could this be another reason not to let your kid play football
when i was being interviewed about my medical history when
i went to the alzheimers research center at ut southwestern
one of the questions i was asked was
have you ever had a concussion
well yes i said
i have had three of them
they all were sports related concussions
one kept me overnight in the hospital because i was talking
so goofy for several hours
none of which even today do i remember
the first one i had was in the 8th grade
my friend who ended up pole vaulting in college and i
would get these bamboo poles from the local furniture store
they were used inside a roll of carpeting
we would get them since they would bend if you
used them to pole vault with
this was in the days before the fiberglass poles that bent
to fling you over the bar
interestingly i became a physician
he became a medical malpractice attorney
well this bamboo pole would bend some
then help give you momentum to vault higher
of course it not like the fiberglass poles
would splinter easier
which i found out
as i was vaulting up into the air
my feet higher than the ground
down i went as it splintered
right on the back of my head
the next thing i remember it was 3 hours later
i awoke in bed with a severe headache
then in the 9th grade playing qb in football i was hit hard
right before halftime
my coach found me in the other teams locker room
confused
i finished the game though
not a good thing as it turns out
then at the age of late 40s i was kneed in the head as i slid
into third base
none of this or the next several hours do i remember anything
that happened
my wife she said i was real goofy talking crazy
so to the er i went
then to the ct scanner
then to icu for the night
i can remember feeling bad and strange for several days
i felt like i was in a fog for that time
i had trouble for awhile doing medication calculations
yes i was very careful
then
eventually it took about a month for me to totally recover
so thats my personal experiences with head trauma concussions
now researchers have discovered that head trauma if significant
enough can induce amyloid plaques in the brain that can be
seen on scans years later after head injuries
now remember
the theory is that beta amyloid accumulating in the brain
is thought to be the cause or the end result of the process
that causes alzheimers disease
now this amyloid plaque in head trauma seems to occur
in the same areas where alzheimers of the brain starts
the posterior cingulate cortex
its the same bad stuff
unlike with alzheimers it also shows up in traumatic head injury
in the cerebellum
the control center for balance and movement
this study was on a small number
more larger studies will be done
but
i must say
as a parent
it does give you some pause doesnt it
the organicgreen doctor
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