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Youth athlete brain health is fine, experts say
Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital tracked local youth football and hockey players, measuring big hits with special mouth guards.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - On any given evening across America, you can find kids learning the x's and o's of the country's favorite sport.
You can also find millions of parents close by with the same thing on their minds: the safety of their children. New local research suggests they can rest a little easier.
"Kids really just aren’t taking a ton of these hits consistently enough to impact brain functioning over time," shared Danielle Ransom, Doctor of Psychology at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.
The hospital tracked local youth football and hockey players from pre-season to a year later, measuring big hits along the way using special mouth guards.
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"None of the hits they took were related to any outcomes on things like memory, attention, or processing speed. All these are important indicators that we are looking at that are measuring brain health over time," said Ransom.
Parents may be relieved by new concussion research.
That's not to say parents shouldn't be careful.
"I think knowing individual factors and how a kid plays is important, in terms of assessing overall risk for the hits they are going to withstand," said Ransom.
She also recommends seeking out leagues with safety guidelines in place.
In recent years, Pop Warner has eliminated the three-point stance, limits contact in practice to only one hour a week and has gotten rid of kickoffs.
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"That takes away the opportunity for kids to be running down the field and colliding into each other full speed," explained Dwayne Renaker, president and founder of Tampa Bay Pop Warner.
Special mouth guards were used to measure big hits.
They've also eliminated many popular high-contact drills.
"One of the things I think attracts people to Pop Warner is the safety aspect of it," said Renaker.
Doctor Ransom also warns parents not to make decisions based on alarming national headlines concerning concussions and CTE. She says much of that research is limited because it only studies the brains of retired professional football players who had problems later in life.
"We’re not seeing these scary things play out to the degree that we’re seeing in the news every day, coming from retired football players for example," she explained.