concussions

Discussion of Minnesota Girls High School Hockey

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greybeard58
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Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Exploring how women’s trauma recovery differs from men’s

Post by greybeard58 » Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:50 pm

Exploring how women’s trauma recovery differs from men’s

Five years ago, Odette Harris, MD, professor of neurosurgery and a brain trauma expert, began to weave an age-old question into her research: What are the differences between men and women?

Harris had not intended to bring sex differences into her work, but while analyzing brain trauma data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, she realized there’s a big gender difference in the aftermath of traumatic brain injuries, and no one was talking about it.

In fact, in her analysis, Harris, director of the Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, found several unexpected trends: Women with brain injury trauma and other severe injuries typically saw higher rates of depression, substance abuse, memory problems and homelessness, among other troubles, than men with brain trauma.

Initially, Harris was wary of widely sharing her findings. “I was concerned that this information could be weaponized or misconstrued. We’re not saying women don’t do as well as men, or women aren’t as strong as men. That’s not it at all,” she said.

“We’re saying that women and men experience brain injuries differently, and we need to treat them as such. This is a challenge in our field that deserves attention.”

To better understand the nature of brain trauma in women — physiologically, psychologically and socially — Harris teamed up with colleagues, including Maheen Adamson, PhD, a clinical scientific research director for Rehabilitation Services at the VA Palo Alto and a clinical associate professor of neurosurgery at Stanford School of Medicine.

Using data from surveys, neuropsychological testing and brain imaging, they have conducted matched analyses comparing male and female patients, meaning that, sex aside, the comparison groups’ specifics — age, severity of injury and time since the injury — were equal.

Their work has so far revealed some big differences in the brains and behavior of men and women with post-trauma injuries — insights that could guide treatment for women who have suffered debilitating injuries to the head.

Lisette Meylan is grateful for the new direction. In 2004, her daughter, Mariela, who was on duty in Kuwait, suffered severe head and other injuries when a car hit her and four other soldiers as they changed a flat on their truck.

She survived the accident but ended up in a coma, receiving care in a nursing home for veterans in Washington, D.C. “Her doctors told me I needed to be prepared for my daughter to never wake up,” Meylan said.

But Meylan could not give up on her daughter, so she moved her closer to home, in Livermore, California, to the VA’s Livermore division. There, Meylan and her daughter’s care team tried different therapies to wake her from a vegetative state.

It seemed all but hopeless. Two years passed. Then, one day, Meylan saw a light blinking on her phone’s message machine, indicating a new voicemail.

She played the recording: “This is Mariela, I’m your daughter, and I love you.”

“Those were the first words she’d spoken in two years,” said Meylan. Since then, her daughter’s recovery has been challenged by physical and mental hurdles, such as learning to walk again, but she has progressed immensely.

“My biggest challenge is my memory,” said Mariela Meylan. That’s more common for women who have experienced multiple traumatic injuries, compared with men, according to Adamson.

“My short-term memory has been affected the most. But through the support of my family and my team of practitioners, I’m able to continue to heal and show up for my life.”

In 2014, she participated in a storytelling workshop run by Harris for women who’ve experienced traumatic brain injury to share their stories with other women who have the diagnosis and health care professionals.

Through intensive physical therapy at the Livermore VA, she now regularly practices yoga, rides horses and swims. She lives with her mother, who helps her navigate other day-to-day activities, like making meals.

“Patients like Mariela are the reason we do this,” said Adamson. “The stories of their strength, perseverance and motivation give my research a purpose and motivate me to never stop discovering.”

Surveys and analysis of health record data by the Stanford researchers and others continue to find stark differences in how men and women experience severe brain injury.

But there’s also a physical clue: The imaging research suggests a link between a physical trait of women’s brains — a thinning of part of the cortex — and the tendency to experience a different array of post-brain injury symptoms than men do.

Their analysis will help fill in research gaps. “Females account for 15% of the traumatic brain cases we see, yet the studies investigating TBI comprise data almost exclusively from men,” said Adamson.

Setting women up to succeed
In her deep dive into the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center data from 2000 to 2010, Harris found several key differences in the aftermath of severe head trauma for men and women, including that women are four times more likely to abuse drugs, seven times more likely to be homeless and about three times more likely to be unemployed.

Women with traumatic brain injury are also 30% more likely than males to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. And they experience higher rates of vertigo — the feeling that the environment is moving (often spinning) around you.

Part of the research goal is to figure out how best to set women up for success after brain trauma. It’s not always the same as what’s best for men. “For instance, when we see unemployment in males with traumatic brain injury, our approach is to assist in education and skills training,” said Harris.

“So the knee-jerk reaction is to find ways to increase education and training when we see unemployment in women with traumatic brain injury. But we found that female veterans were better educated and more likely to have a college degree than their male counterparts.”

So education and skills training might not be as helpful for women as it is for men.

Bringing it back to the brain
What’s causing the differences in the impact of brain injury trauma on women and men?

In 2016, Adamson began investigating, using neuropsychological testing and brain imaging. The tests gauged general brain function and memory, among other abilities. The imaging portion of the study, which comprised 70 veterans (28 women and 42 men) used MRI to measure the thickness of the cortex, the thin outer layer of the brain’s cerebrum.

“Scientists have looked at how cortical thickness changes in a variety of neurological diseases, such as schizophrenia, and we thought it made sense to start there for this research, too,” said Adamson.

Under healthy conditions, women’s cortex is about 6% thicker than men’s. In the MRI study, injured brains of all veterans exhibited signs of cortical thinning, only for women it was significantly worse.

The brains of the women she studied had more patches of cortical thinning, especially in regions that regulate emotion and decision-making. Scientists know cortical thinning is not good, but it’s too early to say how the condition impacts behavior or overall health of the brain.

Researchers are recruiting more participants to further explore how cortical thinning impacts symptoms and post-brain injury outcomes for women, said Adamson. “We’re just hitting the tip of the iceberg here.”

She and Harris are also considering other populations of brain trauma survivors and how their experiences differ.

“I see our research as aligning well with a shift we’re seeing at the national level — incorporating gender, race, ability and other differences into science and patient health,” said Harris.

“We’re seeing a shift toward looking at differences between male and female traumatic brain injury more deeply, and my hope is that that trend will extend to other groups within the traumatic brain injury patient population. That’s what will enable us to improve outcomes and ensure equitable care for all people, not just women.”

Same injury, different brain
Exploring how women’s trauma recovery differs from men’s
Read more: https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2021issue2 ... n-men.html

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Sophie's Squad hosts 'Hockey Hits Back' event to raise mental health awareness

Post by greybeard58 » Wed Nov 17, 2021 12:59 pm

Sophie's Squad hosts 'Hockey Hits Back' event to raise mental health awareness

14-year-old Sophie Wieland, who played on Sartell's hockey team, took her own life last July. Her parents are now working to lower the stigma around asking for help.


Sophie’s Squad highlighted the importance of mental health during two girls hockey games in Rogers, Minnesota on Thursday.

Last month, FOX 9 shared the story of Sophie Wieland, a 14-year-old who committed suicide. In three years, Sophie never told her family, or a coach, or any of her friends she was hurting.

After her death, Sophie's parents Aimee and Henry Wieland wanted to do something to highlight the importance of mental health. They launched Sophie's Squad to remove the stigma associated with seeking help.

Sophie’s Squad held their first event called "Hockey Hits Back" at the Rodgers vs. Sartell girls hockey game. Sophie played for Sartell’s hockey team. Her parents did a ceremonial puck drop.

"I think the main thing is people feel afraid to talk about it. For our daughter unfortunately didn’t feel like she could talk to anybody about it. She kept it to herself and didn’t tell anybody," Aimee said. "We just want to let people know that there's always somebody out there that they can talk to or reach out to. and always asking people to be kind and nice to people."

If you or someone you know is in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, call the National Suicide Lifeline at 800-273-8255. The service is 24/7 and is toll free.

Sophie's Squad hosts 'Hockey Hits Back' event to raise mental health awareness
Watch the video and read more at: https://www.fox9.com/news/sophies-squad ... -awareness

Remembering Sophie: Parents speak out to raise suicide awareness
Watch the video and read more at: https://www.fox9.com/news/remembering-s ... -awareness

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

After a concussion, the brain may no longer make sense of sounds

Post by greybeard58 » Wed Nov 24, 2021 5:18 pm

After a concussion, the brain may no longer make sense of sounds

Headaches, nausea, dizziness, and confusion are among the most common symptoms of a concussion. But researchers say a blow to the head can also make it hard to understand speech in a noisy room.

"Making sense of sound is one of the hardest jobs that we ask our brains to do," says Nina Kraus, a professor of neurobiology at Northwestern University. "So you can imagine that a concussion, getting hit in the head, really does disrupt sound processing."

About 15% to 20% of concussions cause persistent sound-processing difficulties, Kraus says, which suggests that hundreds of thousands of people are affected each year in the U.S. The problem is even more common in the military, where many of the troops who saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan sustained concussions from roadside bombs.

From ear to brain
Our perception of sound starts with nerve cells in the inner ear that transform pressure waves into electrical signals, Kraus says. But it takes a lot of brain power to transform those signals into the auditory world we perceive.
The brain needs to compare the signals from two ears to determine the source of a sound. Then it needs to keep track of changes in volume, pitch, timing and other characteristics.

Kraus's lab, called Brainvolts, is conducting a five-year study of 500 elite college athletes to learn how a concussion can affect the brain's ability to process the huge amount of auditory information it receives. And she devotes an entire chapter to concussion in her 2021 book, Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World.

College athletes who sustain a concussion usually have normal hearing — at least when it comes to detecting faint sounds, Kraus says. Yet they often fail something called "the speech-in-noise test."

"You have the athlete listen to a sentence that is embedded in increasingly loud noise," she says. Those with normal brain function will be able to understand the sentence even when there is a lot of background noise. But many of those recovering from a concussion will fail the test.

A concussion may also leave athletes hypersensitive to sounds.

To learn more, Kraus's lab has been analyzing the electrical signals in areas of the brain that process auditory information.

"You just need to put on a couple of scalp electrodes and stick some earbuds in a person's ear and play some sounds," she says, adding that you also need some fancy equipment to capture what the electrodes detect, and a lot of expertise to interpret the result.

The approach can reveal which sound-processing areas in the brain have been affected by a head injury, even if the person being tested is asleep. "This gives you an objective way of assessing brain health," Kraus says.

Researchers are only beginning to understand how a concussion disrupts brain circuits, she says. But early evidence suggests that the brain injury causes "bottlenecks" — preventing information from flowing quickly from one brain area to another.

Most athletes recover from a concussion in a week or two, Kraus says. For those with lingering symptoms, she's experimenting with something called rhythm therapy, which has its roots in dancing.

"The athlete needs to listen to sounds and kind of move their whole body so they can align their movement with what they're hearing," she says. The idea is to strengthen the pathways needed to process sound.

Concussion from bomb blasts
The military has been studying the link between head injury and sound processing since about 2005, says Melissa Papesh, a research investigator at the Veterans Affairs National Center for Rehabilitative auditory research in Portland, Ore.

During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, she says, the VA began to see something odd in military personnel.

"We have all of a sudden this large influx of relatively young and middle aged people," she says. "They're coming into our audiology clinics and saying, 'hey, I'm having problems hearing.'"

Except when Papesh runs tests on their hearing, it looks "essentially normal." Surprisingly, their ears are fine. But their brains can't process what they're hearing.

Like athletes with concussions, these patients have trouble separating speech from background noise. Many also have problems processing rapidly spoken speech, she says.

VA scientists knew that the blast wave from a roadside bomb could cause a concussion without leaving any visible sign of injury. So they took a closer look at the patients who had trouble processing sounds, and found that many had been exposed to one or more blasts.

Some veterans still have auditory symptoms more than a decade after being exposed to a bomb blast, Papesh says.

Now that most military personnel have left the battlefield, the VA is looking at another potential source of brain injury. It involves exposure to lots of smaller blast waves that pass through the brains of people who fire high-powered weapons or use explosives in training exercises.

"That will be a big area of research in the future," Papesh says. The military "wants to prevent this kind of stuff before it becomes a chronic problem for veterans."

After a concussion, the brain may no longer make sense of sounds
Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... -of-sounds

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

UWMadison survey of parents of youth and HS-aged ice hockey players on attitudes and beliefs about sport specialization

Post by greybeard58 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 9:17 pm

UWMadison survey of parents of youth and HS-aged ice hockey players on attitudes and beliefs about sport specialization and concussions

Study Title: Attitudes and Beliefs Among Ice Hockey Parents/Guardians Towards Sports Specialization, College Scholarships, and Concussion
Principal Investigator: Dr. David Bell (Phone: (608) 265-2891) (Email: drbell2@wisc.edu)
Student Researcher: Mady Winans((920) 639-8986)

Description of the research
You are invited to participate in a research study about how sport specialization may impact beliefs on obtaining collegiate scholarships and concussions. You have been asked to participate because you are a parent/guardian to an ice hockey player who is or played in organized ice hockey in the past 12 months.
The purpose of the research is we want to know how sport specialization may chance your child's ability to receiving collegiate scholarships and concussions associated with participation.
This study will include parents/guardians of ice hockey athletes who are playing, or have played, in organized sport in the past year. This research will be conducted online through completion of a survey.

