Brain trauma is no laughing matter. Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) may not leave visible bruises, but even a single blow to the head, if violent enough, can have permanent effects on intellectual, physical, and mental functions. The severity of a TBI depends on the type and amount of force that impacts the head. Concussions are a form of mild TBI and happen so often that 75 percent of all Americans will likely have at least one during their lifetime.
The most frequent causes of concussions are vehicle accidents, sports, and falls. While a car wreck can result in just about any personal injury, concussions are extremely common because they can occur even without a direct hit to the head. Even a minor fender bender can bump the brain enough to produce a concussion, because the brain continues forward at the same speed as the car until it hits the skull’s front wall – and then it bounces back against the skull’s rear wall. The impact of a traffic accident causes the brain’s soft tissue to smash back and forth against the skull’s hard bone, causing bruising, bleeding, and tearing of nerve fibers.
Athletics can be personally rewarding, but they also come with a high probability of injury. Whether amateur or professional, youth or adult, practice or game, any sport can result in a player’s getting a concussion. Many athletes find it difficult to admit to injury, knowing they may be pulled from the game. However, the gravity of the possible consequences means that any athlete suspected of experiencing a concussion should immediately be removed from play, and the process of returning should be gradual. Guidelines designed to probe and punish teams that violate concussion protocol have been adopted by the NFL and the NFL Players Association.
Slips and falls can happen to anyone, but they often lead to concussions when they happen to an elderly person. Seniors are likely to hit their head when they fall, to take more time to heal, and to take anticoagulant medications that can make them extremely vulnerable to the effects of a bump to the head. Doing balance-improving exercises, wearing shoes indoors, and not getting up from a seated position too quickly can all help reduce an older person’s risk of falling.
