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Women’s winter sports have made substantial strides since the advent of the X GAMES. According to a survey performed on a random sampling of professional snowboarders and skiers, women say they prefer to perform the exact same course runs as men. However, when the same question was phrased to shift the focus onto quantitative measures, the results took a completely different shape. Over 60% of women preferred 50-60 foot jumps, while men, on average, preferred jumps between 70 and 80 feet.

Professional skier Kristi Leskinen initiated the survey. She was curious if there was a direct correlation between women’s injuries and women’s progression in the sport. The survey indicated that while women wanted to make the same range jumps, they were reporting injuries at a frequency 3.5 times as often as men. This suggests that longer jumps could be more dangerous for women. Of course, other factors such as men’s failing to report injuries as often or their underreporting their injuries on the survey could skew this number. A more standardized study could result in much closer numbers.

Changing the jumps for women would be viewed as a setback to women’s progress in extreme sports more than a way to prevent injuries, but the length of the jump shouldn’t be the most important thing. An athlete’s comfort level with performing these tricks at the specific jump range should be the critical issue. When X GAMES administrators suggested the change, there was a huge backlash from pro women’s skiers and snowboarders. Progress in any sport comes with growing pains, regardless of an athlete’s gender.

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.

Astute observers of this winter X-games in Tignes, France, will notice something missing this time around. Past events always included a grand finale of sorts, much like the “cherry-on-top” to the entire competition. As contestants competed throughout the week to reach such pinnacle events as the Ski Slopestyle final or the Superpipe, observers began to get excited about the adrenaline-charged moment: the Best Trick Event.

The Best Trick Event typically included the best and brightest snowboard or snowmobile artists. However, because of the ongoing investigation into the untimely death of X-games snowmobile rider, Caleb Moore, ESPN and the X-games have discontinued the event. The accident occurred in January when Moore’s snowmobile flipped and landed on top of him. Though there was a scramble to uncover him, it was already too late. The danger of these events stems from the competitors’ continuous struggle to push the envelope with bolder moves or better variations.

For example, the 360 degree rotation was once the gold standard in the skateboard/snowboard world. However, once the trick was performed successfully, many were able to eventually mimic it with practice, and the quest to go one step further than ever before continues. Unfortunately, the X-games and ESPN believe this overzealous nature will eventually cause greater accidents like Caleb Moore’s. Greater protection for athletes is key in ensuring greater athlete safety during tricks. Hopefully, with better protective equipment, the Big Trick Event can be safely returned to the Games, as fans will undoubtedly be disappointed this year.

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.

With the shortened hockey season nearing its halfway point, we need to take stock of the reality of the game today. The game used to be played in a much more physical fashion, and hockey was known as a brute’s sport. Incredibly, hockey helmets were once an optional piece of equipment for players.

A recent sports science report from ESPN shows that though helmets are no longer an accessory, they may not be doing enough to prevent injuries. The report revealed that although NHL players are about 20% smaller than NFL players, NHL hits can be 17% harder than hits from NFL players. Due to the shape and coverage of regulation helmets, hockey players are not adequately equipped to deal with the impact of multiple hits.

The results of these findings coincide with the current events in hockey. The NHL has been rocked by concussions (11 in just the past two weeks), according to the New York Times. Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s VP of hockey and business development and head disciplinarian, has made it clear that players will be held accountable via suspensions and fines, for hits targeted towards other players’ heads, but many concussions stem from legal hits to the body. The game, as well as the equipment requirements will have to be reevaluated soon. At the rate it’s going, it’ll need to be done sooner rather than later.

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.

Many combat veterans have been returning from war time duties with traumatic brain injuries. While this is a huge problem, it is not the only concern that health-care professionals, the public, and the families of these men and women need to be aware of. According to ScienceDaily, a number of troops reportedly afflicted with blast-induced traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are now showing signs of vision problems.

Enough data now exists to prove a positive correlation between the two, and the preliminary results look to be quite astonishing. Patients who have experienced blast-specific TBIs are 30% more likely to have vision problems than those who have not. These vision problems fall into a general category, with some troops reporting decreased vision, light sensitivity, and more.

A burning question moving forward: If there is indeed a strong correlation between blast-induced TBIs and vision problems, is there significant correlation between concussions, or general TBIs and vision problems? If so, to what extent, and how severe?