What will my participation involve?
If you decide to participate in this research, you will be asked to complete an online survey which you are free to quit at any point during the survey.
Your participation will last approximately 15 minutes per sessions and will require 1 sessions which will require 15 minutes in total.

Are there any risks to me?
Risks associated with participating within this survey is a possible breach of confidentiality.

Are there any benefits to me?
There are not any benefits for the research participants to completing this survey.

How will my confidentiality be protected?
This study is confidential. Neither your name nor any other identifiable information will be published.
Your data will be kept confidential and only approved personnel will have access to the data. When we are finished with this study we will write a report about what was learned. This report will not include your name or that you were in the study.

What will happen to my data after my participation ends?
We will keep your data for 7 years following the completion of the study. Keeping data or biospecimens for future research is called “banking.” The banked data will be kept in a secure location for use by researchers.
We may use the data in future research projects about better understanding how sport specialization affects physical activity in other age groups. We may also use them for other types of research. The data may be shared with other researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and outside the University. Outside researchers may be at other universities, private companies, or other kinds of organizations. Banked data will not be shared with your health care providers or used in your treatment outside this study.

Whom should I contact if I have questions?
You may ask any questions about the research at any time. If you have questions, concerns, or complaints, or think that participating in the research has hurt you, talk to the research team or contact the Principal Investigator Dr. David Bell at (608) 265-2891.

If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant or have complaints about the research study or study team, call the confidential research compliance line at 1-833-652-2506. Staff will work with you to address concerns about research participation and assist in resolving problems.

If you decide not to participate or to withdraw from the study, you may do so without penalty.

University of Wisconsin - Madison Research Participant Information and Consent Form
Read more: https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe ... TUqDQOHZl4

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Moorhead youth hockey program aims to help 'break the ice' on mental health issues

Post by greybeard58 » Thu Dec 09, 2021 10:34 am

Moorhead youth hockey program aims to help 'break the ice' on mental health issues

When hockey players lace up their skates and hit the ice, they have the support and backing of a new teammate called M3, a research-based mental health program that is getting to hockey players in Moorhead as young as five.

"You don't take swimming lessons when you are drowning, you don't talk about mental health when you are in crisis," said M3 founder Amber Ferrie.

It's no surprise hockey moms started this program. There are hats all over Moorhead, urging skaters to break the ice. Much of it sparked following the death of Eli Johnson, who was a Spud and Cobber who died by suicide.

"Don't feel embarrassed, because everyone has it at one point, and you should just tell to a trusted parent, or somebody that you feel loved by and it'll be all good," said squirt hockey player Weston Rosenfeldt.

Thanks to an Offutt Family Foundation grant, M3 is now able to put on hockey tournaments in December that focus on mental health. The Eli Johnson Memorial Squirt tournament is the weekend of Dec. 4 in Moorhead.

"There will be mental health professionals in the building (during the tournament), every team will have a team talk (about) what do you do when you need help, (and) what do you do when a friend needs help," Ferrie said. "(There are) lots of material things going home with the kids. Not just pamphlets and flyers, but bracelets that open up a conversation so the parents at home can say, 'Hey, tell me about that, what is that, do you know what that is, what does that mean to you?'"

There is now research-proven curriculum for these kids, and there will also be an app, all designed to let kids know it is OK to not be OK.

"We want them to realize that mental health isn't this scary, big thing, (and) that it's just about forming relationships, and managing big feelings," said mental health clinician Kelli Gast. "We're really trying to normalize it, and to get them talking and we hope that they're just like, 'this is nothing out of the ordinary.'"

"I think it's fantastic and it's something that hasn't really been done before," said hockey parent Thad Stafford.

Stafford is a former Moorhead police officer and knows all about this. A very public DUI arrest, loss of a job, but then he got help.

"It really gave me an avenue to be a little bit more comfortable — because it is a private stuff," Stafford said. "That helps me in my recovery and the struggles that I've dealt with mental-health wise, and addiction."

He has children in sports, he's coached, and nothing makes him happier than to see mental health become a part of Moorhead Youth Hockey.

The project is so appealing other towns are looking into the program. The hope is the M3 program builds confidence, motivate the young players, but also let them know there is a welcoming safety net and hundreds of people willing to listen and step in.

"I think it would be easier just to talk about it now, because people are more open to listening than they were even a couple of years ago," said Moorhead peewee hockey player Sam Cragg.

Moorhead youth hockey program aims to help 'break the ice' on mental health issues
It seems people are finally talking about mental health. In Moorhead, the youth hockey program has taken mental health to another level.
Read more: https://www.inforum.com/newsmd/wellness ... lth-issues

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Former Litchfield HS goalie gets D1 start when MSU's "two goalies needed surgery, another suffered a concussion"

Post by greybeard58 » Thu Dec 09, 2021 11:44 pm

Former Litchfield HS goalie gets D1 start when MSU's "two goalies needed surgery, another suffered a concussion"

When she took her goalie pads off at the end of the high school season in March, Avery Stilwell thought her hockey career was over.

Tonight — after just four days of practice — she’ll be the starting goalie for Minnesota State University Mankato when the Mavericks meet Ohio State University, the country’s No. 2-ranked Division I women’s team.

“My goal is to have fun. And try my hardest,” Stilwell said in a telephone interview Thursday night from the hotel where the MSUM team was staying in Columbus, Ohio. “I know my skill isn’t where it used to be. But as long as I’m working hard … they need someone who can stand in the net.”

The 5-7 Mavericks play two games at Ohio State -- 5:01 tonight and 12:01 Saturday -- and Stilwell is the expected starter for both.

Funny how things change.

A standout, three-sport athlete at Litchfield High School, Stilwell went to MSUM on a tennis scholarship. She played her first collegiate match in early October against Carleton College.

And then things began to change. The Mavericks women’s hockey program, with three goalies on the roster, was hit by injuries. Two goalies needed surgery, another suffered a concussion.

“They were in an intense situation,” Stilwell said, adding she learned that players on the MSUM roster who’d played against her in high school and knew she was attending college in Mankato mentioned her to Mavericks coach John Harrington. Soon, Harrington was talking to women’s tennis coach Ryan Kucera about Stilwell serving as an emergency backup in goal.

“My tennis coach wasn’t the biggest fan right away,” Stilwell said. “But the hockey coach said, ‘We’ll take care of her … keep an eye on her.’”

Stilwell hadn’t been on the ice since her last high school game, a 4-0 loss to Hutchinson in the Section 2A quarterfinals in mid-March. In 16 games during her senior season, she posted a .908 save percentage and a 4.09 goals against average. By the end of the season, she had already decided that tennis — where she reached the state tournament four times — would be her college sport.

But given the unusual opportunity to suit up for a NCAA Division I hockey program this week, she couldn’t say no.

“The day I found out I’d be practicing and playing backup, it was quick,” Stilwell said of the Tuesday call-up. “They said, ‘You can start practicing however fast you can get your gear here.’”

Stilwell’s parents, Ryan and Holly, drove her goalie pads and other equipment down that day, she said.

Her new teammates welcomed her, even though the circumstances of joining the team were a bit odd. And Stilwell set to work on sharpening her dormant skills, still believing that she would serve only as an emergency backup. And then …

“My coach called me in Wednesday afternoon and asked me if I’d talked to anyone on the team,” Stilwell said. “I said not really. And he said, ‘You’re starting this weekend against the No. 2 team in the country.’”

The expected starter still had not recovered from her concussion, making Stilwell the only option.

“I was a little nervous at first, but ultimately excited, just because it will be an interesting experience,” Stilwell added. “It’s a little intimidating, but exciting.”

She’s taking a realistic approach to the weekend she said, setting no out-of-sight goals. Being the competitive athlete she is, however, Stilwell wants to give a good accounting of herself and to do everything she can to help her new team.

The college game is much faster, the skill level consistently better, and the shots so much harder than what she was used to in high school, but she’s accepted the challenge.

“It’s pretty crazy, I’m not going to lie,” Stilwell said. “All of the sudden I’m practicing with a Division I team, and now I’m starting.”

Her parents were making the 12-hour drive to Columbus to see her play, she said Thursday, and she had heard from numerous friends who planned to watch the game on television or through whatever streaming source they could find it.

Starting in goal against the No. 2 team in the country? Sure there’s pressure. But thinking about all those family members and friends watching the game? There’s pressure in that too.

“Oh, my god, everyone is going to be watching,” Stilwell said with a laugh. "But I know they’re just proud I’m out there in the first place.”

'Crazy' circumstances put Litchfield grad Avery Stilwell in goal against No. 2 team in the country
Read more: https://www.crowrivermedia.com/independ ... ab594.html

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Dec 16 & 23 games to support girls HS hockey and raise awareness for mental health

Post by greybeard58 » Sun Dec 12, 2021 6:45 pm

Dec 16 & 23 games to support girls HS hockey and raise awareness for mental health

Terry Hughes noticed Rachel and Sophie Wieland, two dedicated hockey players who made a 90-minute weekly trek to participate in his shooting program, didn’t show up for practice July 12. This was unusual.

Then he received a call from Rachel.

“It’s not good,” Rachel told him. “Sophie took her life tonight.”

Terry couldn’t believe it. Sophie had been in Terry’s ‘Skate to Excellence’ program for the past year and a half. She was just 14 years old, the youngest of three children to Henry and Aimee Wieland of Sartell, Minn.

“She was a great kid,” Hughes said. “Always happy, 4.0 student…she was in everything, all the clubs, a violin orchestra since she was 5…she was very busy and involved.”

Sophie played hockey, soccer, track and cross country. She was actively involved in many activities at school including student council, Academic Triathlon, Knowledge Bowl, SMS Tech Team and Equity Club. She also volunteered for MN Wild Special Hockey.

Upon hearing the news Terry cried. One of his players was gone. A parent himself, the heart-wrenching grief of losing a child was unfathomable.

Then the coach in him kicked in. He had two teams he was bringing to Boston two days later. He asked the parents if it was okay if he told the team about he loss of their teammate and friend. They agreed, so Terry brought the team together before their Boston trip and relayed what he knew.

“I remember them coming across the parking lot before we huddled together, smiling and laughing, not knowing what they were about to know,” he said.

The girls were shocked.

“Everyone was very emotional,” he said.

One of the girls asked if the team could wear white socks on their Boston trip because Sophie would only wear white socks during practice. The team was supposed to wear black socks, but Terry not only bought white socks for the Boston trip, he bought them for every player in his program.

The team made the trip to Boston, but it wasn’t about hockey. After talking with Henry and Aimee, Hughes encouraged them to allow Rachel to make the trip. He thought it would be good for her to be around her friends and teammates.

“I like to compete and I like to win,” Terry said. “But this wasn’t about hockey at all. It was about getting them grounded. It was about bonding and coming together.”

While on the trip he held a parents meeting and told them, “We need to do something. I don’t want this to happen to anybody again.”

They formed a committee and met every other week beginning on Aug. 5. They planned to help raise money for mental health awareness and providing access to resources for those needing to reach out for help. One parent pitched the idea of a “Teal Out Night” for the first girls high school game of the year. Teal was Sophie’s favorite color.

The date of the game was Sept. 11 between Sartell/Sauk Rapids and Rogers. The arena in Rogers filled up fast.

“Kids came from all over,” Hughes said. “Forest Lake, Maple Grove, Stillwater…the building was packed.”

Sophie’s sister, Rachel, drove up from Gustavus. Terry’s daughter, Gabbie, drove down from Duluth where she is a star for the UMD Bulldogs, and his son, Collin, came from Lakeville. Sophie’s parents, Henry and Aimee, dropped a ceremonial puck along with sister Rachel.

Media outlets from the Twin Cities and metro newspapers showed up to get the story.

“It was fantastic,” Hughes said. “It was just breathtaking.”

The foundation “Sophie’s Squad” was created. Their mission: to raise awareness for mental illness and provide resources for youth athletes who may be struggling such as Sophie was. Their hashtag was #hockeyhitsback.

As Sophie’s story spread, and news of the event hit the airwaves, Hughes’ phone started ringing. Venues from around the state wanted to host a Sophie’s Squad event to help raise money for the foundation.

“We have so many teams that want us to do it that we will be doing a drawing for five more games this winter,” Hughes said.

The money will go to whatever the Wieland family wishes. They raised more than $10,000 Nov. 11 and have set up a website where those who want to support the cause can make a donation or buy Sophie’s Squad merchandise.

