Amid increased awareness of the long-term damage that head-knocking sports collisions can inflict, many student-athletes are taking computer-based tests to examine their memory, reaction time and attention skills. The exams are used to help determine whether athletes have suffered concussions, and if they have recovered. The Washington Post reports that [...]
When it comes to boxing, children and teenagers should throw in the towel before ever lacing up their gloves. That's the thrust of a new policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which says the sport carries too great a risk of chronic and acute brain injuries for young [...]
The brain of a former National Football League player who committed suicide in February, Dave Duerson, showed “moderately advanced” signs of a dementia-like disease linked to athletes who have suffered repeated brain trauma. The finding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, was announced by Dr. Ann McKee, a co-director of [...]
The National Hockey League is taking aim at the sport's problem with concussions. As Bloomberg reports, the league is adopting a more stringent protocol requiring that players showing symptoms of a concussion be evaluated by a physician in a quiet space away from the action and emotion of the game. [...]
The organization that monitors the safety of American athletic gear is promising to pursue new football helmet standards to better protect young football players. The New York Times reports that the pledge came at the conclusion of the annual meeting of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, [...]
Just two weeks after the National Football League announced a crackdown on helmet-to-helmet tackles to reduce the risk of head injuries, the American Academy of Neurology has issued recommendations for protecting amateur and professional athletes who may have suffered a concussion. Any athlete with a possible concussion should be removed [...]
Football players at all levels seem to get bigger and faster every year. But one thing hasn’t changed for decades: the helmets that young football players wear. The New York Times reports that, despite increasing concussions in youth football and growing awareness of cognitive problems stemming from the injury, the [...]
The National Football League is signaling that it will get tougher with players for dangerous and flagrant hits on the field, particularly helmet-to-helmet blows to the head. The league says that, beginning with this weekend's games, unnecessarily dangerous hits will be cause for suspension, the Associated Press reports. The NFL [...]
Young athletes are suffering more and more concussions while playing team sports. A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics reports that emergency room visits for concussions sustained in organized youth sports more than doubled from 2001 to 2005. And that sharp increase occurred even as participation in team athletics fell. The [...]