From Peter King, a football sportwriter:

quote:

There’s a doctor in Florida who is working to develop a topical cream for football players to use pre-game to reduce the effects of head trauma during the game, and also a nasal spray to be used after a concussive blow, to lessen the length of time for recovery from a concussion. The doctor, Jake VanLandingham of Florida State, is in the trial phase with these medications. These medications wouldn’t be solely for football either—the military, with its history of concussive incidents in combat, is interested as well.

“It would be good for football, and good for the military,” VanLandingham said. “But it’d also be good for the U.S. health-care industry. We could save billions in health-care costs.”

The savings could come, VanLandingham thinks, if the recovery time for a concussion went from 10 or 12 days to five, which is his forecast with the nasal spray after a concussion is suffered … and, if the brain had been pre-treated with the trans-dermal cream on the side of the neck before a concussive blow, the effect of the hit would be lessened because a neurological anti-inflammatory had been used. “It’s like a brain shield,” VanLandingham said of the pre-game trans-dermal cream.

He expects a couple of college football programs to be using some of the medication by 2020. This is one of the most hopeful things I’ve heard about concussion treatment in years.

Do you have a link for that?

I have to say, I find it a little "too good to be true." Concussions generally can't be seen on MRIs or CAT scans, so how would they know that the person's brain injury is healed? How do they define "recover" here?

Speeding the healing time for concussions is very important, although when the goal is to get someone back into the "concussion-prone" environment asap, esp. when that environment is pro sports, I'm very skeptical. Who's paying for this research?

Some of you might remember that several years ago, I had a concussion and MTBI from falling. So obviously I'm not a neutral observer of concussion-related news.

But IIRC Quirt, you're not neutral either since one of your girls had a concussion as well, right? (from La Crosse?? no?) About how long did it take for her to recover? Has she had any lingering problems?

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

although when the goal is to get someone back into the "concussion-prone" environment asap, esp. when that environment is pro sports, I'm very skeptical.

Yeah, it's kind of warped thinking in a way.

By the way, why haven't regulation football helmets been designed to prevent concussions anyway? Or would they be too heavy & unwieldy?

I have had 3 concussions over the course of my life. When you combine that history with the normal aging process, it's not good. I got evaluated last year because it felt like I just couldn't process information like I used to--it took more effort. I was told this is normal for someone my age, but that the TBI was also playing a role. I'm very good at compensating so other people can't detect what is going on, outside of my test results, but I can feel it. So if you have had a concussion you may not feel the full effects until later in life.

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Do you have a link for that?

I have to say, I find it a little "too good to be true." Concussions generally can't be seen on MRIs or CAT scans, so how would they know that the person's brain injury is healed? How do they define "recover" here?

Speeding the healing time for concussions is very important, although when the goal is to get someone back into the "concussion-prone" environment asap, esp. when that environment is pro sports, I'm very skeptical. Who's paying for this research?

Some of you might remember that several years ago, I had a concussion and MTBI from falling. So obviously I'm not a neutral observer of concussion-related news.

But IIRC Quirt, you're not neutral either since one of your girls had a concussion as well, right? (from La Crosse?? no?) About how long did it take for her to recover? Has she had any lingering problems?

Absolutely. However, I will warn you ... I quoted pretty much the entirety of the squib, which is in a much longer weekly football wrap-up article. You might be better off Googling, if you want more info, using Florida State and the doctor's name and concussion and topical cream.

That said, I trust Peter King. He's smart, he writes well, and he's pretty careful about not saying more than he knows, on a variety of issues.

https://profootballtalk.nbcspo...k-4-fmia-peter-king/

Yes, my daughter Lara has a history of concussions. First from horseback riding, second from a car accident, third from a clumsy fall. She now suffers from migraines, which she traces to the first concussion. (Of course, we have correlation in time, but we can't be sure about causation; for all we know, she could have developed migraines anyway. But she believes that the onset of migraines was triggered by the first concussion.) It took her a solid year to recover; you may recall that she did her sophomore year of high school in two pieces, because the concussion made it impossible for her to finish reading-intensive classes like English and history.

Apart from the migraines, and even including them, it's hard to know whether there are any lingering effects from the concussions. She's always had ADHD and executive function weaknesses and slow processing speed, tracing back to before the concussions; are these worse now? I can't say.

As a complete aside, what's truly remarkable is that, despite all these issues, she's a tremendous student. She's getting straight A's at a really good university, she's a terrific writer, and she's strong in both STEM things like math and computer science as well as in humanities (she excels in philosophy). Yeah, she gets accommodations (extra time and leniency for time-shifting if she has a migraine), but she also works her butt off. I used to say that she worked harder in junior high than I did in law school.

quote:

Originally posted by RealPlayer:

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

although when the goal is to get someone back into the "concussion-prone" environment asap, esp. when that environment is pro sports, I'm very skeptical.

Yeah, it's kind of warped thinking in a way.

By the way, why haven't regulation football helmets been designed to prevent concussions anyway? Or would they be too heavy & unwieldy?

There are enormous efforts underway. Unfortunately, it's difficult to prevent concussions when there's an impact with the speed and force of professional football.

A couple of years ago, the NFL moved to a regime of testing helmets and only allowing players to wear helmets that cleared a certain safety level in the testing. There was a lot of grumbling about that, including by star players like Tom Brady, so the NFL grandfathered old helmets for a year for something like 20 players.

The grandfathering expired this year. Even Brady has to wear a conforming helmet now. One of the best wide receivers in football went ballistic about his inability to wear the helmet he's always worn, and even filed a union grievance about it. He lost, and was told, wear a conforming helmet, or don't play.

Re helmets.... although better helmets do make a difference, I don't think there is a way to design a helmet that will truly prevent concussions. This is because a person can get a helmet without any kind of impact/blow to the head. That's what happened to me. I slipped on the ice, but my head never hit anything. The neurologist said when my head snapped back during the fall, my brain would have been jarred inside my skull, hitting the inside of the skull, and that's what caused the concussion. Also, whence the term "to have one's bell rung."

I actually had two milder concussion years before, when I was in my early 20s (both times, I did actually hit my head). But I didn't have lingering issues after either of those. But I developed migraines maybe 5 years after the 2nd concussion.

It was after the fall when I was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome and MTBI. My balance was wonky for months after that and I still feel like it's not what it was before. After PCS/MTBI, my migraines changed and w/ the migraine I always have a pain in the back of my head that I never had before. And Mr. SK said my balance is still off. So, like pique, I wonder what other impacts/issues will reveal themselves years later.

So, all of that background is to say, the whole idea of "recovering faster" so you can get back on the field (battle or football) is suspicious to me.

I'll google around though Quirt, thanks for those details.