Next summer they are planning a keynote event at the National Sports Center. Hughes said those involved are committed to the cause.

“We are learning as we go,” he said. “But we hit a grand slam on Nov. 11. It went really well.”

In the meantime, the Sartell community, Wieland family and hockey community as a whole continues to mourn the loss of Sophie.

Sophie’s Squad hopes to help make sure young athletes know there is help out there, and it is okay to talk to others about their struggles.

“I think the main thing is people feel afraid to talk about it,” Aimee Wieland, Sophie’s mother, told Fox9 News. “For our daughter unfortunately didn’t feel like she could talk to anybody about it. She kept it to herself and didn’t tell anybody. We just want to let people know that there’s always somebody out there that they can talk to or reach out to. And always asking people to be kind and nice to people.”

“It’s just so sad,” said Hughes. “If she could have just talked to one person, who knows. It’s a tragedy. It’s a tragedy for all of us.”

But there is hope through Sophie’s memory.

“We can help,” said Hughes. “We have to help. We have to do what we can to make sure this does not happen to someone else.”

To donate to Sophie’s Squad, visit www.sophiessquad.org.

Upcoming Sophie Squad Games:

December 16
Sophie's Squad will be at Thaler Ice Arena as the Mound Westonka White Hawks take on the Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders. JV at 5:00 and Varsity at 7:00. Pop out in TEAL for an awesome night.

This will be an exciting East vs. West matchup between two great teams. Help us raise awareness that mental health is just as important as physical health.


December 23
Centennial/SLP will host Hill Murray Girls Hockey in a Hockey Hits Back event! Turn out in teal. Buy Sophie's Squad Merchandise. Play Chuck a Puck for MN Wild Tickets.

JV at 5:00 and Varsity at 7:00

Support Girls High School Hockey, raise awareness for the importance of mental health, and have a fun night at the rink.


SOPHIE'S SQUAD
Foundation aims to raise awareness for mental illness
Read more: https://www.stateofhockey.com/news_article/show/1198212

greybeard58
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Colleges are turning to science to limit suicide contagion and help heal campuses

Post by greybeard58 » Wed Dec 15, 2021 2:21 pm

Colleges are turning to science to limit suicide contagion and help heal campuses

Ethan Phillips was 13 years old when he first heard the term "suicide contagion."

It's the scientific concept that after one person dies by suicide, others in the community may be at higher risk.

Phillips learned the phrase growing up in Fairfax County, Va., where more than a dozen teens and preteens died by suicide while he was in middle school. It came up again when a high school classmate killed himself. By the time Phillips entered college at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2019, he'd developed "an unfortunate level of experience" in dealing with the topic, he says.

So this fall, when Phillips — now a junior and head of the UNC student government's wellness and safety division — heard that two students had died by suicide on campus within 48 hours, he knew what to do.

Along with his peers in student government, Phillips shared mental health resources on social media, developed email templates for students to request accommodations from professors — if they needed to — to allow extra time to deal with the trauma of losing a friend, and held a meeting of various mental health clubs on campus to coordinate their response. His focus was first on communicating quickly and clearly about the deaths to the student body, and second on informing students about mental health resources available to help them deal with their grief.

Those are two crucial steps in a growing area of study known as "suicide postvention." Just as there's research on how to prevent mental health crises and interventions for people who are actively suicidal, research is also developing around the effective steps that can be taken after a suicide to help communities grieve, restore a sense of stability and limit the risk of more deaths.

It's an area of particular interest for colleges, as suicide is the second-leading cause of death for U.S. teenagers and young adults, and these are the groups most likely to experience contagion. With the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating depression and thoughts of suicide in some people, several universities have needed postvention strategies over the past year and a half.

Saint Louis University, Dartmouth College and West Virginia University have lost multiple students to suicide during the pandemic. At UNC, the two deaths in October came after a suicide death and suicide attempt in September. A national survey in the spring by the American College Health Association found 1 in 4 students had screened positive for suicidal thoughts and 2% had attempted suicide in the previous 12 months.

"Knowing this, we have to be even more alert," says John Dunkle, former director of counseling services at Northwestern University and a senior director with the nonprofit Jed Foundation, which works to prevent youth suicide. "Getting that postvention plan in place before a tragedy occurs is really critical."

How to prevent suicide's spread and heal vulnerabilities
According to best practices emerging from research, a postvention plan (which should be developed ahead of time, and ready to deploy immediately after any death by suicide) should include:

• A defined team that will handle the response. This may include college or university leadership, counseling staff, campus security, residence hall management, the school's communications team, legal advisors, and others.
• A method of communicating the news of the suicide directly to students, staff and the wider community. It's important to acknowledge the death was a suicide, rather than referring to it as an accident or unexpected passing, experts say. However, avoid sharing details about the manner of suicide, since someone else could use that information to harm themselves.
• Counseling and other mental health resources to help individuals impacted by the suicide deal with their trauma and grief. Julie Cerel, director of the Suicide Prevention and Exposure Lab at the University of Kentucky, says that her research shows, on average, 135 people are affected by each suicide.
• Guidelines on funerals or memorials. To reduce the risk of suicide contagion, any memorial sites or activities should not glorify, vilify or stigmatize the deceased student or their death.
• A clear vision of future prevention efforts. Many suicide researchers say postvention is a form of prevention. It presents an opportunity to recognize risk factors such as depression and implement ongoing mental health support for the community.

Creating this type of postvention plan is a challenging task, involving the uncomfortable topic of death and thorny legal questions of liability. It also requires balancing the sometimes conflicting desires of the deceased student's family — who may not want the death acknowledged as a suicide due to stigma or privacy concerns — and those of the students and staff on campus who want to have an open discussion about what happened.

Phillips saw these complexities play out when he was in middle and high school. So when UNC leaders took a day and a half after the first suicide in October before releasing a statement acknowledging the death and the anguish many other students were feeling, he understood why.

Still, he saw the repercussions of that delay in the college community. Rumors swirled on social media, with some people suggesting the university wasn't paying enough attention to mental health concerns at UNC. "Where it showed its negative effects most acutely [was among] faculty who did not know what was occurring on campus," Phillips says. Some were caught off guard by students' grief and anger at the university, or by their requests for extensions on assignments.

UNC declined to answer our questions about its response to the suicides and whether it has a postvention plan in place. On Nov. 15, the university did hold a one-day mental health summit "for faculty, staff and student leaders" to address campus culture, crisis services and prevention. In a written statement, the university said it also plans to launch a campus-wide campaign to make students and other community members aware of the signs and symptoms of mental health distress, and inform them of the different ways they can reach out to each other and to university services for support.

Communicating about these deaths in a healthy way can be tricky
Dunkle says communication about suicide is among the trickiest pieces of postvention. While students want information immediately, universities can be hamstrung by pending death investigations or a family's wishes for privacy. Officials also must avoid sharing details, like the manner of suicide, as research has shown that can increase contagion.

What's most important, Dunkle says, is to quickly and consistently provide mental health resources.

After the two student deaths in October, UNC's communication to students listed the campus counseling center, the office of the dean of students, peer support services and national hotlines. The school also created temporary support centers with counselors throughout campus.

That was a good start, Phillips says, but since the support centers were open only during the daytime, some students found it difficult to go there between classes.

Christopher Grohs, a student in occupational therapy at UNC and director of health and wellness for the graduate and professional student government, echoes that concern. Many graduate students have told him they don't know where the counseling center is on the 729-acre campus or how to use it. "A big barrier to using a resource is being able to locate it," Grohs says.

Get students involved in the solution
This on-the-ground understanding is why students should be consulted when universities develop postvention plans, says Amy Gatto, a senior manager at Active Minds, a nonprofit focused on mental health for young adults. "They're going to be able to give more valuable feedback than just a committee of staff members."

At Johnson C. Smith University — a small, historically Black college in Charlotte, N.C. — counseling services director Tierra Parsons says she looks for opportunities throughout the schoolyear to survey students and adjust the mental health services that are offered accordingly. Over the years, students have suggested they'd like more virtual and text-based options for getting mental health support, she says. In fall of 2020, the school brought on telehealth provider TimelyMD. This year, it asked graduate students in social work to spend their internship hours in undergraduate residence halls, to be available to students where they live.

"We want to be where students need us, and sometimes that requires coming out from behind the desk," Parsons says.

Just as important as this sort of campuswide outreach is directly contacting classmates, teammates, roommates and the like who were closest to the student who died, mental health experts say.

At the University at Albany in New York, the counseling center creates a list of these students and fast-tracks them to an urgent consult if they reach out, says center director Karen Sokolowski. And if the students don't reach out, counselors contact them to talk about grief and ask whether they need extensions on homework or time away from school.

Students should also be asked about their access to guns or other lethal means of self-harm, says Qwynn Galloway-Salazar, student division chair for the American Association of Suicidology. Depending on their answers, the university could distribute gun locks or talk about safe storage of medications, for example. After a series of suicides at Cornell, the university added safety nets to local bridges.

"You are so loved"
Another important postvention step can be limiting memorials. Although students need opportunities to grieve, experts say memorials sometimes glamorize suicide and lead others with suicidal thoughts to see death as a way to receive love and attention. Instead, they suggest directing students to volunteer or donate to a cause they care about in their classmate's memory.

At UNC, in the days after the two suicides, members of the campus Active Minds chapter wrote more than 150 notes of affirmation and distributed them to students with lists of mental health resources, says club co-president Evan Aldridge. Other students wrote messages in chalk outside the student union reminding peers "it's OK to rest" and "you are so loved."

Although those messages have faded in the weeks since, the students' postvention efforts have not.

Phillips says these efforts to bolster mental health in the university community — and teach others how to do so — should continue for years, just as they have where he grew up. "I don't know that we're ever out of postvention."

Colleges are turning to science to limit suicide contagion and help heal campuses
Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... on-science

How to find help fast
If you or someone you know is in crisis and may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (en español: 1-888-628-9454; deaf and hard of hearing: dial 711, then 1-800-273-8255) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Kelly Catlin: A family's search for answers on links between concussion and suicide

Post by greybeard58 » Fri Dec 17, 2021 2:39 pm

Kelly Catlin: A family's search for answers on links between concussion and suicide
By Matt Warwick
BBC Sport
Last updated on16 December 202116 December 2021.
From the section Cycling
BBC Sport Insight banner

Catlin was a three-time world champion track cyclist and an Olympic silver medalist at Rio 2016
In January 2019, on a sunny day in the coastal mountains surrounding San Francisco, an Olympic medal-winning cyclist was racing down a twisting ribbon of tarmac, descending at the kind of blistering speed reserved for cars and motorbikes.

On a surface that had dried quickly after the first rainfall for weeks, Kelly Catlin suddenly lost control.

Her bike flew out from underneath her and tumbled down the hillside, coming to a stop in a cloud of dust. She was carried forward and skidded across the road, tumbling several times.

Catlin knew the drill of the hardened cyclist: jump up, survey the bike, examine the burning road rash and torn Lycra, get back up and finish the ride.

She seemed OK. She headed home. Later she spoke with her mum on the phone.

"She was telling me about it and kind of laughing," Catlin's mother Carolyn Emory told BBC World Service.

"I asked her: 'Did you check your helmet?' 'No it's fine,' she said. But then she did check and it had dents on the front and back."

Catlin didn't realize at the time, but she had suffered a concussion. Soon after, she began to experience painful and confusing symptoms. Her mood and behaviour changed, she became anxious and depressed. Her family was worried - she no longer seemed herself.

Two months later, Catlin had taken her own life. She was 23.

Looking for answers has been a long, painful and complex journey for her family.

But they believe doing so will help raise awareness about an issue that sport - and especially cycling - has for too long ignored.

One of triplets, Catlin was a gifted athlete growing up. She seemed destined to achieve in almost any sport she liked. She was an especially talented football player, but when injuries saw her take up cycling as a way of keeping fit on the sidelines, there was no going back.

"It was like she was born with this drive or obsessiveness. Not to be an Olympic athlete necessarily, but to excel or to be good at something," says her father Mark.

"Anything she focused on, she really focused. Art, Chinese… With school assignments she would do it and go beyond. Cycling was the thing it got channeled into."

By the time of her crash, Catlin was a postgraduate computer science student at Stanford University in California, a three-time world track cycling champion in the team pursuit and an Olympics silver medalist with the United States.

She was out that day as part of her training with professional team Rally Cycling, one of America's best. She had no idea how seriously her injuries would go on to affect her.

Weeks afterwards, she was still in constant pain and discomfort. Doctors' diagnoses could not pinpoint exactly what was wrong.

"She went to Germany for a World Cup thing, but she couldn't do it because she had severe headaches," says Carolyn. "She stayed an extra week after the team left because she couldn't cope with the airport lights and the noise."

Mark adds: "She went to the Olympic Training Centre (OTC) and had a whole bunch of scans which didn't show up an awful lot.