We already know that a concussion checks includes a quick vision screening. However, we don’t know how severe the long-term effects of concussions are on vision. Gregory L. Goodrich, PhD, of the Palo Alto, CA, Veteran’s Affairs stressed the need for further testing on those who suffered from non-blast-related concussions.

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.

The National Football League Players Association wants to team up with Harvard University for a comprehensive study on a broad topic: that which ails football players. And it’s willing to pay $100 million over the course of 10 years to see it happen.

The Players Association is in negotiations with the NFL to start a study that would be used to better diagnose, treat, and prevent player injuries and illnesses, according to a proposal obtained by CNN. That’s any injuries and illnesses, not just head injuries. The research will aim to look at football players across their careers and pinpoint what particular positions and actions cause particular physical problems later on.

The study would be unprecedented in both scope and resources as it relates to NFL player health, according to the Players Association. Initially, the research pool will encompass 1,000 current and former players, who will undergo a series of tests and exhaustive reviews of their playing and injury histories.

The 100 healthiest and the 100 least healthy will then participate in further study over the next several years at Harvard, where hundreds of scientists would potentially be participating. The idea is to discover how the physical and psychological stresses unique to football players come together over long careers and affect the player.

A study of this scope could lead to discoveries that have profound impacts on the health of future football players. And while the research is certainly not going to find the answers to everything which ails football players, it could certainly shed light on and improve the detection, treatment, and prevention of some maladies. And that’s worth $100 million dollars.

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.

In a recent interview with The New Republic, President Obama was asked a tough question that lurks in the minds of football fans everywhere: Does he “take less pleasure in watching football, knowing the impact that the game takes on its players”?

It’s an uncomfortable question – not one with a cut-and-dry answer and not one we like to contemplate. Now that we know how harmful those hard hits are to the men making them and the men taking them, are we still just as happy to watch the concussions-in-progress as we were when ignorance was bliss?

The President, a self-proclaimed football fan, acknowledged the danger and need to change. He said football fans, himself included, are going to have to come to terms with the idea that the game might have to become less exciting in order to make it safer for the players, and then perhaps fans “won't have to examine our consciences quite as much.” He admitted that if he had a son, he’d have to think long and hard before letting him play the game.

He also stated that he worries about college players more than NFL players. He said NFL players are unionized and old enough to make the decision to takes the risks, and most are “well-compensated for the violence they do to their bodies.” One the other hand, he said college players are younger and have nothing to fall back on when faced with brain injury.

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.

While sports concussions are an important segment of the traumatic brain injury issue, less-publicized but equally important are those suffered by our service men and women in combat or even before. Reports from the Pentagon indicate that an average of 16 concussions were suffered each day of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan during the spring of 2011, the highest pace of any period in 10 years of combat.

The causes of brain injuries during combat are vastly different from those during athletics. Blasts from explosives have been the most common cause of combat-related concussions for our troops in Afghanistan, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. And one blast can cause more than one concussion to a person. The scope of the people affected by these injuries is not insignificant.

The number of concussions in Iraq and Afghanistan reported each year steeply rose in the last several years, from 808 in 2005 to 3,880 in 2010, according to USA Today. Much if not all of that increase is attributed to more attention given to potential concussions and improvements in battlefield diagnosis, which are good. But by the same token, the difference between the numbers could represent thousands of undiagnosed brain injuries during combat over the past decade.

It’s not only during combat that concussions are a concern, either. A startling report by National Public Radio in August 2012 revealed the preliminary results of a study of military brain injuries during training, a study which centered on Fort Hood in Texas. According to the preliminary findings, hand-to-hand combat training classes saw a concussion about every other day over a nine month period. Six percent of the soldiers in those classes said they’d been hit in the head and were suffering the symptoms that indicate head injury.

While these numbers are disturbing, measures are being taken to better protect our troops. In the last year, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veteran Affairs, the Army, and the Navy have all made extensive efforts – including funding research, working with the NFL, and screening and treating soldiers more successfully – to fight these “invisible wounds of war.”

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.

