Download Mike Webster the king of the NFL comes in with all his brute force

 5A
Language Arts
Luc Arroyo 5/13/2016
CTE/Concussions Introductio​
n Mike Webster the king of the NFL comes in with all his brute force and tremendous speed! The quarterback is very nervous as Mike Webster is a killer in this game and can easily knock him out cold! It seems like it’s the end of the game but… BOOM!!! The defender has just headed Mike Webster and hard, as he and Mike Webster fall to the ground unconscious. The doctor wakes Mike Webster up and tells him to demolish the game. Nobody knows that neither Mike Webster or the doctor knows that the injury Mike had just received, gave him a disease that would signify the end of his life. Today, these two cases known as CTE and concussions are seen in almost any sport. People get killed in sports that they love, mostly by just playing the game. In this text, concussions and CTE information will be shown and also how CTE and concussions affects these sports, how to get these cases, what is the NFL doing about this, how can you die from CTE and concussions, and some solutions. What is a concussion​
/CTE Concussions and CTE are both dangerous and deadly. ​
Concussions​
(Also known as boxer’s dementia) happens when your brain smacks into your skull taking damage on the way. Neurons​
(​
The command centers of your brain​
) are greatly affected and disrupted. This causes neurons to destroy and release their deadly acid: ​
sarin acid​
. ​
Sarin acid​
is an acid that destroys and dissolves any other neurons or part of the brain. This can cause symptoms such as extreme confusion, memory loss, slow senses, and no knowledge of where you are. You can also get knocked out cold in a concussion for a couple of minutes or even hours. Wes Welker (Denver Broncos) receives a concussion Acid coming out of neuron CTE is a different matter. ​
CTE​
​
(Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy)​
is a brain progressive disease that is literally a death sentence. It slowly destroys your brain till a point where so much damage has been done, your brain can’t function anymore. Though CTE is deadly, most people who get it, die before the disease becomes severe. A football player had CTE but died of lung cancer. His son: “Jason Belser” said he had suffered a lot from the disease as he had long term memory loss and slow reflexes, but didn’t die from the disease. Memory loss that CTE creates CTE can happen when hard hits such as concussions happen a series of times damaging the brain more and letting out more sarin acid. You can receive a concussion if you get a strong hit in your neck, head, upper body, or by violently throbbing your head in whichever way. How can you prevent a concussion? You can prevent a concussion by protecting your neck and head more in rough sports such as football. Can you prevent CTE? Yes mentions “Mayo Clinic” that routines such as less screen time, rest from rough sports, calmness, and quietness do help avoid CTE, but once you have CTE you cannot cure it. Let’s say you have CTE, it is not possible to cure disease, but you can manage symptoms by the same routines in avoiding CTE. CTE is slow and manageable but extremely deadly. What happens in your brain? In a concussion, your brain forcefully bangs against your skull taking damage in different parts of the brain such as the thinking part of the brain, ​
the prefrontal cortex​
, the fiscal controller: ​
the cerebellum,​
the memory part ​
the temporal lobe​
and ​
the parietal lobe​
, and the emotional controller, ​
your occipital lobe​
. Furthermore affecting neurons as said before causing them to release their deadly acid. It also causes internal brain bleeding. However this isn’t the worst part. The worst part is the approximation of CTE one of the most frightening brain diseases ever known Concussion in action CTE is life threatening by disintegrating every micrometer of your brain. It works by a series of acids and fluids, some are very strong such as sarin acid but others are weaker but deadly too. CTE first starts out by a series of hard hits. This causes the protective fluid in your brain to damage making your brain vulnerable. Then your neurons are affected. Two things can happen here; either neurons destroy, or they disconnect from other neurons taking their ability to function away. The two ways will cause neurons to release this powerful acid called sarin acid. Similar to acids in batteries and electric sources, they can burn almost anything close by. The sarin acid then spreads causing other neurons to destroy and release their acid. Then it starts affecting your brain. Let’s say you have a healthy brain first, then you get CTE, in a matter of years your healthy brain will now look like 1/15 of your brain has been ripped out. If you’re thinking that 1/15 is slow and little you're kinda wrong. 1/15 can cause long term memory loss if it affects your prefrontal cortex, if it affects your emotion lobe, you could forget everything forever. Imagine your cerebellum with that affected, you can kiss bye bye your ability to move. That unfortunately is not all, smaller hits could cause twice as more damage at impact and larger hits at almost three times harder. Your brain loses its volume in the process making the ventricles (The spaces that hold the fluid) larger. Your brain slowly dissolves till nothing’s left. According to “bu.ed” sarin acid is not the only cause, CTE involves with other proteins called tau but sarin acid is a major part in CTE. How can you die from CTE/Concussions? To die from a concussion very very rare although there is something called ​
second impact syndrome​
