With the popular film Concussion and the documentary public broadcasting system of the same topic there is a major national focus on sports-related traumatic brain injury and its consequences.
In the United States, the prevalence of mild traumatic traumatic brain injury, also known as concussion, is estimated at 3.8 million per year. 85% of people supporting the conversation will have symptoms within 7-10 days. The remaining 15%, however, will show persisting symptoms for weeks, months, or even years after their injury. For those afflicted, persisting symptoms that last longer than 4 to 12 weeks, the condition is considered chronic and is known as post-concussion syndrome.
Many health professionals believe that post-concussion syndrome is a pure trauma to the brain. However, recent studies show that a different etiology, different from the brain, may be responsible for persistent chronic symptoms.
Those who experience mild traumatic brain injury tend to have symptoms of headache, dizziness, neck pain, visual problems, concentration problems, hearing problems, and emotional disturbances. Not coincidentally, these are also finds that occur with neck injuries, such as a whip.
Neck injuries can occur due to many types of injuries. A classic car accident whip is one that many can identify. Of course, sports injuries occurring in football can also cause neck problems. But many other sports, such as falling in cheerleading, heading the ball in football, clashing players in lacrosse, jumping awkwardly in a pool, and anyone hitting his head on the gym floor or playing field, can lead to a neck injury.
The study of injuries showed that the range of linear accelerations of impact, causing concussion, is 60-160 GHz with a peak occurring at 96 G. Injury-related injuries can occur at accelerations of only 4.5 G. It is clear from this that people who experience strength, strong enough to withstand the debate, will also experience cervical spinal injuries. In fact, it seems somewhat certain that someone with a traumatic force that causes concussion will also be damaged by the soft tissues of the cervical spine.
In a study assessing hockey players suffering from injuries published in Brain Injury in 2006, it was noted: “there is a strong link between injuries caused by a whip and symptoms of concussion as a result of hockey injuries.” The researchers further said that the athletes / patients had to evaluate both traumatic brain injury and cervical / whiplash injury.
Modern thinking is that those who suffer from the post-concussion syndrome will probably also have a neck or cervical spine injury. Some of them are called post-concussion syndrome and associated cervical trauma. "Cervicogenic" means "from the neck."
In another study published in the journal Cephalgia in 1990, researchers evaluated patients who had a head injury and who still suffer from headaches a year later. These patients entered the clinical course of special manual neck therapy, such as chiropractors, to help headaches. The results were a group treated with manual therapy, which showed more than a 50% improvement in the headache pain index compared to the level of pre-treatment. The researchers said: "Manual therapy used in this study seems to have a definite effect on reducing post-traumatic headaches."
Chiropractors have extensive training and experience in assessing injuries to the neck or cervical spine. If there is an anomaly of misalignment or abnormal movement of the vertebrae strain, muscle deformities and ligamentous stretching, chiropractors have safe, proven methods of treating these injuries.
A study conducted in the journal "Physician" and "Sports Medicine" in 2015 reads: "Managing the persistent symptoms of post-tremor through continuous brain rest is outdated and demonstrates limited evidence of the effectiveness of these patients." They add further, "instead, there is evidence that skilled manual therapy associated with the evaluation and restoration of dysfunction of the cervical spine should be considered for chronic symptoms after concussion injuries."
When reviewing this type of information, it would be prudent for all patients suffering from postcontact syndrome to be treated as a chiropractor to evaluate and treat the cervical spine.
