U of C study says helmets won’t prevent a concussion
Posted Mar 12, 2013 1:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Although a University of Calgary led study on concussions in sport has found helmets work well in preventing skull fractures, there is no clinical evidence that helmets prevent concussions.
The findings from a global panel of experts are being released in a number of leading medical journals.
The paper will no doubt alarm parents that believe outfitting their kids with the best in protective gear, protects against concession.
Dr. Willam Mayless, from the Calgary Hotchkiss Brain Institute says, the world’s leading experts concur, helmets don’t prevent concussion and neither do mouthguards.
“There’s never been a study to show that wearing a helmet in sports, reduces the concussion risk. So, they do what they’re designed to do, principally to protect the teeth and the face,” he said.
The panel suggests rule changes, limiting the risk of concussion is the best form of prevention and earlier detection and effective management is the best form of treatment.
The owners and operators of one Calgary sports store, selling hockey equipment, say they’ve never sold a helmet to do anything but prevent head trauma.
Kevin Redshaw from Tuxedo Source for Sports tells 660News, parents come in asking for helmets that stop concussion.
“Our answer is always the same thing: there’s no such thing. We tell people that what helmets are for and hopefully they would help you with some of the symptoms of a concussion in terms of the impacts but certainly not things like rotational forces or brain traumas,” he says.
The trauma he refers to includes cuts, bruises, falling into the ice, boards, or glass. Helmets are meant to protect you from the impact with another object, whether it be a puck, the ice, or a board, but in terms of actually stopped concussions, Redshaw says no company has ever said, that their helmet is produced to solely stop concussions.