In yet another testament to the severity of the head injury problem, the U.S. government has begun a study of youth sports-related head injuries, according to Reuters. The study, which was prompted at least in part by concerns over the suicides among professional football players, was launched by the Institute of Medicine among athletes from elementary through young adulthood.

The initiative, according to Reuters, will be "one of the most extensive ever done” and should garner plenty of attention from the public, given the sensitive nature of the topic. Child safety is obviously an incredibly important topic to the general public, and sports are, in one way or another, near and dear to the heart of most Americans. As Robert Graham, head of the study’s panel, put it, “You start talking about, 'Is it safe for Sally to be playing soccer?,' you get lots of public interest.”

Given the scarcity of data about youth sports head injuries and the critical nature of the issue, several big-name organizations in the medical world and the government have stepped up to the plate to sponsor this study: the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health to name some.

The study is in its very early stages as yet and probably won’t be concluded and presented to the Institute until summer, and it will be late 2013 before its findings are published for the public to examine. Be ready for some sobering wake-up calls when that time comes.

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.

In a recent article, a Texas coach stressed that concussions are occurring more often as a result of the public’s lack of education regarding head injuries. Many people already know that concussions occur most often as a result of severe collisions. However, an often-overlooked truth about head injuries is that they're not always caused by person-to-person collisions. The sport that reported the second highest number of concussions was girl's soccer, caused by repeatedly heading the ball and colliding with the goalpost.

According to Kenneth Locker, manager of sports marketing for Texas Health Resources, these sub-concussive hits are dangerous because players (especially in youth sports) are often not removed from games afterward. Youth players who continue to play in a daze are actually at incredibly high risk for even more serious brain injuries.

Locker also points out that it takes younger players much longer to recover than adults. So, if the games are not properly spaced out, athletes can be put in precarious positions. Even if they sit out an entire the game, they might not be prepared to play the next, but most coaches play them anyway. Mishaps like this could hinder players for the rest of their careers.

Teach your children (or your youth players and coaches) to learn about recognizing sub-concussive symptoms. And take time to implement complete sideline tests for medical staff. Protect your players and your communities with information that can help them enjoy the game without being subject to its negative effects.

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.

Robert Griffin III gave Washington Redskins fans a scare. But his MRI revealed that no serious damage was done. The same couldn't be said for Bears fans as they watched six players fall to injury nor the Eagles who watched yet another player suffer a concussion...

Robert Griffin III, QB, Washington Redskins:  RG3 suffered a knee sprain, but an MRI showed that there was no serious damage. The Redskins escaped with the win and hopefully their quarterback.

Jay Cutler, QB, Chicago Bears:  Another brutal shot sent Cutler out of the game with a neck injury, while the Bears lost yet another game they were favored to win. Five total Bears players, including their kicker, were injured. Tough day.

Brent Celek, TE, Philadelphia Eagles:  Add this the veteran Eagles tight end to the list of Philly players sidelined with a concussion.

Terrell Suggs, LB, Baltimore Ravens:  It was announced just before the game that Suggs wouldn’t be playing because of a torn bicep; however, most people expect him to be on the sidelines for more than just this week.

Ray Rice, RB, Baltimore Ravens:  Ray Rice has been limited by a hip pointer but he seems to be hopeful for next week.

Ahmad Bradshaw, RB, New York GIants:  Bradshaw went down early against the Saints but was able to return. However, he wasn’t used very much.

Brandon Pettigrew, WR, Detroit Lions:  Pettigrew went down with another injury – this time a sprained ankle – in the first half of the game against Green Bay. Calvin Johnson’s productivity seemed to suffer as a result as well.

Injuries to watch for this week:  Knee injuries and ankle injuries

The wear-and-tear of the season is starting to show as joint injuries start to pop up with increasing frequency.  It’s surprising that there weren’t more injuries in the Sunday Night Football Game between Green Bay and Detroit: the Green Bay cornerbacks were hitting hard!

*Scientists have no conclusive evidence as to whether or how the reduction of g forces during impacts reduces the number or degree of concussions and head injuries. GelDefender^TM products provide supplemental padding as well as cooling and comfort benefits when used with helmets and caps. Participants in activities in which head impacts can occur should always use tested and approved helmets for protection. However, no helmet or supplemental padding can protect the user from all serious head or neck injuries that can result from impacts.