"Then things went downhill. They put her on some therapy for dizziness, light sensitivity and headaches. She had eye exercises. They trained her with all sorts of monitors and oxygen and blood pressure - all that stuff. Something was definitely wrong."

Kelly Catlin, pictured with fellow Team USA cyclists relaxing before competition
Catlin, third from left, sitting with fellow Team USA cyclists at Rio 2016
Catlin attempted suicide at the end of January 2019, but did not succeed.

"Part of her brain knew it was too much after the first attempt," says Carolyn. "She gave us her word she would not try again.

"But she talked to her sister on the phone a couple of days before she killed herself and said she was still thinking about it. She referred to: 'If things don't change in a month…'

"It was almost a goodbye."

Mark adds: "She gave us her word, but in fact I think she just said that to get out of hospital. The staff realised it wasn't the right thing to do to let her go, but she was going to get a lawyer - she was determined to get out."

Soon after Catlin's phone call with her sister, and following a campus wellness check initiated by Carolyn after a series of unanswered phone calls, Catlin was found dead in her apartment at Stanford in March 2019.

Her father Mark believes his daughter would still be alive had her symptoms, which included depression and anxiety, been recognized as evidence of post-concussion syndrome (PCS). Catlin had suffered several concussions - the crash was not her first - but the link was not made.

If it had been, Mark believes, Catlin would have followed guidance to take several weeks' full rest, after which time, in many cases, PCS symptoms ease and patients recover. However, continuing to combine her cycling and studies, Catlin had been as busy as ever; determined to achieve, restless and intense in her pursuit of excellence, just like she always was.

Catlin's family believe the symptoms she was experiencing, combined with this complex edge to her personality, proved too much for her; a woman whose drive for perfection was focused on fulfilling potential.

According to the Washington Post, her diaries later revealed she lived by a set of guidelines which included "I do not cry".

We often see elite sport as the pinnacle of human performance. With it comes a perception that an athlete cannot be too dedicated in their pursuit of glory, that practice makes perfect. We think of their resilience or stoicism in the same way. A 'we go again' philosophy many champions possess.

Catlin referred to this herself in a blog post for the website VeloNews, published in late February 2019, shortly before her death.

She wrote: "As athletes, we are all socially programmed to be stoic with our pain, to bear our burdens and not complain, even when such stoicism reaches the point of stupidity and those burdens begin to damage us. These are hard habits to break.

"The truth is that most of the time, I don't make everything work. It's like juggling with knives, but I really am dropping a lot of them. It's just that most of them hit the floor and not me."

Brain injury remains poorly understood in the sporting world. Only in recent years has awareness begun to grow around the degenerative condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and its links with repeated blows to the head, and/or concussion.

The UK charity Headway has played a major role in developing interventions to mitigate against risks facing athletes, while also campaigning for wider understanding of post-concussion syndrome, too.

Because while CTE tends to develop later in life, with symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease and can currently only be fully diagnosed post-mortem, PCS is experienced in the immediate weeks or months after a concussion.

A key phrase from Headway's campaign work is: 'If in doubt, sit it out.' The reality of the cycling world can often be found a long way from that message.

In road cycling, a rider must quickly get back on their bike following a crash to avoid losing touch with the peloton and missing a time limit, causing elimination.

Last year's men's road cycling season saw some high-profile instances of concussion - one during each of the three Grand Tour races. The most concerning came at the 2020 Tour de France, in which Frenchman Romain Bardet crashed on stage 13.

He was contesting the lead of the race, but after crashing was clearly disorientated when he was lifted on to his feet, and his legs gave way and he collapsed. Within a minute he was back on his bike. He finished the 192km stage before it was revealed he not only had concussion, but had suffered a brain hemorrhage.

Several of Catlin's USA Cycling counterparts have highlighted their concerns over concussions they suffered during their careers on the track, including 2020 world time trial champion Chloe Dygert and US time trial champion Carmen Small, who says her career was eventually ended by it.

"All athletes want to keep pushing when they should probably stop," Small has said. "I still have headaches. I was never diagnosed, but I remember being out of it for four days in a dark room and having vertigo for six weeks."

Since Catlin's death, USA Cycling has launched a wellbeing programme and "multiple strategic initiatives aimed at changing the narrative around mental health".

Catlin's family donated her brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation Brain Bank at Boston University
There are some other early signs of progress.

On Friday, the UK government published new plans to develop protocols around concussion in sport, following a July report from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Cycling's governing body the UCI has introduced new measures to better ensure the safety of athletes following head injuries. Team members will be trained to recognize the signs of concussion, record every incident centrally and follow a set time limit for recovery and returning to competition.

And during this year's Paris-Nice, Britain's 2020 Giro d'Italia champion Tao Geoghegan Hart was pulled out of the race after his team Ineos Grenadiers opted for caution - a move which was widely praised.

Short presentational grey line
Following Catlin's death, her parents donated her brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation Brain Bank at Boston University to aid further research into the effects of concussion.

In a statement released at the same time, her father Mark identified four areas of possible cause: Personality, stress, overtraining and concussion.

Mark says: "Kelly was such a complex individual and very private - one who kept a lot of feelings inside and kept a veneer of: 'I'm an iron woman.'

"She wouldn't reveal her emotional or psychical situation, probably to anybody. She kept pushing herself when she shouldn't have been. It all had a cumulative effect on her, a very strong woman brought down by that combination.

"It's like part of us is torn out. I wake up every morning with a sense of disbelief she's gone. Every night I wake up and play over and over in my head: 'If only I'd done this…'

Carolyn adds: "We don't want any other athletes to go through this. Short of getting Kelly back, we just want to get the right programme to help folk before it's too late.

"I just wish she was still here."

Mark Catlin and Carolyn Emory were interviewed for BBC World Service by Delyth Lloyd.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, help and support is available via BBC Action Line.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/59639369

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

"It's a community"

Post by greybeard58 » Wed Dec 22, 2021 8:25 pm

"It's a community"

When Centennial girls hockey hosts Hill Murray on Thursday night, the puck will drop in honor of Sophie Wieland, a 14-year-old from Sartell, who touched the lives of players on both teams.
"She was always the person at the rink who would have a smile on her face," said Centennial freshman, Alexis Larsen.
"Definitely, whenever she walked in the room she was always smiling," said Hill Murray eighth-grader, Carlie Griffin. "It lit up the whole room."
Griffin and Larsen are among several players from both Centennial and Hill Murray who shared the ice with Sophie as part of a Skate to Excellence traveling team this summer.
"She was always positive and cheering everybody up," Larsen said. "When someone got down on the bench, she was there for you and always gave you the extra encouragement."
But Sophie's friends and teammates didn't know that Sophie had been struggling in silence with her mental health. In July, near the end of their summer season, Sophie died by suicide.
"I remember, I just like, dropped to the ground," said Hill Murray eighth-Grader, Elli Petronack. "It was just so shocking."
"I talked to her the day before and she was still smiling, still happy," said Centennial freshman, Brooke Bugos. "I mean, we had conversations, she sat right next to me in the locker room, and I just had no idea what she was going through."
Sophie's teammates weren't the only ones.
"Nobody had a clue and nobody had any idea," said Sophie's mom, Aimee Wieland. "I mean, I still can't believe it some days, that it really happened."
Wieland says her daughter had many interests and even more friends. She says Sophie also seemed excited about the future.
"She was such a happy, kind, generous soul," Aimee Wieland said. "She was hardworking, always looking out for everybody, and it wasn't until after she passed away that she left a letter that explained that she'd been suffering for about three years and just didn't tell anybody. If she just knew a fraction of the love that people had for her... I just wish she knew that."
It's a wish shared by Sophie's former coach, Terry Hughes.
"I promised (Sophie's mom) that we're going to do something about this," Hughes said.
After Sophie's sudden death, just before a major tournament, Hughes decided to keep that promise by working with his players and their families to start a group called Sophie's Squad.
"It wasn't about hockey," Hughes said. "It was about how we're going to take care of these kids."
Sophie's Squad started with the goal of helping her teammates check in with each other. The team also worked to remember Sophie with special helmet stickers. Within a few weeks, the group decided to raise awareness — and funds — at their annual, end-of-year golf tournament.
Once the high school season began, word about Sophie's Squad had spread even further. The group created special merchandise and hosted special events at hockey games. The goal now? Raise money and awareness for causes dedicated to improving youth mental health.
"I think it's really overlooked how kids feel. I mean, they have a lot of responsibilities and pressure on them," said Hill Murray sophomore Karis Weyandt.
In recent weeks, the US Surgeon General has worked to bring more attention to the issue. A rare, "Protecting Youth Mental Health" advisory cited a troubling statistic for young girls. By early 2021, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher for adolescent girls than the same time period in 2019.
Sophie's squad talked to KARE11 about what girls are dealing with during the pandemic and beyond.
"Social media is a big thing," Petronack said. "Everyone wants to be perfect, like look this way, feel that way."
"It's a ton of pressure," Griffin said. "School and managing sports and friends and family and all that stuff, it's... it's a lot."
"I kind of feel overwhelmed sometimes and I can say my mental health has maybe taken a toll," Weyandt said. "It really just depends on the day."
"It can be especially hard because hockey takes such a toll on your mental and physical health," said Centennial sophomore Hannah Thompson.
"You want to be the best and perfect at everything and that's really hard," said Centennial junior, Katie Booth. "Having a game like this just kind of gives a better understanding of why we play hockey. It's a community."
And that community doesn't stop at the high school level.
"I'm going to do whatever I can to show them that it's okay to talk about it and it's okay to not be okay," said Gabbie Hughes, a senior forward at UMD, who helped coach Sophie, alongside her dad this summer.
In January, Hughes and her UMD team will host a Sophie's Squad game in Duluth.
"When I was in high school I struggled with mental health and it wasn't something you talked about to anyone," Hughes said. "And it's in the collegiate level, too. Girls I know, and myself, it's so hard to talk about, but I'm playing in a Division I school and living out a dream and I still struggle all the time. It's just what happens, and it's okay."
To Sophie's family, having that discussion is so much more than okay.
"It means everything," Aimee Wieland said. "Because you just don't want her name to be forgotten."
The Sophie's Squad event at Centennial Sports Arena will kick off Thursday, Dec. 23, with the JV game at 5 p.m., followed by a special puck drop for the varsity game at 7. The crowd is encouraged to wear teal in support of mental health awareness.
For more information, including how to host a Sophie's Squad event, click here.
Use these additional resources if you or someone you know is facing a mental health crisis:
Crisis Text Line – text “MN” to 741741 (standard data and text rates apply)
Crisis Phone Number in your Minnesota county
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), Talk to Someone Now
Throughout Minnesota call **CRISIS (**274747)
The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386

'It's a community': Sophie's Squad addresses youth mental health crisis through hockey
After the sudden and unexpected death of Sophie Wieland this summer, her teammates and coaches started raising awareness about mental health.
Read more: https://www.kare11.com/article/news/loc ... 948e608954

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Mental health among athletes spotlighted in tumultuous 2021

Post by greybeard58 » Thu Dec 30, 2021 7:47 pm

Mental health among athletes spotlighted in tumultuous 2021

Simone Biles understands now that she was struggling long before she arrived at the Tokyo Olympics, where the unofficial face of the Games and one of the greatest gymnasts of all time was unable to force a smile and push her way through on the world’s biggest stage.

Biles had persevered through the widespread sexual and emotional abuse scandal that rocked the gymnastics community. She continued her intense training and preparation for the Olympics through its yearlong pandemic delay.

She was fine, she convinced herself.

But when the seven-time Olympic medalist stepped onto the floor in July for the women’s team final, she was not fine. Biles was suffering from “the twisties,” a phenomenon in which she’d lost her sense of air because her mind and body could not sync, and she walked off the floor.

“I think it’s definitely pent up emotions, aggressions for the past couple of years, trauma that led to that moment of once I got on the global scene, it just cracked,” Biles said.

Recognizing that she was not in the right head space to compete safely, Biles ultimately pulled out of four events. She returned to win a bronze medal on the beam, but that shiny piece of hardware represented a much larger victory for Biles.

Her very public admission that she was struggling, which followed a decision months earlier by tennis player Naomi Osaka to withdraw from the French Open and not play Wimbledon, redefined the mental health discussion that’s been coursing through sports.

“I gave so many opportunities to a lot of the athletes there,” Biles said of the impact her decision made on others.

Michael Phelps, retired swimmer and winner of a record 23 gold medals, said the day after Biles walked off the floor in Tokyo that the gymnast had shown “it is OK not to be OK.” Phelps has long been public about his own mental health struggles — including acknowledging he contemplated suicide after the 2012 Olympics — but Biles blew the discussion wide open.

