or how they are affected.
Girls have an easier time getting a concussion because they don't have a strong necks like boys and smaller heads. Their mood changes to irritable, sluggish and keeping to themselves. With guys they still get concussions and they do get pretty bad but their mood is totally opposite how they act, for example they lash out, really irritable, aggression, and tried. Generally it is easier to spot a concussion in guys because they act completely different from their normal selves. But with girls they keep to themselves. More girls than guys will report that they have a concussion. The different test out in the sports world to test for concussions are baseline test and impact test. The baseline test is a test that happens before season starts and it sets the bar so coaches can tell during game that they have a concussion. An impact test is a test that happens after the player gets hit and to tell if they have a concussion. In both groups there are small differences that pull the individuals out that they have head trauma, it's all about the early recognition that needs to
happen. ALS is more complex than just getting your bell rung, it's about multiple hits to the head with no rest, which leads to muscle degeneration. In the sports world Football is getting the most publicity on the topic but many other sports are affected by ALS. Athletes are getting ALS at a younger age because they are a lot stronger now days and have pressure on them to perform well. CTEs is another disease that is caused by hits to the head but it affects the brain not the muscles. More athletes are getting CTEs because they keep hitting each other in the head which is very harmful. Out of boys and girls, girls have a higher chance of getting a concussion because they do not have as strong as necks as guys.