Concussion, in Soccer-playing Girls

Posted byGervaisPosted inUncategorized

Teenage girls are twice as susceptible to concussion, compared with boys.

Here, Blueshirt’s neck seems stronger, than Redshirt’s: would she experience less brain vibration? (Image copied from Philippa Roxby’s report)

The brain is a jelly

The brain is a jelly, with connecting nerves made of slightly stronger, but really fragile, jelly, running through it. Rapid jiggling causes stretching and potentially, tearing of the nerves every time the skull receives a shock. Therefore concussions are cumulative and repeated small injuries can add up to big problems.

A study, of 40,000 girls and 40,000 boys

According to a study dated 27 April 2021, Philippa Roxby, Health reporter, published in the Journal “Neurology”, girl footballers have double the concussion risk of boys. The study, of 40,000 female high school footballers and a similar number of male high school footballers in Michigan, over three years, found that there were more than 1,500 concussions in total, with around two-thirds occurring in girls. The risk of sports-related concussion in girls was 1.88 times higher than for boys.

In spite of the disparity, boys were 1.5 times more likely than girls to be removed from play on the same day, suggesting perhaps that the boys injuries seemed more severe. However girls who were concussed took, on average, two days longer to recover from injury and return to play, which suggests that the boys’ injuries were less.

Conclusion

Boys’ and girls’ concussive injuries differ.

Comment

This report is based on an excellent study and is credible, but it raises a question: What’s the difference between boys and girls?
A clue, perhaps, is to be found in the mechanism of concussion-causing injury: Interestingly, teenage boys were most often injured when colliding with another player, while girls were more likely to be concussed by head-contact with the ball, a goalpost or the turf.

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Published by Gervais

I am a Toronto-trained Urologist. I practiced in downtown Toronto, from 1977 to 1997, when I went to Saudi Arabia as chief of Urology at the Armed Forces (teaching) hospital in Tabuk. Returning to Toronto in Y2000, I switched to family practice. In 2007, began to prescribe Hormone Restoration Therapy and in 2012, I became a member of the American Academy of Antiaging Medicine [A4M]. I successfully wrote the A4M's written examination in December, 2013 and In May, 2016 I passed the oral examination, for accreditation as a BHRT consultant. In 2014 I began BHRT practice in Collingwood, Ontario and in January, 2017, joined the Stone Tree Naturopathic Clinic. Now I am 85 and retired, but it seems wasteful to jettison my learning and experience: the medical establishment knows nothing of BHRT / Functonal medicine and I feel obliged to offer my knowledge in the interest of those who are willing to think outside the box. QUALIFICATIONS: MB, BS, (UWI), 1964. LMCC 1969. FRCSC (Urology), 1974. ECFMG 1984. Florida license [inactive], ABAARM 2016. Affiliations: CSAMM, OMA, CMA, SUSO, CUA, RCP&S/C. PRACTICE TO DATE: Consultation in Functional Medicine: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Andropause, Menopause, Teenage and Postpartum Depression/Panic Attacks, Thyroid Hormone malfunction, Infertility, Sexual Dysfunction and “the Undiagnosable”. ALL ARE WELCOME to read, comment or question!