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Can Animals Help Limit Concussions?

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From The New York Times, JAN. 2, 2014

CINCINNATI — THE N.F.L. playoffs start tomorrow. During the regular season, the conversation about traumatic brain injuries in sports among doctors, players, league officials, politicians and parents seemed to gain in volume and intensity with each passing week. New revelations from retired N.F.L. players who announced that they had the progressive neurodegenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., helped fuel these discussions.

The key to beating the concussion crisis lies in dealing with what’s happening inside the skull, not outside of it. Because the brain doesn’t fill the skull, there’s room for it to rattle, be bruised or sheared, not just with every collision but with every sudden stop and even start — a phenomenon sometimes described as “brain slosh.” For athletes in contact sports, brain slosh has long been seen as inherent and unavoidable. But to make progress against concussions, we have to give priority in future research to minimizing brain slosh during game play. This means that we need sports leagues, policy makers and health care providers to emphasize primary prevention instead of damage control.

Read the rest of the article HERE