traumatic brain injury

A helpful compilation of statistics on concussions, exercise-induced asthma, exertional heat illness, sudden cardiac arrest, exertional sickling, use of steroids and dietary supplements, and cervical spine injury collected by the National Athletic Trainers' Association.

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.

Brain trauma to youth and high school players in contact and collision sports can occur not just from violent helmet-on-helmet collisions but from repetitive sub-concussive blows.  There are five major ways to reduce exposure to such hits, experts say.

Brain trauma among football players may be less the result of violent helmet-on-helmet collisions that cause concussions as the accumulation of sub-concussive blows.  The long-term effects of such repetitive brain trauma are still unknown.

Ever wonder if media exposure can have a positive effect on sports safety? One has to look no further than to what happened after the deaths of two celebrities in skiing accidents in Europe and North America during the winter of 2008-9, the first, a German politician, wearing a ski helmet, who suffered a traumatic brain injury but survived a collision with a helmet-less mother of four on a ski slope in Austria on New Year's Day 2009 in which the woman died; the second, involving actress Natasha Richardson, who died after a traumatic head injury while skiing without a helmet on a beginner's slope in Quebec in March 2009.

Deteriorating mental status after head trauma may indicate a more serious, potentially life-threatening brain injury requiring immediate hospitalization.