Articles Posted in Brain Injury

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nathan-dumlao-1064615-unsplash-copy-200x300Whether you live in San Marcos or elsewhere in the San Diego County area, it is important to know about electric scooters and the personal injury risks they pose. According to a recent news release from the University of California, new research suggests that e-scooters are tied to high rates of traumatic brain injury (TBI), broken bones, and dislocated joints. Those who sustain these types of injuries on e-scooters require medical attention, and some seemingly less serious injuries also require riders to seek treatment in an emergency department.

Why are e-scooters dangerous, and how should residents around San Diego County respond?

New Study Ties Electric Scooters to Serious Personal Injuries

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jeffrey-f-lin-750541-unsplash-copy-300x200More research funds are going toward sports-related concussion studies and concussion risks for youth athletes. We often think about football and other contact sports when we consider traumatic brain injury (TBI) risks, yet many different sports and recreational activities can put young athletes at serious risk of sustaining a concussion.

A recent study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University found that concussions are more common than we previously thought among female soccer players. Nearly 30% of all soccer injuries are concussions. To put that number in perspective, about 24% of all football injuries are concussions. To put that another way, more girls suffer sports-related concussions playing soccer in high school than do boys who play football.

Girls Soccer Players Suffer Head Injuries More Often Than Boys Soccer Players

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joao-victor-xavier-304057-copy-300x169Sports-related concussions and other types of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) caused by contact sports have received significant attention in the last decade after numerous athletes showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). In response to the high rate of brain trauma among youth athletes and professional athletes in contact sports in particular, researchers began engaging in in-depth studies surrounding football and head injuries. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Michigan, high school football players may have concussion biomarkers after taking a hit to the head without showing obvious symptoms.

This new research could help to prevent additional injuries among high school athletes, and it could ensure that youth football players receive the medical treatment and rest they need after suffering a mild TBI, even if they are not showing symptoms of a concussion.

Symptoms of Concussions May Not be Enough to Assess Likelihood of a TBI

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bm0y9zmka1m-sean-brown-300x109Vista residents and others throughout Southern California who have suffered significant traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) should know that additional new research is being documented in this area all the time. More precisely, researchers continue to investigate the link between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). According to a recent press release from University of California, Davis, funding from the Pew Foundation will support new initiatives that will involve research into the biochemistry behind brain trauma. The research is part of a broader initiative to investigate and combat TBIs—including concussions—in both youth and professional sports leagues.

Biochemistry, Hits to the Head, and Traumatic Brain Injury

As the press release discusses, we know that behavioral changes take place in the brain after concussions. What we do not know, however, is precisely how the biochemistry of the brain changes, ultimately leading to those mood shifts. Kassandra Ori-McKenney, an assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology at UC Davis, is researching TBIs and biochemistry. Ori-McKenney won fellowship and is the 2018 Pew biomedical scholar. The funding provides $300,000 over the course of four years, during which time Ori-McKenney “will investigate the role of the protein tau in the development of neurodegeneration resulting from traumatic brain injury.” Thus far, we know that there is a “strong correlation with the expression and spread of tau throughout the brain’s circularity.”

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bm0y9zmka1m-sean-brown-300x109If you or someone you love recent sustained a jolt to the head that led you to have concerns about a concussion or a more severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), you may have visited a hospital in Southern California. This is a good start, yet visiting a doctor just once over a suspected concussion may be insufficient. While many concussions go untreated in general—meaning that the injury victim never seeks a medical assessment or medical treatment for the head wound—there is a new problem involving a lack of follow-up care. According to a recent news release from the University of Southern California, “most concussion patients get no care after leaving [the] hospital.”

What does this mean in practice? In short, more than 50% of people who suffer concussions fail to seek the follow-up care they need in order to recover from the injury.

