Everyday should be Brain Injury Awareness.
March has been Brain Injury Awareness month, however, just because the month is coming to a close doesn’t take away from the importance of taking care of your brain – it’s the only one you have.
The brain cannot regenerate itself. When someone suffers a severe brain injury, the initial impact can be deadly. However, according to the Brain Injury Institute, if they survive, progressive degeneration of the brain can continue during the hours, days, weeks and months that follow.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports these as the most common causes of brain injury:
- 35 % from falls
- 20 % from car accidents or truck accidents
- 19% from impact with a moving object
- 11% from attacks
- Other causes include sports injuries and shaking – “shaken baby syndrome”
Once your brain is injured, your life will never be the same. Your “thinking organ” can affect the way you act, feel, perceive and respond to others, including your family. It is important to understand, that although a personmay “look fine” on the outside, the brain injury may cause changes which affect their behavior. People who have suffered a TBI may display irritability, depression, apathy, anxiety, agitation, frustration; display a confrontational attitude and/or outbursts of anger; feelings of guilt and feelings of helplessness. They may become impatient, fearful or thoughtless, and have difficulty doing their usual routine or tasks. It can be most frustrating to families and friends because a person with TBI may have little to no awareness of just how different he or she is acting.
Several posts were written this month to assist you in learning more about brain injury and the important of using protection when possible, such as bicycle helmets.
Any traumatic brain injury is potentially catastrophic. Take care of your brain everyday.
After a serious brain injury, life will never be the same. Brain injury awareness Month.
One year after a brutal beating in the Dodger Stadium parking lot left San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow in a coma, the former paramedic who suffered severe brain injuries now uses a wheelchair. He can respond to questions with a few simple, halting words and has short-term memory loss. He needs nearly around-the-clock care.
Dr. Mayumi Prins, an associate professor in residence at the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center studies how metabolism is affected after a brain injury. She said glucose sometimes has a tough time getting to the brain. She compared a normal brain to a Los Angeles freeway. ”There are divergent pathways but one main pathway that allows glucose to go through,” she said. “With a traumatic brain injury, there are detours and SIG-alerts.”
Tyler Sutton, 38, crashed his motorcycle in December 1992, then fell into a coma. ”I used to be No. 1 on the Oxnard High School golf team. I had three or four girlfriends,” the Camarillo man said. “Now I can’t tie a tie. I have to have Velcro on my shoes.” Formerly right-handed, he’s now left-handed. He has to keep his right foot from dragging. “Sometimes, people don’t understand.”
TBI affects all ages, all ethnic communities, and all professions, but is particularly prevalent in young children and older people where it is now the leading cause of death and disability. Among older people, falls are the primary cause of TBI, and among younger people, car crashes and sports injuries are significant contributors.
People are becoming more aware of brain trauma, but it’s important to continually educate yourself.
Read more on Traumatic Brain FAQ’s .
Helmets – keep your head safer. It’s Brain Injury Awareness month.
Did you know that once someone has a concussion, they are at higher risk for more concussions or other types of traumatic brain injury. So, be smart. Keep helmets on your kids, wear one yourself on a bicycle, while skating or riding a motorcycle.
Bicycle helmets offer bicyclists the best protection from head injuries resulting from bicycle crashes, and bicycle helmet laws have proved effective in increasing bicycle helmet use.
Motorcycle helmets provide the best protection from head injury for motorcyclists involved in traffic crashes.
Protect your brain. It’s the only one you have. Learn more. It’s Brain Injury Awareness month.
Protect your brain! It’s the only one you’ll ever have! It’s Brain Injury Awareness month.
“Since anyone can sustain a brain injury at any time, it is important for everyone to have access to comprehensive rehabilitation and ongoing disease management,” Dr. Brent Masel, National Medical Director of the Brain Injury Association of America said. If patients with TBI get proper medical care, they are less likely to experience medical problems, permanent disability, job loss, homelessness, suicide and even involvement with the criminal or juvenile justice system. ”
Protect your brain! It’s the only one you’ll ever have! Learn more. It’s Brain Injury Awareness month.
Long-Term Study of Head Injuries Among Athletes Kicks Off With NCAA Grant
A grant from the NCAA will kick off a groundbreaking, long-term study of concussion and other head injuries among athletes. The National Sport Concussion Outcomes Study Consortium, will be led by experts at University of Michigan, UCLA, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Consortium will study the effects of head injuries in contact and noncontact sports in both genders through the course of a college career.
Jeff Kutcher, a clinical associate professor of neurology at Michigan who is one of the study’s lead investigators, believes it could become a watershed moment in the study of concussions. ”There has been considerable attention paid to concussion recently, by the media and others, spurred by reports of National Football League players, hockey players — people who have had a long history of contact — having a very particular kind of dementing illness,” says Kutcher. ”But that story is only beginning to be told. We need to do the appropriate research to figure out the scope of the problem.”
It’s Brain Injury Awareness month. Protect your brain, it’s the only one you have.
No Horsing Around – It’s Brain Injury Awareness month
Horse people need to spread the word. It’s Brain Injury Awareness month. Cowboy hats are for working on the ground. When you’re up on your pony, use your head and wear a helmet.
