Expert paints alarming picture of concussions

Chris Nowinski has found the first step in protecting a brain is to educate it.

The 32-year-old former professional wrestler was spreading his message about the abuse the brain encounters in athletics and the short- and long-term affects of the countless blows to a gathering of about 25 people Thursday night in a conference room at Fitness Plus.

"We need to think how many times we're hitting our kids in the head," Nowinski told his audience, as he presented some daunting numbers about the contact that is inflicted on both the amateur and professional ranks.

With the help of Nowinski, the co-founder of Sports Legacy Institute and author of "Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis," that damage has come under closer examination and scrutiny.

Nowinski, the president of SLI, which advances the study, treatment and prevention of the effects of brain trauma, said he speaks to audiences about three times a week.

He took his share of shots in his athletic career.

Nowinski was a starting defensive tackle at Harvard for two years and later blazed a trail for Harvard grads. He became the first Harvard man in the WWE, taking on a villain role and the name of Chris Harvard. He was named the WWE 2002 Newcomer of the Year by RAW Magazine, but it all began to end in June of 2003 when he took a kick to the chin in a match and "was out of it" for about five minutes.

The kick led to a persistent throbbing headache, a break from the sport that ultimately became permanent, introspection, trips to numerous doctors and ultimately to Dr. Robert Cantu, an expert who helped Nowinski understand concussions.

Cantu expanded Nowinski's detection of concussions from simply knocked out to symptoms like dizzy spells, seeing stars, nauseousness and ear ringing. With Cantu's criteria, Nowinski was able to recall at least five other concussions.

He also had a new realization.

"I was a 24-year-old Harvard graduate who was recklessly abusing my brain," Nowinski said.

Nowinski's passion for the subject led him to Dr. Bennet Omalu, an expert in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease that Dr. Omalu found in post-mortem examinations of former NFL players Mike Webster and Terry Long after their deaths. Nowinski helped secure the brain of former NFL player Andre Waters for Dr. Omalu, who also found the presence of CTE.

Nowinski talked to 45 locals high school coaches earlier Thursday, and in the evening session he voiced amazement at length society goes to protect the throwing elbows of youth pitchers, yet disregards the continuous head blows youths incur in other sports.

"Is the brain more important than your elbow?" Nowinski asked. "We need to count how many times we hit kids in the head and regulate it."

Nowinski presented research that showed players can take up to 1,400 hits to the head in the course of a football season. And even though a player may not suffer a concussion, the repeated blows can have a cumulative effect. Research has shown that 75 percent of hits to the head come in practice.

He cited helmets as part of the problem and not a prevention to injury. Helmets, he said, are not effective on side hits and give players a false sense of security that encourages more contact.

The high amount of hits resonated with Jackson resident Jim Steiner, the father of two who has coached youth football over the years.

"He talks about 1,000 hits to the head for youth kids," Steiner said. "I don't doubt that a lot, because that's how we were taught. And we just took another generation with us. And that's pretty interesting when you see these statistics. Very frightening."

The data that Nowinski presented stood out to Steiner.

"The fact that they've got these scans and the technology they can see the kind of damage that exists," Steiner said. "That's the stuff that really hits you in the face. I give the people of Saint Francis a ton of credit for bringing in someone of that caliber into this community."

Nowinski said youth players can be at high risk because of no access to doctors, poor equipment, poor language skills to convey injuries, poor head/body ratios, weak necks, weak torsos, developing brains, more sensitivity to shock and no informed consent.

Nowinski laid out seven simple things to address concussions in youth sports, which included the preseason education of coaches, athletes and parents to symptoms and handling of concussions, adopting a Center for Disease Control (CDC) concussion action plan for removal and return to play, neck strengthening, sticker reminders for symptoms and prevention through overall brain trauma reduction.

"This was a real eye-opening," said Gary Walker of Jackson, who has a 13-year-old in seventh grade. "The kids and coaches who aren't in tune and receptive to all these things get right back out there and do it again. I've seen kids get knocked and on all fours and go off the field, and two plays later they're right back in. Now when I go out there and see that, I will wonder, and maybe ask the mom and dad to have them checked out to make sure. I thought the seven steps were a key."

Cindy, who declined to give her last name, had two sons involved in sports. Her 14-year-old recently suffered a concussion in basketball when he ran into the bleachers.

"The recurrence is a big thing," she said. "My son had a concussion last fall. I'm sure he had other times when he was dizzy and things bothered him, but he probably didn't voice it because he knew I'd make him sit out."

She also said a friend of her 16-year-old son, who wrestles, had a bad concussion last year.

"That's kind of on the forefront of why I'm here," Cindy said. "That chance is there and I want to learn all I can about concussions. It's something I take very seriously. It's too bad there weren't more parents here."

Nowinski said the NFL has denied the repeated hits and concussions have had lasting effects on players in their later years.

"The NFL in the last year has been really terrific on the concussion issue," Nowinski said. "But they were not terrific for a long time, and that slowed the world waking up to this because people trusted the NFL saying this wasn't real. Now they are helping. It's amazing how powerful they are for creating change. They're on the side of good right now."

It's been a slow journey for Nowinski.

"People not wanting to believe it's true," Nowinski said, when asked about the biggest obstacle to educating people on the subject. "There's a small group of people that control what coaches and parents and kids are required to know before they compete in a sport. It's amazing that concussions and brain trauma aren't a priority in a lot of places. There are leagues in the country where coaches don't have to do 20 minutes of free online training with the CDC."

Nowinksi said he is not against sports, but he's not sure he would do his own athletic career over.

"If I begin to slip, I'm going to absolutely regret it," he said. "Eight years of glory for 30 years of misery is not a good trade."