Patients Risk Adverse Effects by Avoiding Follow-Up Treatment After a TBI

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bm0y9zmka1m-sean-brown-300x109If you or someone you love suffers a concussion in San Marcos, it is important to know how that traumatic brain injury (TBI) could have effects years later. Much of the current news about head trauma and long-term effects concerns chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease of the brain that researchers believe results from multiple bumps or blows to the head. CTE is not the only possible long-term effect of sustaining a single—or multiple—concussions when you are younger. According to a recent article in Popular Science, a new study published in Neurology suggests that a single concussion “can significantly increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.”

Even a Single, Mild Brain Injury can Have Effects Decades Later

The new study was conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. Their research indicates that the amount of a person’s increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease after sustaining a mild TBI is “contingent on how severe the brain injury was, but even a mild brain injury raised the likelihood of Parkinson’s by as much as 56%.” Some of the most common mild traumatic brain injuries are concussions. To clarify, if you sustain a single concussion in your lifetime, your risk of developing Parkinson’s disease could increase by up to 56% in comparison with a person who has never sustained a concussion or another TBI.

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rmwtvqn5rzu-jesse-orrico-300x199When we discuss concussions and other traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in kids in Carlsbad and throughout California, we often think about teen athletes who sustain head trauma in contact sports. However, as the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) explains, there are many ways in which children sustain mild TBIs and more serious head wounds. For example, the majority of brain injuries in children occur in motor vehicle crashes (more than 60,000 every year), followed by fall-related injuries. More than 500,000 kids require treatment in emergency departments every year as a result of TBIs.

All of this is to say that parents should be considering the long-term risks of TBIs even when their kids do not play sports but sustain a concussion or another serious head injury after falling from a bike or being involved in a traffic collision. According to a recent report in CBS News, kids who recover from TBIs may be at risk of developing ADHD at a later point. Indeed, as the report indicates, “young children who sustain a severe head injury may struggle with attention problems as they grow older.” What else do parents in Carlsbad need to know about TBIs in children and ADHD risks?

New Study Addresses Long-Term Implications of Severe TBI in Children

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joao-victor-xavier-304057-copy-300x169Athletes and other individuals in Valley Center who sustain concussions and other traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) may be more likely to develop early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recent study reported in Science Daily. Although the researchers behind the study emphasize that their results should not prevent parents from allowing their children to play sports and to engage in other extracurricular activities, it is nonetheless important to recognize that, for the first time, there is a clear link between TBI and Alzheimer’s disease.

If you want to read the study in detail, you can find the results published in the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychology. In the meantime, what else should Southern California residents know about the new study?

Details of the TBI and Alzheimer’s Study

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joao-victor-xavier-304057-copy-300x169Do you have a child who currently plays a contact sport such as football or soccer in Escondido? Do you often worry about the risks of concussion and the likelihood of coaches properly identifying concussion risks on the field? An article in the National Academies Press, which is a journal connected to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, concussions are notoriously difficult to detect.

The article underscores that “part of the underreporting of concussions stems from the fact that the injury cannot be seen,” given that “with a concussion, there is no obvious injury such as when an arm or leg is dislocated.” There are, of course, signs and symptoms of concussions, but these are not always dispositive. As such, teen athletes and others who sustain blows to the head may suffer from concussions but may not be properly diagnosed. A missed diagnosis or improper diagnosis can result in long-term harm.

However, according to a recent article in The New York Times, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved a blood test that is designed to detect concussions. How does it work?

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rmwtvqn5rzu-jesse-orrico-300x199If your child plays football or another contact sport in Vista, it is important to learn more about a recent study suggesting that other hits to the head—and not just concussions—can cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). According to a recent report in the Washington Post, a new study has examined the brains of teenage athletes and has determined that signs of CTE appear even when those teen athletes did not sustain concussions but simply received hits to the head.

Since information about CTE and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) entered into our lexicon, we have been taught that concussions are the cause of this degenerative disease. Now, however, it looks as if blows to the head that are not severe enough to cause a concussion may also result in this debilitating and ultimately deadly disease.

Concussions May be Irrelevant in Triggering CTE

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