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Did you know that roughly every 21 seconds, someone in the United States has a concussion or another type of serious brain injury? And one of the most common reasons people get concussions and head injuries is through playing sports.

This is America; and we are a country, not unlike many others, that is obsessed with sports. We play sports, watch sports, talk about the games, and perhaps even bet on them. There are 24/7 sports radio and television channels, billions of dollars of sports apparel sold every year, and sports bars from coast to coast. Yes, we love our sports.

Sports can be a huge part of life; and for millions of young athletes, it is just that. We encourage our children to get into sports at an early age. This can be very constructive since there are many positives about being involved in athletics, including the benefits of physical exercise, the fresh air, the camaraderie of team activities, the skills learned, coordination building, and the sportsmanship that comes from participating in sports. In many instances, sports can also build confidence and increase self-esteem. Parents, educators, and trainers also point out that participating in sports helps children:

And playing sports can be fun, fulfilling and, if you’re extremely proficient, financially rewarding. For many youngsters, athletics can open the door to college scholarships and lifetime friendships.

There is, however, the other side of sports; the darker side…injuries. One type of injury that has generated a lot of attention of late is concussions. There has been a steady increase in the number of youngsters suffering concussions from sports. Either that, or concussions are finally being taken seriously and being reported. It is estimated that there are over 1.6 million sports-related concussions in the United States each year, of which between 136,000 and 300,000 are sustained by high school students.

These numbers do not include the youngsters who told their coaches, their parents, and everyone else that they were fine while their head was throbbing. They may very well have had concussions but did not share the information for fear of not being allowed to play. Yes, there are more concussions, and other head injuries, then those that are reported to coaches, parents, medical trainers, or doctors. In fact, an ESPN poll indicated that 33 percent of college football players have lied about concussions.

The minimizing of concussions in sports has now become a major health priority. At least once a week, if not more, we are reminded by TV reports, newspaper articles, or websites reporting that sports-related concussions are a very real problem. Articles have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, U.S News and World Report, the Huffington Post, and on WebMD.com, mayoclinic.org, MedlinePlus.com, and numerous other media outlets. Dr. Neil Alpiner, a pediatric concussion specialist in Royal Oaks, Michigan, even has an ongoing concussion blog. The Wall Street Journal, not long ago, featured a story about the fact that many youngsters are returning to sports too soon without having sufficient time to rest or recover after a concussion or blow to the head. This has also been an important concern of many parents and has been addressed in many articles and news reports – children who keep on playing when they should be taking care of their brain.

In May of 2012, the NBC news program Rock City aired a special report on teenage girls playing soccer in Chester Hills, Pennsylvania. Like so many teens around the country, they played the game in a league environment and loved the camaraderie and the competition. The particular teens featured in the segment had become pretty good players as well. However, the sport they had grown to love proved costly, affecting them in ways they never imagined.

After five concussions, one of the teenagers featured on the program, Allison, described herself to Rock Center reporter Kate Snow by saying that she should wear a sign telling people “my head is broken.” The 15-year-old was only able to attend school for four hours a day. She had to sleep in a room with soft blue lights and ate dinner with her family by candlelight. Headaches and extreme light sensitivity had become the norm for Allison, who, along with several other girls on her team and thousands of others around the country, was struggling with the after-effects of concussions. One of Allison’s friends had her first concussion from playing soccer at the age of 12 and by 14 was also struggling with symptoms that were similar to those of Allison. Neither girl could lead the “normal” life of a teenager.

Sure, we are told that concussions typically go away in a few days or may last up to three weeks. That is the normal perception…concussions will simply disappear. But what if they last longer or never fully disappear? As Allison and others can attest to, longer lasting symptoms can occur and can change the life of a youngster or an adult. This book will present a solution for these residual problems.

We’ve had athletes like Nick Bell, a former running back in the NFL, as well as NHL hockey players among others, come to the Irlen Institute looking for help. Bell came more than 15 years after the end of his NFL career that had left him with a lifetime of disabilities. Of course, it’s not only athletes who get concussions. In recent years, we’ve also been working with many of our brave men and women of the military who have sustained head injuries and concussions. Like the athletes, they come to us looking for help. Irlen Spectral Filters can provide significant help with the symptoms associated with head injuries, alleviating them or making them go away completely.

Why don’t your kids tell you when they have a headache, blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, or other signs of a concussion?

Why don’t children want you to know?

Athletes, especially young ones, don’t want to let anyone down. Sports were once played by youngsters primarily for fun. Kids made the rules, played the games, and had nobody else to answer to. For the most part, those days are gone. Competitive sports for children have taken on an entirely new culture of their own. The increase in head injuries in recent years is not puzzling to anyone aware of the significant emphasis placed on performance and on the importance of playing harder. In order to keep their coaching jobs, or simply for their own egos, coaches are pushing children harder than ever.

Hitting harder, being aggressive, and winning have been elevated to the new mantra. Kids must do whatever it takes to make the team and then keep their spot in the starting lineup (which also prompted the steroid problem in sports as well) and that means playing harder no matter how they feel. Unfortunately, while more and more athletes are flocking onto the fields to play, many youngsters are not skilled in how to properly tackle in football, how to check in hockey, the right way to head a ball in soccer, or how to perform in other sports in a way in which they may avoid injuries. In addition to needing the necessary skills, the developing bodies, including the brains, of young athletes are more susceptible to injuries than those of adults. For example, a soccer ball traveling 30 yards and landing on the head of a young girl of 12 or 15 years of age, with still developing neck muscles, can be far more damaging than if it was landing on the head of a more physically mature woman. This explains why there has been a significant increase in concussions in girls’ soccer.

In fact, studies now show that girls who play soccer in middle school have high rates of concussions. Researchers watched 351 girls playing soccer over an extended period of time and saw that 59 of the girls got concussions, which is more than 15%, a higher percentage than other sports concussion rates. Sadly, only about 50% sought medical attention while nearly 60% continued to play.

When you combine the following factors:

…you have greater potential for injuries. As a result, we are seeing this increase in the number of concussions and other head injuries.

But it’s not only the coaches by any means. Sports today are big money. Professional athletes make a fortune. We once wanted out children to grow up to be doctors or lawyers. Today, a professional athlete is higher on the wish list. Many parents push children harder than ever to excel in sports, even more so than they push them academically. One very significant reason is that scholarship money can pay for the spiraling costs of higher education, and a top athlete is more likely to get a free ride than a top student.

Whether it’s an ego thing, a means of living vicariously through their child’s success or going for that college scholarship, many parents are pushing their children harder than ever before. “It’s called the Little League Parent Syndrome,” says Dr. Andrew Yellen, a California-based licensed psychologist specializing in both clinical and sports psychology. Yellen also played college football and then spent many years coaching at the high-school level. He sees how the obnoxious little league parent of old has taken on a whole new meaning today.

“My son, who is a football coach for the University of Houston, almost got into blows with the irate father of one of the team’s star players because he would not let the player into the game following a head injury and possible concussion,” says Yellen. That mentality is pervasive in a lot of places. “When I coached, every year I would sit down with the parents and tell them that the fastest way your son can get benched on my team is for me to find out that he had an injury and didn’t tell me. I didn’t care how insignificant; I’m even talking about a blister. I made it clear that if their son had an injury and did not come to me with that injury, he would be benched. I was very adamant about it – I wanted to be the one to make the decision as a trained professional. But not everyone operates that way,” explains Yellen.