which according to Maureen Courtney ( a neurologist that is focused on hard hits and neuropathological diseases) is not a really understandable condition. “Second impact syndrome happens when a person gets one concussion and in the same week get’s another. This however is a very rare happening and only a few people in the world have received this condition” Maureen Courtney said. Though this condition is rare, we’re going to imagine that someone has just received this unfortunate condition and see what happens in their brain. Since the person has just received one concussion a few days later the brain is not fully recovered making it very vulnerable. As the second concussion kicks in, the brain takes a full blast causing almost 10 times more damage but this is speculation. Like said before this a very poorly understood condition so it cannot be assured that this is the reason why people die from concussions. CTE works in a different way. It starts by disrupting your protective fluid making your brain more vulnerable. Then it needs hard hits to release the sarin acid. Once the sarin acid is liberated internal bleeding starts happening dysfunctioning your brain. The sarin acid then moves to different lobes of your brain dissolving them and shrinking your brain. At this point, your brain feels like it’s being attacked by nuclear bombs everywhere at once. Your brain is shrinking you have lost many neurons and your brain is getting pulled apart. With all this going at once your brain can’t resist the damage and then stops working. What do these two conditions affect? Take a moment and wonder “Hmm what do these two things affect?” Well if you live in non american areas you might not know but if you’re American you should. If you don’t know well then here’s the answer: American Football!!!!. Concussions are often seen in rough sports such as American Football, Ice Hockey, Martial arts, and even soccer. Since American Football is said to be the toughest sport in the world, concussions are pretty common there. As told before CTE happens when multiple hard hits kick in so usually, former football players can receive CTE as they must have gained a lot of hits in their career. People with CTE suffer a lot and often get angrier so of course they want revenge. Former football players have reached a 5 million dollar settlement against the NFL from complaining about memory loss, shift in mood, huge tempers, thoughts of suicide, worst nightmare hallucinations right in front of them, and even the voice of the devil himself screeching in their minds. According to the “NFL.com”, former football players have recently now delivered a 765 million dollar settlement against the NFL. Players are suffering more and more everyday and a lot of people ask themselves this, what is the NFL doing about this? What is the NFL doing about this? Before, the NFL denied that a super brain disease(CTE) didn’t exist and that players that had it suffered from the ​
Alzheimer​
​
disease(another brain disease)​
. They couldn’t deny concussions but they could pretend that concussions were just a bump to the head. Now( Thanks to a doctor called Bennet Omalu who discovered CTE) the NFL is now doing something to fix CTE and concussions. The NFL has recently teamed up with science. With this going, maybe sports will start getting safer and at the same time, be just as fun as before. What do people think about this A survey had been sent to student from 5th grade in Country Day School and although only 18 people answered, the results were surprising. 100% people knew that concussions were a really bad case and 83.3 answered no that they never got a concussion. Most people thought that a concussion was a hit to the head and it just hurt a lot which is not true. Concussions knock you out cold and this huge evidence that people don’t know much about these cases. This article could prove worthy in order for people to know about these deadly cases. Solutions sports could use to stay away from these deadly cases Concussions can only happen when you throb your head backwards or forwards harshly. If the neck doesn't go foward, neither will the head so they could use more neck protection. They could also really study what happened to a sports player in a violent hit. Conclusion Concussions and CTE have greatly affected sports, people brains, their lives, and even their knowledge. But if we don’t do something now as future generations like tougher sports, sports and sport players will be in trouble. Bibliography "What a Concussion Looks like inside Your Brain." ​
PBS​
. PBS, 11 Dec. 13. Web. 14 Mar. 2015. "Concussion." ​
Causes​
. N.p., 2 Apr. 2014. Web. 3 Apr. 2016. Welker​
. Digital image. ​
PBS​
. PBS, 3 Mar. 13. Web. 05 May 16. "NFL, Ex­players Agree to $765M Settlement in Concussions Suit."​
NFL.com​
. N.p., 29 Aug. 13. Web. 8 Apr. 2016. 18 Feb. 16. Raw data. Country Day School, San Jose. "What a Concussion Looks like inside Your Brain." ​
PBS​
. PBS, 11 Dec. 13. Web. 14 Mar. 2016. "What Is CTE? » CTE Center | Boston University." ​
CTE Center RSS.​
N.p., 11 Dec. 14. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. "Maureen Courtney Interview." Interview. ​
Email.​
N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 16. "Jason Belser." Interview. ​
Email.​
N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 16. "Former Chiefs Safety Ceasar Belser Dies, Will Have Brain Donated to Science." ​
Kansascity.​
N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. "Frequently Asked Questions » CTE Center | Boston University." ​
CTE Center RSS.​
N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2016 "FRONTLINE." ​
PBS​
. PBS, 3 Oct. 13. Web. 14 Apr. 2016. "NFL's Answer to Concussions: Sports Science." ​
CNBC​
. N.p., 04 Dec. 2015. Web. 13 May 2016.