Concussions Aren’t Only From Hitting Your Head
When most people think of concussions, they picture a direct hit to the head—like a collision on the field or slamming your head against something hard. That’s part of why helmets are often pushed so hard but don’t create enough of a difference for concussion risk (more on that in a different post) Misleadingly Concussions don’t only happen from a blow to the skull. In fact, they often occur from any kind of force on the body that travels to and makes the brain move suddenly inside the skull.
How Concussions Actually Happen
A concussion is a brain injury caused by a sudden speeding up or slowing down of the brain inside the skull. That means you don’t actually have to hit your head directly to get a concussion. It can happen from:
- Whiplash from a car accident
- Falls
- Hits to the body that cause the head to snap back or rotate
- Tackles or collisions in sports
What is the determining factor for a concussion is how the brain moves inside the skull. When your brain rapidly shifts or twists, the soft tissue brain bumps against the hard, bony skull. This sudden movement can stretch or damage nerve cells, leading to the symptoms and brain injury we associate with concussions.
These facts inspired the questioning around why woodpeckers dont get concussions? The inquiry inspired questioning to explore how humans might protect their own brains better.
Woodpeckers evolved several unique features to protect their brains, including:
- Thick, spongy skull bones that absorb impact.
- A special hyoid bone (a kind of bone that wraps around their skull) to cushion their brain.
- Increased blood pressure in their head during pecking
- Short bursts of high-speed pecking—never more than a second at a time.
The ability to increase pressure within the head inspired the creation of The Q-Collar.
The Q-Collar is a device designed to protect the brain by gently creating back pressure and increasing blood volume inside the skull. The idea is that by increasing the blood volume in the head there is reduced potential movement of the brain during sudden impacts. While the Q-Collar has shown promise in some studies, we don’t know for sure if it’s effective enough to prevent concussions completely but certainly has the potential to help minimize the risk of them.
What This Means for You
Understanding that concussions aren’t just caused by hits to the head can help you recognize injuries sooner and get treatment for you or someone you love sooner. If someone experiences symptoms like dizziness, confusion, or headache after some sort of bump, hit or slam and are off for a few hours and days after, chances are they may have gotten a concussion. And finally we need to consider the movement of the BRAIN and not the head for a concussion although a likely contributing risk factor.
Preventing and properly managing concussions comes down to:
- Recognizing the symptoms—even when they don’t seem obvious.
- Providing the right care and rest for the first two days.
- Returning to activity gradually.