International Summit on Female Concussions and TBI

I am very excited to inform you and implore you to attend this first of its kind conference. Katherine Snedaker – a good friend and ally – along with her planning committee have done a wonderful job of creating a great place to discuss a subset of this head injury issue.

The International Summit on Female Concussions and TBI will be held a month from now at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. This summit is unique because this will only be about sex and gender-based research on females, from pediatrics to the elderly.

As much as we think we know about head injuries and concussions we don’t know squat, globally. Let alone in one gender over the other; females have been painfully overlooked/lack of attention because most of the noise and spotlight is on male dominated sports. Although, females choose to play many of the collision sports (rugby, hockey, lacrosse) there are other issues we know that impact females differently.

The summit is over two days and will eventually culminate in a consensus statement about female issues surrounding and within the concussion paradigm. This is also going to be a first of its kind, and appreciated at least from me.

The Topics (briefly summarized):

  • Menstrual Phase and its impact
  • Age and Sex and its impact on symptoms
  • Domestic Violence
  • Female Soldiers
  • Pediatrics
  • Female Sport Concussions
  • Concussion Recovery male vs. female
  • Female RIO Data
  • Clinical Spectroscopy of Female brain
  • Return to School
  • Social Interactions
  • Ice Skaters
  • Psychology of Concussoin
  • And more

Here are the presenters, moderators and planning committee members (as of this post):  Continue reading

Research That Should Stop You In Your Tracks

OK, that title may be hyperbole, but the new research out of Canada should make you take a step back and realize what our fine researchers are now able to discover.  Considering the context of hockey it shouldn’t be shocking that this was found in Canada (since posting we have been informed that work was done on both sides of the border), but really for a long while now some of the best work on concussions is coming from the North, for whatever reason (no disrespect to the US scientists).

Now that I effectively pissed off a few readers with the last comment, here is what was found by Dr. Paul Echlin and team:

  • concussions alter the white matter of the brain
  • structural damage can now be seen
  • MRI was used
  • this is both males and females
  • brain vascular changes were noted in males only, but resolved at two months
  • comparison with control counterparts showed that concussed individuals had white mater changes at end of season (upon being fully resolved from injury)

From the CTV News article (video at jump);  Continue reading