As described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a concussion (also called Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, MTBI) is caused by a blow, blast, or jolt to either the head or the body that causes the brain to move rapidly inside the skull. A concussion can disrupt normal brain function and can have serious, long-term health effects. Symptoms of concussion include headache, nausea, fatigue, confusion or memory problems, sleep disturbances, or mood changes. Symptoms can be noticed right after the injury, but some might not be recognized until days or weeks later.
Sport and recreation, as well as military combat, are contexts in which concussions (MTBI) are prevalent.
As many as 3.8 million sports- and recreation-related concussions happen in the United States each year; of the 2.4 million sports-related emergency department visits for children and adolescents ages 5-18, six percent (135,000) involved a concussion. For males, football accounts for more than 60 percent of concussions, while for females the leading cause of high school sports concussion is soccer. Among children and adolescents, 5–18 years of age, the five leading sports or recreational activities that account for concussions are bicycling, football, basketball, playground activities, and soccer. Significantly more research is needed in the area of sports- and recreation-related concussion, but intriguing findings are surfacing. For example, high school athletes’ recovery times for a sports concussion are longer than college athletes’ recovery times, high school athletes who sustain a concussion are three times more likely to sustain a second concussion, and lack of proper diagnosis and management of concussion may result in serious long-term consequences, or risk of coma or death.
Concussion (Mild Trauma Brain Injury) from improvised explosive devices has become a signature injury of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where more than 1.5 million U.S. troops have served. Reports have stated that at least an additional 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records. The data were accumulated from the Army, Navy, and Department of Veterans Affairs and showed that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as those officially listed by the Pentagon. The Congressional Brain Injury Task Force stated that as many as 150,000 troops may have suffered mild to moderate brain injuries, commonly from exposure to blasts. Among the sequelae of trauma are depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and somatic (musculoskeletal) pain—which are prominent diagnoses in many men and women veterans.
Mike Teeter went through college and six years of pro football before hanging up the pads to return to his hometown of Grand Haven, Michigan raise a family and start a commercial real estate development business. Strangely, Mike tore his ACL in eighth grade but never knew it until he was playing in the NFL.
