Myths About Concussions

This week's guest blog is brought to you by Dr. Liang Dai, who just recently came back from a concussion seminar in Toronto.  Hampton Wellness Centre is is now fully certified in the Shift Concussion Management Program.  

And now from Dr. Li: 

Concussions have been the news a lot more recently with the NFL and NHL concussion issues that have arisen of late. As a result, I have seen and heard a lot of misconceptions about concussions and the following are a few myths about concussions that I would like to clear up.

1) Concussions only occur when there is direct trauma to the head. Verdict: FALSE. There doesn’t need to be a direct hit to the head as concussions are acceleration/deceleration injuries. The brain is surrounded by fluid and occupies the inside of the skull. When the head moves forward and snaps backwards, like in a whiplash injury, the brain sloshes around inside the skull and can impact the skull bones.

2) You need to lose consciousness to have a concussion. Verdict: FALSE. It is estimated that loss of consciousness occurs in less than 10% of people that suffer from a concussion. Symptoms of a concussion can range from headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light/sound, fatigue, metal fogginess, etc. As a majority of the symptoms can seem benign at the moment of injury, the occurrence of a concussion may be under-reported or brushed off as inconsequential.

3) Treatment for a concussion means you can’t use TV, computer, video games, reading, texting, etc. Verdict: DEPENDS. Decreasing screen time was the general advice given to patients by doctors in the past. While this can work for some patients, the treatment for concussion is more nuanced than the general blanket approach. Current clinical research has shown that there are generally two different types of concussions: visual and vestibular. While, decreasing screen time will help in part the visual concussion, it may have no effect with the vestibular concussion as both motion and balance needs to be addressed. 

If you are interested in learning more about concussions, please keep checking our website as we will be posting more on concussion facts and how to recover from them properly. The Hampton Wellness Centre is now fully certified in the Shift Concussion Management Program