Athletes over the last few years had started to publicly address anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts they experienced. But heightened by the strains of the pandemic and the support shown to both Biles and Osaka, the toughest of the tough are no longer “shaking it off,“ or any of the cliché things athletes are supposed to do.

In the last three months:

— Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley stepped away from the game in October to “focus on my mental wellbeing,” he wrote on social media. “This will help me be the best version of myself now and in the future.”

— Tennessee Titans receiver A.J. Brown shared a video on the one-year anniversary of the day he considered suicide to deal with depression he was battling during a breakout 2020 Pro Bowl season. “I just wanted to put out a positive message that I’m still here. I’m still growing. I’m still learning.”

— Philadelphia Eagles left tackle Lane Johnson missed three games to address depression and anxiety. “I was living in hell for a long time. Don’t bottle it up. And it’s easy to do that. It’s easy to avoid the situations that you don’t want to go through.“

— Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, said she would take a mental break from tennis and sit out the start of next season to “re-set, recover, and grow” after a challenging two years that included contracting COVID-19. “I could not detach myself from everything that was going on off the court; was feeling the collective sadness and turmoil around and it took its toll on me,“ the 21-year-old Canadian wrote on social media.

— Formula One driver Valtteri Bottas broke from his normal private nature on a podcast to discuss mental health struggles that nearly caused him to quit racing. Bottas called the podcast “therapeutic“ and said he did it for fans in his native Finland because “normally I haven’t shared much underneath the skin... I think they have a right to know me a bit better as a human being.”

Greg Miller, a licensed professional counselor for Thriveworks in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, noted the focus on mental health is not entirely new and previously was championed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He also pointed to Royce White, who talked openly of his struggles while playing basketball at Iowa State but as an NBA rookie in 2012 refused to play because the league lacked a comprehensive mental health program. Royce was, according to Miller, a “canary in the coal mine” nearly a decade ahead of his time.

While Biles and Osaka helped blow the conversation open, Miller believes stigmas surrounding mental health won’t go away. Athletes, particularly male ones from traditional sports championed in the fabric of America, will still struggle to seek help when needed.

“We’re taught as men to be individuals who take care of things with grit and resilience, not community and vulnerability,” Miller said. “There are pockets of people in the country who see individuals talking about their feelings as weak or lacking masculinity in general. What you’re seeing playing out among male athletes now is nothing new to any man who has ever dealt with mental health issues; it has been happening to men across the country for generations.

“We, as a collective society, need to take a look at ourselves and decide whether an open conversation about mental health is strength-based or not. Until that happens, male athletes — and men as a whole — will continue to experience difficulty discussing mental health challenges.”

The NBA has a “Mind Health” program and the NFL and NFL Players Association in 2019 formed a mental health and wellness committee. Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman earlier this month urged organizations to invest in support systems following an incident in which defensive end Everson Griffen called police to his home and then refused to leave; Griffen has since revealed he's bipolar.

Most leagues do indeed now have robust mental health and counseling services.

Nearly six months removed from her own public dealings with mental health struggles, Biles said “I’m honestly kind of OK that it happened” because it led to her receiving the help she didn’t recognize she needed. Had it not all come to a head on a gymnastics mat in Tokyo, her trauma would have followed her.

“Your mind and body will stop before you do. My mind and body were intact with everything that I was feeling, and it was very alarming,” she said. “It told me like, ‘Hey, enough is enough, you’ve got to go get help.’ I would have probably kept suppressing it for probably the rest of my life.”

Mental health among athletes spotlighted in tumultuous 2021
Read more: https://www.thestar.com/sports/2021/12/ ... -2021.html

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Prevention remains the only cure.

Post by greybeard58 » Sun Jan 02, 2022 12:21 pm

Prevention remains the only cure.

“Prevention remains the only cure.

Traumatic brain injury is a leading risk factor for neurodegenerative disease.

....adopting a precautionary principle, every effort should be made to.....better identify and manage traumatic brain injury in all sports.”

Sport associated dementia
Read the study: https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n168

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

"spreading the word on helping young people with their mental health"

Post by greybeard58 » Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:31 pm

"spreading the word on helping young people with their mental health"

The Warroad jerseys inside rival Roseau's classrooms indicate it. The Max Foundation apparel customized in Concordia (Moorhead) school colors show it. The banners welcoming the Marvin family and their mission of mental wellness to distant Luverne shout it.

"In the Warroad area" was merely a starting point for the Max Foundation.

Three years ago, during the holiday season, Max Calvin Marvin died by suicide at age 19 in his Warroad home. His parents, David and Kallie, along with sisters Layla and Lisa, wielding their prominent Minnesota hockey surname, honor his memory by working to help other young people in crisis.

The Max Foundation's mission is "to raise funds with the intent to support charitable programs, projects and activities that facilitate mental wellness amongst the youth." The original mission used to include "in the Warroad area," but interest shown by surrounding communities and beyond, plus key partnerships, broadened the Max Foundation's reach.

"Invariably, every time we're done speaking somewhere, someone will come up to us as we're taking our time leaving and say how much it meant to them because this is a problem in their family," said David Marvin, coach of the Warroad girls' hockey team. "Maybe this will give a younger athlete the courage to say, 'I've got to figure things out and I need some help.'"

The Max Foundation got a boost from across the border when it partnered with Project 11, a program tied to the National Hockey League that promotes mental wellness in Canadian schools. Project 11 was inspired by and created in honor of former NHL player Rick Rypien, who died by suicide at age 27 in 2011, shortly after joining the Winnipeg Jets as a free agent.

The Max Foundation and Project 11 provide a curriculum and access to materials focusing on mental wellness for Warroad Public Schools students from kindergarten to eighth grade. Through weekly lessons and daily activities, students develop a greater understanding and awareness of mental health issues in their own lives and the lives of their peers, and they also learn coping skills.

Mark Chipman, Winnipeg Jets executive chairman and governor, said partnering with the Max Foundation gave Project 11 reach beyond the province of Manitoba.

"It's another pathway for this learning to spread," said Chipman, who knew David Marvin because their daughters were college hockey teammates at North Dakota, "and with every intervention, we all win."

School districts in Roseau, 20 miles west of Warroad on Hwy. 11, and Luverne, more than 400 miles south, reached out and put Project 11 into their curriculums.

Craig Oftedahl, superintendent for Luverne Public Schools, said his district struggled with three cases related to mental health. A member of the Class of 2022 died by suicide as a seventh-grader, and within the past year the uncle of a high school staff member died by suicide. The husband of another school staff member tried taking his own life.

Isolation brought by the pandemic has heightened mental health concerns. The U.S. surgeon general released an advisory in early December called "Protecting Youth Mental Health" and indicated that symptoms of depression and anxiety in youths have doubled during the pandemic.

"The need for mental wellness is evident," said Oftedahl, David Marvin's brother-in-law. "If it's not hitting you in the face right now, you don't have your eyes and your ears open."

Project 11 began in Luverne schools with the 2021-22 academic year, and results have been positive, Oftedahl said.

"One parent reached out and said, 'Thank you. I can tell you that it's helped my child and my family,' " Oftedahl said.

The feedback echoes what Warroad Elementary School Principal Brita Comstock has heard since the district implemented Project 11 in the fall of 2019.

"One teacher told me, 'I have been in education for more than 30 years and seen many programs come and go, but this has been the best social and emotional resource I've seen,' " Comstock said. "It's a way for us to try and help people before it's too late."

Sharing the Max Foundation message is healing for David Marvin but also triggers his grief.

"The pain is real thick," Marvin said. "My wife and I and my daughters miss him bad every day. There's an emptiness. We're happy to do these events, and hopefully we help someone, but I really think about my son leading up to those events."

Chipman, who said the closest he got to suicide was knowing of a couple of high school classmates who took their own lives, admires the Marvins for facing their tragic loss in a public setting.

"The courage it's taken the Marvin family, to advocate as strong as they have, it's not easy," Chipman said. "I don't know how they are able to do it."

Positive feedback helps keep the Marvins moving forward. So does community support. An October fundraising duel with Roseau brought in $24,501.77. On a visit that month to Concordia (Moorhead), the Marvins supplied players with Max Foundation hoodies and stocking hats in Cobbers maroon and gold.

When it comes to mental health, Marvin said, there is only one team.

"My wife had a friend call her last spring and said that her son recognized some problems with his friend, and she credited the Max Foundation and Project 11," Marvin said. "We're being told we're doing great things, as all these foundations are. There's been a lot of progress."

Marvin family's teachings go beyond hockey, and message is heard far from Warroad
The Max Foundation, established after Max Marvin died by suicide, is spreading the word on helping young people with their mental health.

Read more: https://www.startribune.com/marvin-fami ... 600133558/

greybeard58
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Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

You are your child’s best advocate and your child’s brain needs you

Post by greybeard58 » Wed Jan 12, 2022 12:11 pm

You are your child’s best advocate and your child’s brain needs you

As a general internist, I’m responsible for knowing about a lot of medical conditions. Not only do I treat a wide range of medical problems but I regularly attend conferences that cover topics including hypertension, diabetes, migraines, menopause and more.

As a hockey parent, I have a particular interest in concussion. Kids with small brains skating rapidly on slick ice and crashing into other players or the boards cause me to clench my jaw and pray.

Several years ago, I attended lectures on concussion and was trained as a safety officer for my son’s hockey team. This gave me access to a sideline test (King-Devick), conducted on an iPad, that I dutifully carried to the rink in case a kid had a potential concussion. The testing is objective and takes the decision about returning to play out of the hands of the parent and coaches. Concussion, by its nature and because it involves the brain, is tricky. Sometimes symptoms of concussion are obvious. More often, however, they are subtle, and it takes discipline to avoid explaining away symptoms in the heat of the moment.

Despite my training and expertise, I felt woefully unprepared when it was my kid lying motionless on the ice after a player on the other team struck him in the neck and knocked him down, sending his skull crashing onto the ice. Four days later, having seen a top-notch team of concussion experts, there’s a lot I wish I had remembered at the time of the hit.

Mayo Clinic’s David Dodick, M.D., an internationally recognized neurologist and concussion specialist, walked me through the many different things happening in my son’s brain and body that caused him to experience symptoms:

The blood-brain barrier, the important wall protecting the brain from chemicals in the rest of the body, is disrupted. This breach allows unintended and unusual crossover between the two compartments.
Blood flow to the brain is reduced, maybe due to increased water in the brain. At the same time, immune and inflammatory cells in the brain react with an increased inflammatory response.
Nerve strands (axons) and cells in the brain are injured. The shearing forces literally stretch these tissues that are typically tightly protected in the skull.
Metabolic needs increase in order for the body to repair and heal the brain.
“These reactions in the brain don’t stop at the time of impact — they’re only just getting started,” says Dr. Dodick. “This is, in part, why symptoms tend to evolve and accumulate in the minutes, hours, days after injury.”

I also wish I had remembered:

Concussion is a rush. The brain is jarred and responds with inflammation. This happens quickly and causes a slightly different response in each individual. My son was dizzy, unsteady, nauseous, and complaining of headache and neck pain. He was also crying and incredibly emotional. His memory of the minutes between the hit and his coach hovering above him asking questions was gone.
Other signs and symptoms of concussion include lack of awareness, confusion, vomiting, sensitivity to light and visual changes. They also include a lack of cognitive flexibility and the tendency to get stuck on a thought, behavior or action (perseveration).
Quick sideline tests exist. My son’s league is committed to protecting its players. Each team has a trained safety officer with access to the sideline King-Devick test for which a baseline is established for each player at the beginning of the season. Being more than 1 second slower than baseline on the sideline test measures means the player cannot return to play. My son was more than 1 minute slower, and he was removed from play.
If you have a child who plays a sport in which concussion is likely, see if the league offers similar sideline testing or has trained volunteers to conduct concussion evaluations immediately after a trauma.

