If you've gotten past the Star Wars hype, you may have noticed the film Concussion in movie theaters. And just as Concussion itself is working to compete with the franchise blockbuster, its main characters are equally pitted against a massive sports corporation that "owns a day of the week."
The film, set in 2002, follows Dr. Bennet Omalu (played by Will Smith) as he discovers and publishes his study about concussions and CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a progressive, degenerative disease found in people with repetitive head injuries, particularly football players. Dr. Omalu first observed CTE in a former Pittsburgh Steelers player who had apparently died of a heart attack. Eventually, several other retired Steelers who committed suicide were also found to have CTE, giving Dr. Omalu the scientific burden of proof he needed to show that repetitive hits to the head and concussions could cause CTE and leave players with problems due to their traumatic brain injuries for the rest of their lives.
However, the NFL had completed studies of its own, and was determined to not only hide their findings, but the findings of Dr. Omalu as well. Eventually there was no denying that concussions caused lifelong brain trauma and that the NFL had clearly tried to hide it from players and their families. But as the film ended, we were left at a crossroads. There was no happy ending, apparently no solution to the problem. So what do we do now?
The first step is to educate ourselves on concussions, not just in professional athletes, but in our every day lives. What are the symptoms? What does it feel like? What are the long-term implications? How do they heal? Since the majority of us are not medical doctors, the science may be difficult to comprehend. That does not preclude us from learning more. There are many resources out there, all of whom present different facts and information. Who do we trust? In some capacity, most resources will tell you similar, but not all available information. The truth is, treatments exist for concussions; they're just not mainstream medicine. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used worldwide to treat and help heal "invisible wounds." Yet vastly more money is being spent on diagnoses and the search for a silver-bullet drug or device.
Once you research, you can begin to understand the effects of concussions, CTE and other traumatic brain injuries, the mechanisms of action, and how medicine has become more passive with "watchful waiting" protocol. However, each brain injury is unique. The Entertainment Industries Council (EIC) recently released its own Concussion TV internet portal specifically to answer questions about the film Concussion, and, more broadly, includes the most frequent queries and interviews with athletes, service members, and others who have suffered the effects of serious concussions, traumatic brain injury, or post traumatic stress disorder. These inside looks at the struggles and some triumphs of those suffering from head trauma put a new perspective on overcoming a brain injury that science alone can't. The emotion, pain, and frustration that comes with changes to cognitive functions. The terror of your brain not working the way it once did. The struggle to pay for "off-label" treatment that restores health that had been denied by health insurance. These interviews are a down payment on more in-depth discoveries. Like Dr. Omalu, EIC is dedicated to telling the truth about both the multiple dimensions to diagnosis and treatment of one of the most costly "brain drains" in the nation.
As you research concussions and understand more, it may become clear to you that it is necessary to advocate for those at risk of traumatic brain injury, and their treatment. Whether it is your grade school son playing football and getting hit too often, your nephew who is returning from deployment, your sister who is a high school cheerleader, or your father who fell and hit his head, someone needs to speak for them. What can we do to prevent concussions on the field and the front lines? How can we most effectively treat concussions or CTE after they have occurred in patients? How can we make the world realize what a serious problem this is?
Concussion will open your eyes to how far people, or in this case, a corporation, is willing to go to win. Its implications shocked me to my core. It is time to take a stand against reckless accidents that could mentally cripple a person for the rest of his or her life. It's time to provide treatments so that a concussion isn't a lifelong sentence. What are we going to do about it?
To learn more about concussions, visit http://www.concussiontv.com/Home.aspx. To learn about how you can get safe and effective treatment for those with concussions, visit TreatNow.org.