'Weigh The Risks': Concussion Specialist Offers Advice To Parents Of Young Athletes
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Football season can be a time of great worry for parents of student athletes. As data continues to mount about the long-term damage caused by repeated blows to the head, changes are being made along the football landscape.
Some football players are moving on to other sports, and some schools have taken the Draconian measure of dropping their football programs altogether. For pediatric urgent care specialists such as Holy Redeemer's Dr. Avi Gurwitz this is the busiest time of year in terms of concussions. He says parental fears are rising as we learn more about their cumulative impact.
We do know that the more you get hit in the head, the more concussions you suffer, the more likely you're gonna get CTE.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a degenerative disease that turned up in the brains of 110 deceased NFL players examined in a study published this summer by the Journal of the American Medical Association. While he's not advocating the abolition of youth and high school football, Gurwitz says parents would be wise to have a conversation with their kids.
"Weighing the risks and benefits of high-impact sports that you know have a higher likelihood of a concussion versus lower impact sports."