A 2007 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that horseback riding resulted in 11.7 percent of all traumatic brain injuries in recreational sports from 2001 to 2005, the highest of any athletic activity. Of the estimated 14,446 horseback-related head injuries treated in 2009, 3,798 were serious enough to require hospitalization, for an estimated 4,958 concussions and 97 skull fractures.
Subdural hematomas and brain hemorrhages comprised many of the serious injuries. According to the Equestrian Medical Safety Association, head injuries account for an estimated 60 percent of deaths resulting from equestrian accidents.
a rider sitting on a horse is elevated eight feet or more above the ground, and a fall from just two feet can cause permanent brain damage. Riders ages 10-14 are most likely to be involved in an accident with a horse.
The United States Equestrian Federation strongly encourages all riders while riding anywhere on the competition grounds to wear protective headgear with harness secured which passes or surpasses ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials)/SEI (Safety Equipment Institute) standards for equestrian use and carries the SEI tag.
Protect your brain. It’s the only one you have.
Leading cause of death from sports-related injuries is traumatic brain injury. It’s brain injury awareness month.
The American Association of Neurological Surgeons the leading cause of death from sports-related injuries is traumatic brain injury. The AANS says a total of 446,788 Americans went to hospital emergency rooms in 2009 with sports-caused head injuries
They go on to report these numbers by the top 20 sports/recreational activities contributing to the highest number of estimated head injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms:
Cycling: 85,389
Football: 46,948
Baseball and Softball: 38,394
Basketball: 34,692
Water Sports (Diving, Scuba Diving, Surfing, Swimming, Water Polo, Water Skiing, Water Tubing): 28,716
Powered Recreational Vehicles (ATVs, Dune Buggies, Go-Carts, Mini bikes, Off-road): 26,606
Soccer: 24,184
Skateboards/Scooters: 23,114
Fitness/Exercise/Health Club: 18,012
Winter Sports (Skiing, Sledding, Snowboarding, Snowmobiling): 16,948
Horseback Riding: 14,466
Gymnastics/Dance/Cheerleading: 10,223
Golf: 10,035
Hockey: 8,145
Other Ball Sports and Balls, Unspecified: 6,883
Trampolines: 5,919
Rugby/Lacrosse: 5,794
Roller and Inline Skating: 3,320
Ice Skating: 4,608
The top 10 sports-related head-injury categories among children ages 14 and younger:
Cycling: 40,272
Football: 21,878
Baseball and Softball: 18,246
Basketball: 14,952
Skateboards/Scooters: 14,783
Water Sports: 12,843
Soccer: 8,392
Powered Recreational Vehicles: 6,818
Winter Sports: 6,750
Trampolines: 5,025
These numbers are frightening. Protect your brain. It’s the only one you have.
It’s Brain Injury Awareness Month
Texting and driving don’t mix. Brain Injury Awareness month.
Tell your children about how it cost one young lady her life.
The teen proved in the last minutes of her life she knew right from wrong — but still committed a fatal mistake. She wrote in her final missive, “I can’t discuss this now. Driving and facebooking is not safe! Haha.”
Some people survive an auto crashes, however the injuries from a crash can change your life forever. Being injured in a car accident can cause massive trauma to the body, including head trauma. A blow to the head that at first seems minor and does not result in other symptoms can in fact turn out to be a life-threatening brain injury. Drive safe and aware. Texting and driving don’t mix.
Protect your brain! It’s the only one you’ll ever have! It’s Brain Injury Awareness Month.
Concussion symptoms can persist in children a year after injury – It’s Brain Injury Awareness month.
Each year about half of a million children suffer mild brain injuries. A new report says that, when a child has a head injury, there may be more damage than we initially suspect.
“The majority of kids in the study were injured in sports or recreational activities,” said Keith O. Yeates, PhD, director of Behavioral Health Services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and one of the study authors. FoxNews.com. “A small number were injured in motor vehicle accidents, but most were sports-related or falls. Not all mild traumatic brain injuries are alike. It’s important to assess risk factors for symptoms that persist.”
Young people with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) are at heightened risk of developing postconcussive symptoms, including cognitive symptoms such as inattention and forgetfulness, report researchers.
Mild TBIs are common in children and adolescents, and every year more than 500,000 young people under the age of 15 sustain head injuries that require hospital care.
Health providers need to be able to identify children with mild TBI who are at risk for persistent postconcussive symptoms so that they can target such children for appropriate management.
The prospective, longitudinal study is published online March 5 in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
Spread the word. It’s Brain Injury Awareness month.
Kobe Bryant says, his concussion is the hardest injury he has ever tried to overcome
Bryant has played through plenty of injuries in his long time career, but this one brought a lot of concern, and attention to how a concussion can change your life. In an interview with the Los Angeles times, Kobe said that this was the hardest injury he has ever tried to overcome.
Sports officials appear to be taking concussions pretty seriously of late, yet concussions and head injuries can happen any place at any time, not necessarily just in sports.
Taking care of your head is taking care of what makes you, you.
It’s Brain Injury Awareness month.
