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Will Monitoring Head Impact Exposure Solve the Problem?

Head injuries in youth and high school football pose daunting challenges; ones that sensational media coverage has many parents believing are insurmountable. Add in a culture resistant to change, too many coaches still teaching players to block and tackle using their heads, players unwilling to report concussions, and a sport in which, despite new laws, new technology and new tests, concussion identification and management remains haphazard, and parents are left wondering what can be done to improve safety.

Now, with Youth Sports Safety Month beginning, comes The Smartest Team™, an hour-long documentary designed to help football programs and athletes play safer and smarter.

Obama Unveils Details of New Human Brain Mapping Initiative

First the genome, now the brain.

On Tuesday, President Obama provided more information about his plan to invest $100 million in 2014 to map the human brain. The goal of the project, referred to as the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative and the Brain Activity Map project, is to develop technologies that can document the interactions between nerve cells and the complex network of circuits that are at the root of human thoughts, behavior and functions. The knowledge will better inform scientists about diseases like Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, autism and traumatic brain injury, and hopefully lead to new treatments for these conditions. President Obama referred to the project in this year’s State of the Union address.

Family’s struggle with TBI helps dozens of others

AUBURN, Wash. — After a tragic accident left a young man needing long-term care, his family discovered the closest suitable place was out of state. So they decided to open up a home for him. And now their efforts are improving the lives of dozens of people with traumatic brain injury. Terry Norman is still very much like the teenager he was 30 years ago. He enjoys hanging out in his room, typing on the keyboard and listening to his music.

“His mind is good,” said his mother Mary Norman. “He still has a wonderful sense of humor. That keeps us all kind of going.”

Mark Kelly speaks at brain injury conference in Carlsbad

CARLSBAD (CBS 8) – It has been a little more than two years since Mark Kelly’s wife, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was nearly assassinated after a gunman shot her in the head.

Since then, Giffords has made a remarkable recovery and become an inspiration for those suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

Capt. Kelly was in Carlsbad Saturday talking about the progress his wife has made while sending his own message about TBI.

Watch video and read more>>

Can Just One Concussion Change the Brain?

Suffering a single concussion may cause lasting brain damage, researchers report in the journal Radiology. Steven Flanagan, co-director of the Concussion Center at NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses the findings, and why diagnosing a concussion is so difficult.

Brain Spikes: Synchrony May Be Key to Cracking Brain’s Neural Code

Despite many remarkable discoveries in the field of neuroscience during the past several decades, researchers have not been able to fully crack the brain’s “neural code.” The neural code details how the brain’s roughly 100 billion neurons turn raw sensory inputs into information we can use to see, hear and feel things in our environment.

Death of the NFL: Part 2

In part one of this series, I suggested that the increased size, speed and strength of today’s NFL players are creating a dramatically more impactful and damaging set of collisions. We have known for years of the devastation these collisions wreck on every joint in the human body. It has become crystal clear that the effects of blows to the head affect emotions, memory, reasoning — what it means to be human — in frightening ways. The ticking time bomb and undiagnosed health epidemic that is developing consists of the cumulative effects of millions of sub-concussive blows that are rarely recognized or treated. The potential reticence of parents to allow their children to play football at all, […]

Having purpose in life 'could reduce stroke risk'

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Jazz musician overcomes brain injury with music

It’s a remarkable story of determination, perseverance and above all, a deep love of music, jazz music in particular.

Connor Derraugh is a 17-year old aspiring musician who plays alto sax and piano. But two and a half years ago he suffered a terrible brain injury during surgery that left him paralyzed on his right side. That meant having to learn how to walk again, how to talk, how to eat. And accepting the possibility that he’d never play music again.

While still in hospital, Derraugh announced to his father that no matter what, he was going to jazz camp, even if he had to play with just one hand.

Brain Injury: My Road To Recovery – ‘Time Is Of The Essence’

BOSTON (CBS) – If you were to ask 10 people on the street what TBI is, you’d be hard pressed to find even one person who knows the answer.

TBI stands for traumatic brain injury.

I’ve been recovering from one for the past six months.

Last July, I tumbled from my very old, somewhat rusty, yet trusty bicycle. It was the first day of my two-week summer vacation on Nantucket.

I remember nothing of that day, or the 8 days in the hospital that followed. However, one of the first responders to the scene, Nantucket police officer Keith Mansfield, later filled me in on some of it.

“You were on the ground, very injured and definitely not with it, and pretty much what we’re trained […]

Stroke patients’ health outcomes influenced by spouse’s optimism

TORONTO – Spouses and family members looking after a loved one who just suffered a stroke have a reason to try to stay optimistic during the trying times: new American research suggests stroke patients’ health outcomes are influenced by their caregiver’s outlook.

Following a stroke, life changes dramatically for a family. Stroke is a leading cause of disability in North America. Half of stroke victims experience paralysis on one side of their bodies, 30 per cent can’t walk and another 19 per cent have speech problems.

It’s an incredibly challenging time for the stroke victim and their families left to pick up the pieces of their previous life.

That’s why University of Kentucky scientists say that stroke survivors and their spouse caregivers […]

Perry’s Prospects: Tough opponent for hockey player

Watch the inspiring story of young hockey player Dane as he recovers from a hemorrhagic stroke and learns how to love his favourite sport from the sidelines.

View video>>

Safety Report: Young Athletes and Sports Concussions

Taking a hard hit to the head is causing concussions in more young athletes. Virginia schools are preparing parents and young athletes to deal with the impacts of an increasing number of sports concussions caused by a hard hit to the head in competitive play.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered a 62 percent increase in sports-related traumatic brain injury over a decade for athletes under the age of 19. Because of that increase, Virginia law now requires parents and athletes to take part in concussion education in public schools. Additionally, a bill is making its way through Richmond to require youth sports leagues to prepare policies and train parents and athletes in identifying concussions.

Brain Injury Patient Urges Kids to Wear Helmets

In this bitter cold, you want to make sure your children are well protected if they’re going skating or tobogganing. But you may want to consider another layer of protection: helmets.

Last year, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario saw 1,270 children with head injuries, 41 of those were related to tobogganing.

20-year-old Tyler Lisacek knows too well the devastating effect a brain injury can have on someone’s life. At 13-years-old, he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle home from swimming. Tyler had just taken his helmet off because he was hot.

“I had been hit by an SUV going 98 km an hour,” Lisacek was later told. “My head went into the hood of the car […]

Rewiring Trevor Greene’s brain

The former soldier survived an axe attack in Afghanistan, now he’s defying the limits of science in his recovery.

It has been 25 years since Trevor Greene gave up competitive rowing for other pursuits: journalism, travel, soldiering, fatherhood, marriage. But today, at age 48, sitting in a wheelchair in his Nanaimo, B.C., home, the forcibly retired army captain is rowing as hard as he’s trained for any event in his life.

Today he rows only in his mind, where he also visualizes walking. The frustrations are enormous for a man once thought of as invincible. He used to be part of the men’s eight crew at King’s College in Halifax, and at the elite club level, pulling until his muscles […]

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