Concussion does not require head trauma or loss of consciousness. Whipping the head around and making sudden stops are enough. My son’s brain was effectively struck twice: first by the player and then by the collision with the ice. Rotational head and neck movements — being whipped around — are as bad, if not worse, as a direct hit to the head.
Treating concussion requires patience. The approach involves more “not doing” than doing. Inflamed brains need to rest and heal on their own. You can support that by limiting stimulation — though not cocooning the player in a dark room — and allowing space for rest. My family opted for takeout instead of going to a restaurant, and workouts during off hours at the gym when it was quieter.
Contrary to the old belief that those who sustain concussions should stay awake, experts now appreciate the importance of sleep. Sleep is when the brain cleans out the waste that’s accumulated over the course of the day. With the inflammation and buildup of toxins that follows brain trauma, this is particularly important. Adequate hydration and a healthy diet, especially foods with brain-friendly omega-3 fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from fish or supplements. My son set aside his cheddar crackers for salmon, edamame and walnuts.
Symptoms improve before the brain has recovered. My son’s nausea and dizziness were gone the next morning. His headache and neck pain were better after taking ibuprofen. This made us second-guess whether we had overreacted at the time of his injury. Maybe he just had whiplash? We were swiftly redirected by the neurologist, who confirmed the diagnosis of concussion and warned us that symptoms would recur when our son returned to regular activities. We saw this when he tried an elliptical machine — his headache worsened immediately with the up-and-down movement. He tolerated the stationary bike, which allowed exertion with very little head movement, but only as long as he pedaled slowly and kept his heart rate down. This elite athlete found himself working out at an incredibly low intensity.
Physical therapy can help. Exercise is key — but only if symptoms such as headache, dizziness and fogginess don’t return. Exercises that challenge the vestibular system — involving head movement, eye tracking and balance — can be designed to retrain and gently push the brain in its healing process. As one exercise, our son held a popsicle stick in front of him and tracked it with his eyes while doing rhythmic head and body movements. With time, these movements will get faster and help him reach a point where he can quickly swivel his head while tracking the puck.
It’s a game. I’m a hockey parent. I’ve made countless accommodations for my sons’ hockey careers. Still, there’s nothing more important than his health and allowing his brain to recover fully. The worst thing that can happen after a concussion is a second injury — during the so-called window of vulnerability. According to Dr. Dodick, this is “the time between when the athlete or patient tells you they’re better (symptoms gone) and when their brain is actually better. Before the brain has healed, a far lesser degree of impact can cause recurrence and even worse symptoms.”
As heartbreaking as it is for him, my son will miss practices and games until he is ready to return. If he returns too early, he runs the risk of bigger consequences and a complete ending of his hockey career at the age of 14. We’ll take the necessary time off.

This is a plea to learn about concussion if you have kids in sports or high-risk activities. You are your child’s best advocate, and your child’s brain needs you.


What to know about concussion — Before your kid gets hit
Read more and listen at: https://mcpress.mayoclinic.org/parentin ... -gets-hit/

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Want to learn about concussions, PCS, and CTE in just six minutes?

Post by greybeard58 » Sat Jan 15, 2022 8:00 pm

Want to learn about concussions, PCS, and CTE in just six minutes?

Want to learn about concussions, PCS, and CTE in just six minutes?

Each year in the United States, players of sports and recreational activities receive between 2.5 and 4 million concussions. How dangerous are all those concussions? The answer is complicated and lies in how the brain responds when something strikes it. Clifford Robbins explains the science behind concussions.

Watch this Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvjK-4NXRsM

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Non-pro athletes may also be at increased risk for CTE, neuroscientist says

Post by greybeard58 » Wed Jan 19, 2022 1:19 pm

Non-pro athletes may also be at increased risk for CTE, neuroscientist says

NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer speaks with a man who is concerned about CTE, and with neuroscientist Bob Stern, who explains why more cases of CTE may emerge decades after plastic helmets became commonplace.

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

There was grim news in the football world last week. The family of former NFL player Phillip Adams, who shot and killed six people before taking his own life in April, announced he had CTE - chronic traumatic encephalopathy. That's the degenerative brain disease believed to be caused by repeated head trauma. It can only be diagnosed after death, and it's been found in the autopsied brains of hundreds of former professional football players. Many of them suffered from cognitive or behavioral problems before they died.

But there's also a quiet population of everyday men and women who never played pro sports but worry they could be at risk of CTE. Some were amateur athletes or military veterans or had multiple head injuries from other causes.

A while back, I met a man who wonders if the rough way he played football when he was younger is catching up with him now. His name is Jeff Stanley. He's 49. He lives in Christiansburg, Va., and he's a project manager for a road and bridge construction company. Here's his story in his own words.

JEFF STANLEY: I started playing football, I guess, in third grade. I actually fibbed about my age and played a year earlier than I was supposed to, and then played all the way up through high school. And I wrestled collegiately at Virginia Tech. And then after college, I actually played a year of semi-professional football in Roanoke. Roanoke had a team at the time.

I'm not happy to say that I loved the contact and loved to hit hard when I was playing. I guess some would consider it dirty or unethical, you know, because when I played, I would rather hit somebody hard and have them lay there a while or get up staggering or whatever. Then I would score a touchdown. And there were two or three quarterbacks that I knocked out cold and were carted off, and that was a gameplan.

I don't ever remember anyone, any coaches or any adults, talking about how - that it would be destructive to me or have adverse effects later on. I never remember having any conversations or any thought about health concerns. Of course, in high school, we think we're invincible, anyway. There was a couple of times in my career that I was a little bit - you know, saw stars or something after a hit. And I can remember eighth grade, I hit a kid from William Bird down in Roanoke. And I walked back to their huddle instead of my own. And I shook it off real quick. And then I actually got it on video. It's pretty funny - or it's funny now. They had to point me in the right direction, get me back to the right huddle. That was late '80s, my high school football career.

My dad and I have talked about CTE a little bit. He was a really good high school football player and played football in college. And he played the game like I played the game, you know, with his head. But I've said to my wife and my dad - we've talked, and I just said, you know, I wonder if some of my forgetfulness or things like that are attributed to the way that I played sports - the mood swings and the kind of zoning out in meetings. You know, there's times that I'll sit through a whole conversation, and I've not paid a bit of attention to what the person was saying or been thinking about other things or feel like I forget key things with my job.

I'm sure that hitting people like that, I didn't help myself. I didn't getting any smarter about hitting people helmet to helmet. But I don't know. I would just - I'm not totally 100% ready to chalk my issues up to CTE yet. I've got a good life here and involved in all my kids' stuff. And I don't forget birthdays and anniversaries and things like that. So I feel like, on a scale, you know, I'm doing, I'm doing pretty daggone (ph) good. So I do think there is a population that's smaller of high school and collegiate athletes, even in wrestling, that I think have as good of a chance to be affected by it as some of the pro guys that are kind of forgotten. But I think there's a pride thing that probably keeps men from talking about things like that.

I think that, you know, it might be a sign of weakness. And I just don't know how that you would ever get people to come out and actually say, you know? I mean, I guess anonymous questionnaires would be the only chance or maybe the best way to get good honest answers, you know? But I just don't think that we'll ever really tap in truly to guys that maybe experience it or who even quietly fear CTE.

PFEIFFER: That was Jeff Stanley of Christiansburg, Va. And listening along with us to Jeff's story is Dr. Bob Stern, a neuroscientist at the Boston University School of Medicine and a co-founder of BU CTE Center. Bob, thanks for talking with us today.

STANLEY: Terrific to be on. Thanks, Sasha.

PFEIFFER: You just heard Jeff's story, and I'm sure it's a story you've heard many versions of before from other people. When you hear a story like that, how concerned do you think a person like Jeff Stanley should be about possibly developing CTE in the future?

BOB STERN: Well, you know, I think there's a lot of extra concern out there by people who shouldn't necessarily be concerned. What we're finding more and more is that the risk for CTE is directly associated with the overall exposure to playing football. But it's not necessarily those big hits that Mr. Stanley was concerned about. It's not necessarily those times where he, you know, used his helmet as a weapon and knocked out the quarterback. What we're finding more and more is that it's the overall amount of what we refer to as subconcussive hits, these repetitive blows to the head that don't result in symptoms, that don't result in the seeing stars or getting knocked out. It's the routine part of the game.

PFEIFFER: But if Jeff Stanley took big hits like he's describing, isn't it possible or even likely that he also took repetitive hits that weren't full concussions?

STERN: Yeah. You hit the nail on the head, so to speak.

PFEIFFER: Does that make him a CTE risk in the future?

STERN: Well, you know what? We're trying to figure that out. We're trying to figure out exactly what frequency, what strength, what type of hits really does lead to the most increased risk later on.

PFEIFFER: And I think this is a key point, that our understanding of CTE is still evolving. You and I could spend hours talking about that. But for now, the short summary is that CTE cannot be diagnosed until after death, and it has no treatment. Your center, BU's CTE Center, has diagnosed about 700 cases of CTE in roughly the last, I think, 15 or so years, maybe a little under. Bob, you have a theory for why CTE could only now be showing up in many former football players. It has to do with helmet technology. Would you tell us about that?

STERN: Yeah, and it's not really even about helmet technology. It's about the fact that helmets create this sense of invincibility that allows football players in particular to hit their heads over and over again. And the issue is this, that the plastic, hard-cased football helmets with facemasks were not used until the 1950s and 1960s. That's when they really started to be used routinely in the NFL and in college football. And those helmets were developed to prevent skull fractures, which they did, and they continue to do so very well. But those big helmets and facemasks allowed individuals to hit their head repeatedly against their opponent or get down to the ground without feeling any pain, thus creating that sense of invincibility.

PFEIFFER: If we think about the timeline of when these heavy-duty plastic helmets started showing up on playing fields, is the idea that if you wore one of those in the '60s, '70s or '80s, only now have you aged to the point where you might begin to see the damage that was caused by that, by using that helmet decades ago?

STERN: Yeah, that's exactly it. You know, we don't really have a good grasp of the overall epidemiology of CTE at this point, but it is indeed possible that there are millions of older adults who are at high risk for CTE or other long-term neurological conditions due to their history of exposure to these repetitive head impacts.

PFEIFFER: I've done a lot of reporting on CTE, and I've talked to many people who think that the research isn't far enough along to justify the level of fear over CTE among some people. How do you feel about that?

STERN: I agree. I think that we still have a huge number of answers out there that we have to find and that little kids or their parents who, after a kid has a single concussion or two concussions, they get this fear that, oh, little Johnny (ph) is going to get CTE - those are the fears that we have to squelch. We just don't know enough about how much exposure at what level.

What I think is becoming clearer, however, is that people who had a lot of these hits are at increased risk. And the greater the overall number of years and the number of hits people get, the greater the risk there is in the study after study for developing this disease.

PFEIFFER: That's Dr. Bob Stern, a neuroscientist at the Boston University School of Medicine and a co-founder of BU CTE Center. Thank you very much.

STERN: Thank you very much, Sacha.

Non-pro athletes may also be at increased risk for CTE, neuroscientist says
10-Minute Listen at: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/19/10656764 ... ntist-says

greybeard58
Posts: 2510
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Kaylee Vader ready to hang up skates after lost time to concussion and cancellations

Post by greybeard58 » Fri Jan 21, 2022 10:00 am

Kaylee Vader ready to hang up skates after lost time to concussion and cancellations

The Atlantic Athletic Collegiate Association announced university sports would once again be cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns on Dec. 2, 2020. The ACAA announced last summer there would be no fall semester sports but left hope in student-athletes that competition would make a comeback in the winter.

Men’s fourth-year basketball player Ian Watters said the news is disappointing but he wasn’t surprised after New Brunswick went back to the orange phase as part of its COVID-19 recovery plan.

“I was looking forward to the season after coming off of last year but at the same time, I understand,” Watters said. “The situation did get worse in New Brunswick and obviously it’s not worth compromising that in order to play basketball.”

Watters’ Tommies were a win away from reaching the ACAA finals in 2020 and would’ve had nearly every player coming back for the 2020-21 season. He said this years’ team had the potential to compete with the league’s top teams, such as last season’s champion, Mount Allison University.

“We were getting older and had a lot of leaders … you put a lot of work into this and to not be able to play your final year, it sucks,” he said.

The ACAA will allow teams to compete with one another during practice, depending on government health protocols. Watters had spent this school year in his hometown, Miramichi, where he hasn’t been practicing with his team but other teams have been.

Though Watters is in his fourth year, he will not lose a year of eligibility and will have a chance to come back to play ACAA basketball if he chooses to. Players are eligible for five seasons, giving fifth-year players a chance to come back. For Watters, the choice has yet to be made. But women’s hockey player Kaylee Vader knows her time as a Tommie has concluded.

Vader, from Alberta, said the plan has always been to get her degree and get back home. Hockey has taken a toll on her body, she said, having missed some time last season due to a concussion. But it didn’t make her decision any easier.

“I reached that point where I’m ready to hang up the skates,” Vader said.

Vader has been practicing with the women’s hockey team all year but she said it’s been hard to find motivation, where she didn’t know if she’d be able to play again. But her coaching staff was able to lift up the team by adding mini competitions and allowing the team to play music during practice every Thursday.

But Vader’s biggest motivation is knowing her teammates will play after this year.

“If I’m on the ice with girls that are coming back next year, I’m just trying to help them get better,” she said. “It’s the team mentality … even though I may not be coming back, those other girls are.”

Vader said she feels other graduating students feel the same as her and Watters when it comes to not getting one last shot at bringing a banner back to St. Thomas University. She was surprised, yet not shocked, and disappointed but understood. Players won’t get a chance to play in their “grad game,” which is their last home game of the season where graduating players are rewarded with a ceremony before or after the game.

Vader wasn’t able to play in her team’s final game last season, an elimination game against the University of New Brunswick, because she was concussed. She said if she could go back to let herself know it would be the last time she would look down and see the Tommies’ “T” on her chest, she would.

