Summary: <a href="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/concussions_podcast.jpg"></a><br> With concern about concussions and traumatic brain injuries growing in sports like football, we explore how the bike industry is poised to deal with this serious issue. We start our conversation by explaining what concussions are and how they are caused. Then, we talk about how bike helmet designs seek to address the risk of concussions, and what this risk could mean to the future growth of mountain biking.<br> The following is a transcript of our conversation about concussions.<br> Jeff: Hey everybody welcome to the singletracks podcast. My name is Jeff and today Greg and I are going to be talking about head injuries among mountain bikers. This is a pretty serious subject but one that we think we can share some good information about, but we have to say at the very beginning here that we’re not doctors. Obviously we are mountain bikers, and so as such we’re not giving any kind of medical advice or treatment advice or anything like that. So just take what we have to say as information only. And again this is information that we have gathered in our research and experience. So we’re going to be talking specifically today about concussions and traumatic brain injuries. What the symptoms and signs are, what some of the causes are, and then the things that are being done to prevent or treat those injuries. We did a similar podcast episode about helmets where we dived into some of this but this is going to be a more detailed discussion. So let’s get started. So to start off Greg, what is a traumatic brain injury or TBI?<br> Greg: Basically TBI cover all sorts of impacts and injuries to the brain it can be minor up to very serious. According to Wikipedia TBI can result in physical cognitive social emotional and behavioral symptoms. And you know you can easily recover completely or it could lead to permanent disability or death. So TBI is a pretty broad term.<br> Jeff: Yeah definitely. And it’s a term we’re hearing in the media these days as well, especially as it relates to football players. There’s been a lot of research and there have been cases of people who are injured who have exhibited a lot of these behaviors that weren’t really understood before. You know people’s personalities seem to change. And yet there’s a lot of things associated with TBI that we’re seemingly just starting to discover. So let’s drill down a little further. You know most people aren’t going to get a full on traumatic brain injury the first time out mountain biking, but what about concussions–these seem to be a little more prevalent. What is a concussion?<br> Greg: So basically a concussion is often referred to as a mild traumatic brain injury or TBI for short. But usually you just hear people say concussion is the most common type of TBI. It’s generally defined as a head injury that results in a temporary loss of brain function. And this can be a very small loss of brain function. It doesn’t need to be much to qualify as a concussion. You know potentially if you hit your head really hard and you have a headache you could have a concussion. But the level of concussion does vary on a pretty big scale. So you’ve got relatively minor ones, and potentially more serious ones.<br> Jeff: OK. So what causes a concussion? When you hit your head, why do you get concussed.<br> Greg: So basically you want to think about the brain as basically floating in your head and there’s a bunch of fluid around your brain that essentially keeps it from rattling around too much. But if you hit your head hard enough, or sometimes you don’t even need to hit your head to get a concussion, like whiplash or something of that nature. It jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. So if your brain is floating in the skull imagine your head stops reall...
