Latest / Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman / Brain Trauma & Youth Sports: The Reality Behind the Q-Collar and Concussion Prevention
Transcript
- 0:08SPEAKER_00: Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Broken Brains with your host, Bruce Parkman, sponsored by the Mack Parkman Foundation, where we talk about the issue of repetitive brain trauma and from two perspectives repetitive head impacts from contact sports and repetitive brain trauma or repetitive blast exposure for our military veterans and what this does to our brains and impacts our mental health.
- 0:28SPEAKER_00: And why this is important is because this is not trained in our nursing, medical, and psychological community.
- 0:34SPEAKER_00: So you have to be informed.
- 0:36SPEAKER_00: On this episode here, we love to get questions.
- 0:39SPEAKER_00: And people have been sending questions in all over the place, and we love to take some time to answer them.
- 0:44SPEAKER_00: And one of the questions we got today was about the Q-Collar.
- 0:47SPEAKER_00: Now, these devices have been out for a bunch of years now, and they have all kinds of claims about how they stop concussions and they they even reduce repetitive head impact exposure.
- 0:59SPEAKER_00: And I got a little bit of a beef with this device.
- 1:02SPEAKER_00: I mean, number one, you know, I've done the research on it, and it says it prevents exposures, yet the only part of the brain that it is uh actually approved to prevent from concussive trauma is so deep in the head that, okay, I'm not saying that you can't get concussed.
- 1:19SPEAKER_00: Like it's I can't even remember the name of the part of the brain, but it's down by the brainstem somewhere.
- 1:23SPEAKER_00: But it's not the prefrontal cortex, it's not the temporal lobes.
- 1:28SPEAKER_00: And these are the parts of the brain that get damaged when we get hit, when we tackle in football, we when we head soccer balls, or we get checked in hockey.
- 1:37SPEAKER_00: All right.
- 1:38SPEAKER_00: So the the whole issue about this device is supposedly, right?
- 1:42SPEAKER_00: It it straps around your neck, which I can't stand anything being around my neck, and it puts pressure on the juggling range.
- 1:50SPEAKER_00: So what does that do?
- 1:51SPEAKER_00: Is it keeps the blood pressure inside the head.
- 1:54SPEAKER_00: And that's supposed to keep the brain from moving.
- 1:57SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't care what you do to the brain inside the head.
- 2:01SPEAKER_00: The brain is suspended in fluid.
- 2:03SPEAKER_00: You can stop the blood going to the brain, which I think would probably give me a headache and probably reduce some serious circulation that's needed for the brain.
- 2:13SPEAKER_00: But they say it's based on this the woodpecker.
- 2:16SPEAKER_00: So the woodpecker, which I guess bangs its head against a tree thousands and thousands of times, has got a similar capacity to restrict blood flow to his brain, which supporters allows him to bang his head so many times.
- 2:31SPEAKER_00: Well, my question is, if this is so effective, then why do are why do they find CTE in the heads of woodpeckers?
- 2:40SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, there's one thing about being able to survive thousands of hits.
- 2:44SPEAKER_00: It's another thing to say, well, we prevent the woodpecker's head brain from being damaged.
- 2:49SPEAKER_00: Yet the woodpecker still has CTE.
- 2:51SPEAKER_00: Folks, to me, and I'm just going to be honest with you, I think this is another gimmick.
- 2:56SPEAKER_00: Because when it comes to repetitive impacts, the whole issue is that the brain is floating.
- 3:02SPEAKER_00: This does not stop the brain from floating.
- 3:05SPEAKER_00: So no matter where the impact comes from, the front of the head, the side of the head, the brain is going to shake.
- 3:11SPEAKER_00: If it has been proven through studies to reduce impact and some parts of the brain, I will guarantee you right now that it is not doing very much, if anything, to stop the impact to the brain, the critical parts of the brain that we're talking about, the temporal lobes, which are on both sides of the head and the prefrontal cortex.
- 3:30SPEAKER_00: And why is this important?
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: Because the prefrontal cortex is known as the CEO of our brain.
- 3:39SPEAKER_00: And I'm a CEO of a company, all right?
- 3:43SPEAKER_00: The CEO of the brain is the leader of the brain.
- 3:46SPEAKER_00: It literally controls everything that we do as adults.
- 3:50SPEAKER_00: Abstract planning, all of our social interactions with people, anger, rage, or our emotions are all controlled by this critical part of the brain.
- 4:01SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
- 4:02SPEAKER_00: This part of the brain is unmyelinated until the age of 14.
- 4:06SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
- 4:08SPEAKER_00: That means it's not mature.
- 4:09SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even start maturing till 14.
- 4:12SPEAKER_00: So I don't care if you've got a Q collar or you've got some other gizmo on your head, this part of the brain is not supposed to be touched by contact sports, and that's what killed my child.
- 4:24SPEAKER_00: So we have several issues here.
- 4:26SPEAKER_00: Number one, is this supposed to be approved for kids?
- 4:29SPEAKER_00: I think they actually say that, you know, there are some, you know, the uses in high school, and that's good.
- 4:36SPEAKER_00: But they also admit that they don't prevent concussions completely, and they don't make invincible, they don't prevent helpless.
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: But why are we going to give parents hope?
- 4:45SPEAKER_00: Okay, because that's what they're looking for.
- 4:47SPEAKER_00: They want their kids to play contact sports and they will grasp anything for them to be able to play.
- 4:54SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, something that does not reduce the exposure to this part of the brain is not doing your child any good.
- 5:02SPEAKER_00: Because once this thing, this part of the brain is damaged, we have a damaged adult.
- 5:07SPEAKER_00: And if your child has been playing before the age of 14, then you really need to keep an eye on them.
- 5:13SPEAKER_00: Because if they do have any, you know, struggles with behavioral issues or psychological issues, or maybe they start having some cognitive challenges, okay, then we have a piece, we have an injury, okay?
- 5:25SPEAKER_00: It does not mean that it's all doom and gloom.
- 5:28SPEAKER_00: We have so many ways to heal the brain now, but we can't heal the brain if your kids plan.
- 5:34SPEAKER_00: And we can't heal the brain if they keep on uh damaging it after they've been told not to play, or if they go get a Q collar because now you think your kid's safe.
- 5:46SPEAKER_00: These devices do not improve the safety of your child from a brain health perspective at all, in my opinion, because the risk to their brain are not reduced primarily right here and right here from the impacts of subconcussive trauma.
- 6:02SPEAKER_00: That's how I feel, that's what I feel about the Q collar, and I think you should be aware of what I feel.
- 6:07SPEAKER_00: I'm a pretty well-researched individual.
- 6:10SPEAKER_00: They've got their claims, I've got my claims, but I'm telling you right now, if I was the parent of a child, I would not strap one of these things on my kid, and I would not allow them to play contact sports before the age of 14.
- 6:23SPEAKER_00: And then if you can't find a coach that'll take the contact out of practice every time he gets hit in contact and practice, that's just unnecessary brain trauma to your kid.
- 6:33SPEAKER_00: Take care of your children.
- 6:34SPEAKER_00: You do not want to be in my world, and I don't want you in it.
- 6:38SPEAKER_00: So that's what I think about the Q collar.
- 6:40SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for the questions, and we'll see you next time on Broken Brains with your host, Bruce Parker.
- 6:45SPEAKER_00: God bless you and have a great day.