“I’ve spent the last four years trying to represent the “T” on the front. So it would have been one of those moments.”

Senior athletes disappointed but not surprised about no sports again
Read more: https://theaquinian.net/senior-athletes ... nce-again/

greybeard58
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Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm

Canadian scientists may be on the verge of a reliable test for concussions

Post by greybeard58 » Sat Jan 22, 2022 12:49 pm

Canadian scientists may be on the verge of a reliable test for concussions

It’s been more than a decade since Dr. Charles Tator, the Toronto neurosurgeon, emerged as an authoritative voice of reason in the effort to curtail concussions in sports.

And while there’ve been low moments along the way, like the time Tator was swamped with hate mail after he dared call out Don Cherry as a negative influence in hockey’s deadly dance with brain injuries, Tator will tell you there’s been “terrific progress” in the field. Awareness has led to prevention. There are concussion laws on the books in Ontario, not to mention all 50 U.S. states.

“We have reached a stage where moms and dads, coaches and referees, are now thinking concussion,” Tator said in a recent interview. “We’ve come a long way.”

But there are things that haven’t changed much. Diagnosing concussions can still prove difficult. So can determining when a concussed athlete is fit to return to play. There’s no simple scan that tells the story, no definitive test on which a doctor can rely.

So Tator is among those excited by the prospect that there might be one soon enough, perhaps even a made-in-Canada solution. Clinical scientists in London, Ont., appear to be among the global leaders in the race to develop a reliable test for concussion by combining the burgeoning fields of biomarkers and artificial intelligence. The emerging technology in question, developed by Dr. Doug Fraser, one of the founders of London-based Neurolytixs, takes a few drops of blood from the prick of a finger and, once the sample has been applied to a filter-paper cartridge and transported to a lab, compares it against a baseline blood sample taken before the season. By analyzing important biomarkers in the blood — key molecules whose concentrations have been observed by Neurolytixs to reliably change after an individual suffers brain trauma — it can be determined whether or not someone has suffered a concussion in a matter of about 20 minutes.

Fraser said the Neurolytixs test, which has shown up to 96 per cent accuracy in preliminary research, is currently being tailored to adolescents aged 13 to 17.

“There’s a high number of concussions in that age group. And it’s a population that needs to be protected,” Fraser said. “They’ve got a lot of years to live, and concussions need to be recognized and they need to be treated appropriately.”

Already licensed and patented around the world, the Neurolytixs blood test is due to begin clinical trials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the coming months. If all goes well, the test, which Fraser said will likely cost in the range of $100, could be available for use as early as 2023.

“What we’re really trying to do is make sure concussions aren’t missed,” Fraser said. “Because when you have cumulative concussions, that’s when the symptoms become more debilitating and are more likely to become lifelong. And in some rare cases, they can be life-ending.”

There are no sure things, of course. The pandemic has put a wrench in the gears of non-COVID-related medical innovation. Neurolytixs, which figures to spend in the range of $3 million to $5 million to develop its concussion test, is already six years into the process, which included a eureka moment parsing research data via artificial intelligence that first identified blood-based biomarkers that showed promise. Checking the many boxes of clinical trials is complicated business. And the Neurolytixs team isn’t the only group of scientists racing to bring to market a reliable concussion test. One rugby-centric research group has identified a saliva test for concussion with 96 per cent accuracy, according to a paper in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. There are at least a couple of other research teams, one based in Alberta, that claim to have successfully detected concussions through urinalysis. The list goes on.

“It’s like finding the brass ring — the whole world is looking for this,” Tator said. “I would probably put a biomarker test as number one for potential improvements (in the brain-injury space).”

Dr. Robert Cantu, the co-founder and medical director of the U.S.-based Concussion Legacy Foundation, said that while a biomarker test for concussion would be useful, it would be “even more useful” if it could tell doctors when a concussion’s effects had subsided. Cantu said there’s been research that indicates current return-to-play protocols “may be sending some people back too soon.”

“The major concerns continue to be when is it safe for somebody to go back and take more head trauma after they’ve had a concussion. And that is something we really do not have the answers to today,” Cantu said. “And that, I think, is really where (a biomarker test) is ultimately going to be used in clinics even more widely than to diagnose a concussion.”

Tator said he is hopeful a biomarker test might also shed light on the severity of any given concussion.

“We’re still not able to tell how bad a concussion it is. So far, all we can say is it’s a concussion. We can’t say it’s grade one, grade two, grade three,” Tator said. “It would be wonderful if we could grade the severity of a concussion. That would be very helpful to the field, so we’d know if a person has to sit out a week or a month to allow the brain to get better.”

Fraser said research at Neurolytixs is currently investigating whether its blood test will be useful in gauging severity or guiding return-to-play decisions. Even if it can’t, Fraser said there’s value in the peace of mind that would come with a definitive concussion diagnosis. And certainly there are practical uses for the test that go beyond the playing field. Insurance companies, for instance, have expressed interest in the Neurolytixs test for obvious reasons; concussion symptoms have been known to be feigned.

Said Cantu: “Not everyone’s an honest person in terms of their motivations when it comes to workman’s comp or insurance.”

In other words, there’s a real opportunity for more than one breakthrough here. The holy grail, in some eyes, would be a biomarker test for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain condition linked to repetitive head trauma that has still only been identified in autopsies. But on the road from here to there, both Tator and Cantu are intrigued by the possibilities.

“(Biomarker technology) is emerging, it’s promising. It’s research data so far not confirmed by large clinical studies. Will it prove to be valuable? We certainly hope. I just don’t know at this point,” Cantu said.

Said Tator: “It would be lovely if it happened for a Canadian team. I’d love to see that.”

A sentiment with which Don Cherry would surely concur.

Canadian scientists may be on the verge of a reliable test for concussions
Read more: https://www.thestar.com/sports/2022/01/ ... sions.html

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Findings show female athletes took longer to reach return-to-play clearance

Post by greybeard58 » Thu Jan 27, 2022 9:34 pm

Findings show female athletes took longer to reach return-to-play clearance

Females took significantly longer to reach asymptomatic and return-to-play clearance. Within the first 2 weeks post-concussion, 86.11% of males reached asymptomatic, while only 45.50% of females reached the same phase of recovery. Most males (91.67%) were cleared for return-to-play within 3 weeks of their concussion, compared to less than one-half (45.50%) of females.

Conclusion

The current study proposes possible risk factors, mechanisms, and clinical profiles to be validated in future concussions studies with larger female sample sizes. Understanding specific risk factors, concussion mechanisms, and clinical profiles of concussion in collegiate ice hockey may generate ideas for future concussion prevention or intervention studies.

Detailed description of Division I ice hockey concussions: Findings from the NCAA and Department of Defense CARE Consortium
Read study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 4621000041

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Don’t Do What I Did: How Minimizing Concussions Caught Up to Me

Post by greybeard58 » Thu Feb 03, 2022 4:14 pm

Don’t Do What I Did: How Minimizing Concussions Caught Up to Me

Seriously, don’t do what I did.
All of my concussions were sustained during ice hockey. My first concussion occurred in an ice hockey game in high school in 2007. At the time, I was told to just lie in a dark room and rest for a week which I did. I didn’t seem to have any residual or lingering symptoms and carried on like normal one week later. The next concussion occurred later that season. This was also in a game and I lost consciousness for a little over twenty minutes. I was hospitalized and observed after imaging. The doctors said I had “multiple areas of bruising on my brain” that was monitored with more imaging. After about two weeks, I carried on like usual. I didn’t notice any residual symptoms after that.

Freshman year of college I sustained at least two documented concussions, among many other subconcussive head impacts. They seemed like pretty bad hits at the time – my head pinned between a player’s body and the boards. It was just accepted to play down the injury and minimize the symptoms if you had any so you could keep playing. This was pretty much the culture. Maybe it was just competitive hockey player pride – I did it and many of my teammates did it. At the end of the day, you didn’t want to let your teammates down even though you were sacrificing your own health.

I remember being so dazed and dizzy after a hit. The athletic trainer came over to the bench to evaluate me and I somehow pretended that I was completely fine. I was cleared to go back out like nothing ever happened. I can’t even tell you how many times this happened.

The next weekend we had an away game. The opponent’s athletic trainer was helping me before the game and during the conversation I would try to respond but could not express the words I wanted to say. I knew what I wanted to say but I opened my mouth and I could not express the words. I started panicking. What is happening? I brushed it off and got ready and played in the game. I did not tell anyone.

The summer after freshman year I started experiencing a multitude of issues – lack of focus, memory loss, headaches, struggling to find words. I saw several specialists who did a lot of testing and determined I should take the next year off of school and hockey to allow my brain to heal. I considered it…lightly. I couldn’t be away from my friends and from hockey. I started a few different medications to help with the symptoms and headaches. I went back to school and continued ice hockey.

I wish I had never done that – taken the head hits so lightly. Don’t do what I did.

Sophomore year was going great in terms of not sustaining any concussions until one game I took a cheap shot. I was completely wrecked. My head slammed the boards. Black out, dizzy, ringing. I got up in an attempt to skate to our bench but every time I made it to my feet I would black out and fall back down. I knew this was bad. At least I acknowledged that. I made it to the bench and left the game where the trainer evaluated me.

Before the sophomore hockey season we took the ImPACT test to have a baseline of cognitive function if we were to sustain a concussion. ImPACT stands for immediate post-concussion assessment and cognitive testing. This is a computerized test that is used to determine when you can return to play based on comparison to your baseline scores prior to the concussion.

After this concussion, I could not be cleared to return to play until I scored better or the same as my baseline testing. I took the test three times and failed. I really struggled with matching and identifying the shapes that flashed on the screen and disappeared.

I was becoming exceedingly frustrated and just wanted to play. It was embarrassing that I couldn’t pass. During my fourth attempt at the test, the athletic trainer left the room and I was alone. I felt like I lucked out. I saw a dry erase marker nearby and thought, “this is how I will pass this test.” I used the dry erase marker to make little notes, dots and write out letters on the computer screen to show me where the disappearing shapes and letters were because otherwise I would never pass – I couldn’t remember anything. I passed using the marker and was cleared to return to play.

This was my last documented concussion from college and if I did experience any residual effects, I just pushed through it. I didn’t start to develop chronic daily headaches until about a year to a year and a half later. I was shocked when I saw a neurologist who diagnosed me with post concussion syndrome. I asked, “how could this be when my last concussion was over a year ago?” That’s when I first learned the symptoms can be delayed by months to years even.

At that point I tried so many different medications and really suffered for years. I saw an integrative medicine doctor who discussed the guts involvement after brain injury. More on this later. I changed my diet and the headaches vanished. I was feeling a lot better and felt pretty much back to normal.

Everything was good until the most recent concussion. You think I would have learned from these previous mistakes, but I didn’t. I again tried to push through it and minimize it the best I could. Something I regret to this day.

I often ask myself if I had done things differently then, would I be in the position I am in now? Is my current recovery a cumulative effect of all of these hits and the last one was the final straw? I wish I had done things differently.

Don’t do what I did – don’t play through an injury, don’t minimize it, be honest because otherwise the protocols that are in place are useless.

Being a hero doesn’t mean pushing through an injury. Being a hero means being strong enough to be honest and take the injury seriously.

We only have one, precious brain.

Don’t do what I did. Take it seriously.

Don’t Do What I Did: How Minimizing Concussions Caught Up to Me
Read more: https://liftthefog.net/2021/01/14/dont-do-what-i-did/

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Hockey safety tips

Post by greybeard58 » Wed Feb 09, 2022 6:24 pm

Mayo Clinic Minute: Hockey safety tips

From peewees to the pros as well as the 2022 Winter Olympics, this is the heart of hockey season. Like all sports, there is always a risk of getting injured.

Dr. Michael J. Stuart , a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon, is chief medical and safety officer for USA Hockey and team physician for U.S. men's hockey at the Olympics. He has several tips for hockey players to avoid getting hurt on the ice.

"There's risk of injury in any sport, including the sport of ice hockey," says Stuart. "It's played on a very slippery and very hard surface in a confined space because of the boards and the glass. And it utilizes frozen, galvanized, rubber pucks; sticks; and also razor-sharp skates."

Injury prevention is a multifaceted approach that includes training, proper equipment, education, and body contact and control skills. Stretching and strength training , particularly in the hips, legs and core, is not only important for performance, but also to avoid injury.

"We do see some muscle/tendon injuries in the sport of ice hockey, in large part because of the skating stride. The most common locations would be the groin or the hip flexor," says Stuart.

Like many contact sports, concussions are a concern.

"The hockey helmet is effective to prevent trauma to the skull, like a fracture or an intracranial hemorrhage or bleed. The hockey helmet does not necessarily prevent a concussion," says Stuart.

Instead, players and coaches should focus on body contact and control skills so that players don't crash into the boards or other players in an unprotected position. Enforcing the rules of the game and fostering an environment of mutual respect with opponents is key to making the sport safer.

"Promoting that sportsmanship, where you don't take advantage of a vulnerable player. You actually hold up on maybe a violent hit, which could result in an injury," says Stuart.


Injury prevention is a multifaceted approach that includes training, proper equipment, education, and body contact and control skills.
Read more: https://www.therinklive.com/inside-trl/ ... afety-tips

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Concussion nearly derailed her career. Now Amanda Kessel is starring again for US women's hockey team.

Post by greybeard58 » Mon Feb 14, 2022 5:03 pm

Concussion nearly derailed her career. Now Amanda Kessel is starring again for US women's hockey team.

Out of the darkness.

That's a fair, and literal, way to describe Amanda Kessel's hockey career.

The U.S. women's hockey forward had established herself as one of the best in the sport by her young 20s. At the University of Minnesota, she won the 2013 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, given to the top women's college hockey player in the nation, and scored the game-winning goal at the world championships that year. The Wisconsin native had her first taste of the Olympics the next year during the 2014 Sochi Games.

She suffered a concussion during a scrimmage before those Olympics. Kessel still helped Team USA take silver that winter, but concussion-like symptoms lingered and caused her to take a year off from school – and the sport she loved – as she battled debilitating headaches, light sensitivity and a litany of other ailments.

"There were some really dark times," she told USA TODAY Sports. "I really thought my career might be over."

Then she found Dr. Micky Collins and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Collins had treated Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby during his concussions.

Kessel's referral to Collins gave her hockey career a second life.

Advancements in concussion treatments help Kessel
Concussions are like snowflakes. No two are alike, Collins told USA TODAY Sports in an interview. A one-size-fits-all recovery plan is not realistic.

There are six types of concussions, Collins said, each identified by their own specific set of symptoms that alter people's daily lives. For Kessel, that meant staying away from hockey for nearly 18 months.

"Once you can identify what type of concussion, we've now identified treatments that can treat that type of concussion in an active and targeted way," Collins said in an interview.

Kessel had been treating her concussion in a more traditional manner with dark rooms, no activity and limited human interaction.

It took a toll on her. Not only as an athlete, but as a human being.

"When I saw her for the first time ... she was very sick," Collins said.

The symptoms: Severe headaches that turned into migraines. Dizziness. Problems sleeping. Vestibular issues. Mood concerns, even.

"We were able to identify what was happening and we gave her a very active and targeted plan," said Collins, who has been with the renowned UPMC program for more than two decades and directing it for the last 14 years.

A long time ago, Collins said, the clinic asserted that rest is not the way to treat concussions in athletes. On the first day they met, Collins had Kessel sweat through a workout. It was certainly a change-up from her previous treatment attempts.

She "worked her (butt) off," Collins said. And most important, Kessel's condition rapidly improved, but not right away.

"She attacked it. She did extremely well," Collins said.

The most severe symptoms Kessel faced were the vestibular system (sensory integration, movement and motion interpretation, etc.) problems, which could manifest themselves in vertigo. A hockey player needs that system working properly – think about all that goes into tracking a puck and the need to keep the head "on a swivel" – and it became the primary hurdle for Collins and his team.

"The way we treat that problem is by retraining it," Collins said. "It's not rest. It's not dark rooms. She had been told to do a lot of that before I saw her.”

That wasn't going to work for Kessel. Medical advances made at UPMC include devising workouts for those afflicted with this issue. But that was just one problem. Before she saw Collins, Kessel had been told not to exercise – an outlet taken away by her previous medical advisors. Her passion, hockey, was a non-starter.

"Think about the confluence of all those factors," Collins said.

In Kessel, Collins found a like-minded patient. Once he explained his research, the biological factors at hand and other patients' previous success, she was on board. "Any athlete, especially an elite athlete like that, they need a plan. They need a rehab plan," Collins said.

Kessel's workouts included toe-touch drills, ball-catching, head movements. Vertical and lateral exercises rebuilt the vestibular and ocular systems. The key is finding a humane way to do it.

"Because it's going to make you feel crappy when you're doing it," he said.

Collins said there is a lot of misinformation about concussions. He firmly believes it is treatable with activity, especially for elite athletes like Kessel.

"What you read in the media is not what we're seeing a lot of times in our clinic," he said. "The fact is, I really do feel that this is a treatable injury. A lot of people aren't getting the right information, the right treatments, for the problems that they're having.”

Kessel shines in Beijing for Team USA
Kessel is now playing in her third Olympics. She entered the quarterfinals against the Czech Republic leading the team in points with six (four assists, two goals) and is now tied for second as the Americans advanced to the semifinals.

During the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, she was part of the gold-medal squad. For Collins, there's nothing more rewarding than seeing someone who was "super sick," like Kessel, hoist a gold medal.

"To see her get back to that level," Collins said, "that's what it's all about."

The winning actually started for Kessel not long after her rehab with Collins and his clinic started. By December 2015, she was skating on her own. She rejoined the team the next month and was in the starting lineup that February. A month later, she helped the Gophers win a national championship.

"I've said many times," Brad Frost, Kessel's college coach at Minnesota, told USA TODAY Sports, "you could write a movie about it."


Concussion nearly derailed her career. Now Amanda Kessel is starring again for US women's hockey team.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/o ... ncussions-

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Knocked down several times

Post by greybeard58 » Wed Feb 16, 2022 10:10 pm

Knocked down several times

Trine Women’s Hockey player Sara Martino has dealt with many setbacks over her career, but she continues to fight her way back on the ice.

It all started when Martino was 11-years-old. Her dad who is a scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs ran a youth hockey program in Lake Forest, Illinois. Martino says she played in a boys hockey league growing up with her younger brother. She didn’t want to do it at first, but then she fell in love with it.

“I just made a lot of good friends on the team especially when I was younger. It was just something really looking forward to being on the ice with them. It wasn’t so much about the games and practices it was more so seeing my teammates and seeing my friends,” Martino said.

Martino played in a boys hockey league until her junior year of high school. She also played for Team Illinois, traveling all over the country to pad up and skate.

“I thought that was really cool and then loving the game itself came along with that,” Martino said.

Trine Head coach Tom Hofman noticed her talent and recruited her.

“She just stands out. You can see it when she is out on the ice. She has just a different level. Her attitude is great, she’s always smiling,” he said.

Not only that, she’s coachable.

“If you have some critique for her she’s always looking you in the eye and ‘yes, no problem, I’ll try that next time.” It’s so refreshing when you have someone who wants to learn, who wants to get better, who takes criticism very easily. Those are the coaching dreams,” he said.

Hockey can be tough and Martino knows that all too well. She suffered her first concussion in 7th grade.

“I just remember getting hit and being like very confused and dazed and he slammed his stick into my head and I just knew it and instantly my head hurt,” Martino says.

She went through a similar hit in high school and then again during her freshman year at Trine.

“I kind of got hit in the front of the net and it was actually right around this spot and I’ve had this feeling before so I knew it was a concussion and I went to my athletic trainer right away and I was like dang that is number three,” she said.

Then, on November 24th, Martino was diagnosed with her fourth concussion.

“It was scary because I actually lost my vision for like three or four seconds. I could hear everything but I couldn’t see anything,” she said.

She walked through what she remembered with Fort Wayne’s NBC News Reporter Vince Lovergine.

“I was sitting on the ice and I was actually right by the benches when it happened. I could hear coach Tom and other teammates saying... ‘Sara c’mon, get up get up.’ I could hear them but I couldn’t see anything so I was scared to stand up. Once I did get it back it was very blurry and I was like kind of dazed and just very out of it,” she said.

Martino says this concussion kept her out the longest.

“I felt like I was pushing myself further and further back and that was really frustrating and kind of sad and not knowing what I could do to help myself,” she said.

She told Fort Wayne’s NBC News, she didn’t know if she’d ever compete again.

“It was a very scary like oh no like is this the end like do I have to call it quits here,” Martino said.

But two months later, she returned to the ice, passing the puck and out skating again. However, Martino is well aware of the fact that if she takes another hit to her head, she’ll have to hang up her jersey for good.

Knocked down several times, Trine Women’s Hockey player Sara Martino keeps getting back up
Read more: https://www.fortwaynesnbc.com/2022/02/0 ... g-back-up/

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Epidemiology of Concussions in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Sports

Post by greybeard58 » Fri Feb 18, 2022 10:30 pm

Epidemiology of Concussions in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Sports

Men's ice hockey had highest sports-related concussion rate (per athlete exposures), followed by women's soccer, football and women's ice hockey.

Epidemiology of Concussions in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Sports: 2014/15-2018/19
Read the study at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10 ... 5211060340

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"After my first game, I ended up getting a concussion two days later in practice"

Post by greybeard58 » Sun Feb 20, 2022 11:13 pm

"After my first game, I ended up getting a concussion two days later in practice"

Marissa Graham was not ready to stop playing after graduating from Brock University, but her options were limited when the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folded.

However, more than a year after her last competitive game with Brock, the Wetaskiwin product was given another opportunity to get back on the ice by Farjestad BK Dam in Sweden. So Graham packed her bags and travelled to Sweden in the midst of a global pandemic to rekindle her playing career.

“Things are going well, it’s not really been what I expected, there has been a series of unfortunate events, but it’s OK,” said Graham, who plays defense for Farjestad. “After my first game, I ended up getting a concussion two days later in practice; I got blindsided by a teammate, so I’ve been out for a bit. But they just decided a few days ago to suspend the season until Dec. 10 because of COVID.

“Obviously, the players are a little upset, they want to play hockey but in a way it’s good for me, because I don’t have that pressure of having to miss games and it gives me some time to relax and give my body some time to heal.”

Graham, 25, had an assist in a 4-1 win against Leksands IF in her first game with Farjestad a few weeks ago.

She was raised in Wetaskiwin and played minor hockey in the city before heading to Sherwood Park to play for the Bantam AAA girls team. Graham eventually ended up playing college hockey at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and then moved on to Brock.

“At a younger age, I decided I wanted to play college hockey, that was always a dream of mine,” Graham said. “I did a year and a half at Liberty University, but it wasn’t as good a hockey as I expected so I didn’t really feel fulfilled there. I’m the type of person that would rather be the worst player on the team at the highest level, than the best player at a lower level.

“So I made the decision to leave there and I spent a year in a junior league in Alberta just to assess my options, and I was primarily talking to some schools in Ontario at that point and Brock offered me the full amount possible and they were really good to me and they have a good business school, so it all just kind of fit really well and I based my decision to play there on that.”

Graham played three seasons at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., was an academic All-Canadian every season, and graduated with a bachelor of business administration in 2019. At roughly the same time, the CWHL ceased operations after 12 season.

“I kind of thought after the CWHL folded that there was really no option for me to keep playing hockey anymore,” Graham said. “I thought it was unfortunate and it ended sooner than I hoped it would at that point.”

As fate would have it, however, Brock University had a partnership with a team in Sweden where every season, players from the school would travel overseas to help coach at a hockey camp for girls. In Graham’s senior year, she was selected to go coach at the camp.

“I was brought out to Sweden in August after I graduated and it was the very first time for me outside of North America,” Graham said. “It was a really cool experience to teach the game you love in a different country and it made me feel really sad I had to give it up.

“At the camp, one of the coaches helping out told me he was the coach of the women’s professional team in Sweden and I had no idea there was professional women’s hockey in Europe. It blew my mind because I never thought about that as an option.”

Following the camp Graham returned to Edmonton to work with the Edmonton Stingers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League. Her position with team was eventually eliminated, which got her thinking about getting back on the ice and continuing to pursue her hockey aspirations. She has also worked for the Oilers Entertainment Group and the Edmonton Football Team.

“I missed hockey, I missed having a team and I missed the training aspect,” Graham said. “Just the competitiveness of it; not just on the game days, but the training and the competitiveness of trying to lift that higher weight and to try and improve yourself on and off the ice.”

Graham had a former teammate from Brock playing at Farjestad BK, who communicated to the head coach her interest of playing again. He was interested in having Graham join the team, but when the pandemic hit in March, it shelved the season and created plenty of uncertainty for the following year.

“I just hoped all summer and I trained really hard,” Graham said. “I would have rather be prepared and not have the opportunity instead of have the opportunity and not be prepared. It ended up working out, we got the contract signed, but things were up in the air with the Visa, I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen and once it did happen, it happened really quickly.”

Graham is hoping to make an impact with her team once the season gets back on track. She’ll is hoping to get over her concussion and back on the ice as soon as possible.

“It has been nothing short of amazing ever since I got here,” Graham said. “Even having a concussion and not having hockey right now, I’m just so thankful and really happy to be here.”

Local hockey product Marissa Graham decides to try luck in Sweden
Read more: https://edmontonsun.com/sports/hockey/l ... -in-sweden

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