Welcome everyone to bodies on the line science behind the headlines. I'm Tom
Wilson I'm from Fox Sports News and I'll be your host tonight. I've got a couple of
guests they're probably the ones that you want to hear from most I'll
introduce them to you just on my left is Professor Caroline Finch she's the
director of Australian Center for Research into injury and sport and its
prevention at the Federation University some fun facts. She's
Australia's leading sports injury epidemiologist got that one out and
sports injury prevention researcher she also advises federal and state
government departments the AFL the Australian Sports Commission and
numerous other sporting bodies. The A-CRISP which is the Australian Center
for Research into injury and sport is one of only four research centers
worldwide to be designated by the International Olympic Committee as a
Center for Research Excellence into injury and illness prevention in
athletes so welcome Caroline. And the gentleman here Dr Mark Fisher he's a
sports doctor at SportsMed SA he may have seen him running around Adelaide
Oval for the Port Adelaide Football Club he's their their medical officer and
he's also with the Australian cycling team. He's a leader in sports medicine
and his elite level experience includes working with the Australian team at the
2008 and 2012 Olympics and the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games work along
mark. Now we've got a few items on the agenda today but first of all I just
want to ask you all out there and with a raise of hands who's been injured
playing any of our sports? Who's been injured before? Probably all of us you'd
be pretty lucky if you hadn't been injured at any stage. We all suffer things
from those injuries has anyone had a long-term problem from any of those
injuries so that maybe they might be able to run any more or take part in
certain sports? Great well it's not great certainly plays a role in what we're
going to talk about coming up next which our first segment is head and spinal
injuries. Now we had an instance this year that we all would have heard about
a sad case where a rugby player Alex McKinnon became a quadriplegic in a in a
sad tackle really I mean it was the person in question Jordan McLean who
will come up on our screen shortly he was given seven weeks for this lifting
tackle and it really hit the headlines right across and it's probably one of
the things that was the most talked about in sports injuries this year. Now
Caroline you're a I guess a leader in NRL you know what goes on there is do you
think the NRL is one of the most or is the most dangerous of the three football
codes? Well it actually depends on what state you live in a lot of our work is
about recording injuries that occur in people so people are going to get medical
treatment whether it's at a hospital or at a sports medicine clinic and when
you rank all the sports in terms of the numbers of cases football always tops
the list but it depends on what state you're in if you're in Queensland it's
rugby league if you're in New South Wales it's rugby union if you're in the
southern states it's Australian football and one of the reasons for that is
simply because we have so many more people playing the sport not necessarily
that it's more risky but certainly when we look at severe injuries though so
those that are more severe that require people to get more medical attention
because of threat to life or long-term disability risks we would find that the
heavy contact sports such as the rugby codes would be the ones that have higher
rates. What are the risks of head and spinal injuries in the different codes
can I guess break them down? Yeah again it varies by code it's important to
realise that a lot of these I'm calling them incidents not accidents because
there is a reason why they occurred you know accidents almost imply that
something just happened by chance so when we look at injury incidents and
again looking at the hospital cases probably about five percent of all
cases of sports injuries treated in the hospital setting are to do with
concussion in sport or a suspected concussion. Now our research in Victoria
last year has actually shown that the number of cases has gone up by about
sixty percent over the past ten years but we actually are seeing that as a good
news story because we believe that it's not because the sports are getting riskier
it's because people are more concerned about it and know that if they don't do
something then maybe they can have problems so it is really reflecting a
high part of the improvements in medical treatment that people like Mark would be doing.
Yeah well that's right a lot of talk has been about it there's that incident of
course with AFL and your work with the Port Adelaide Football Club Mark what
happens during a head bump? Well the main impact that the brain gets with a head
bump is actually rotational forces within the confines of a firm skull so the
thinking is and no one really actually knows what is the mechanism or cause of
the term concussion but it's thought to be the rotational forces of the brain
cause some sort of cognitive impairment of brain function. If you if you
actually scan brains of people who suffer concussion they look normal. With
better technology developing there are now dynamic MRI type scanners trying to
pick up subtle changes but we're not there yet so at the moment there is no
obvious structural damage to the brain on a scan it's more of a functional
impairment as a result of these rotational forces of the brain. Is there
I mean all head knocks are bad is it worse when you clash heads or is it
worse when you hit your head on the ground from a tackle can you define that?
Yeah it's hard to define as a general rule hitting the head on the ground where
a moving head hits a immobile object like the ground is worse than two heads
colliding and also this is the speed of the impact of two individuals is not
always at a very high speed so and you may see an example with the Brad
Symes case where it's a double impact it's usually very often an impact of the
head with another player and then the head hits the ground very often when the
player is already unconscious and they hit the head on the ground in an
unconscious state which just makes the impact even worse. Yeah much much worse
we'll get to the Brad Symes incident a little bit later on but Caroline I
wanted to ask you what are the seriousness of concussions what are the
short-term and I guess the long-term impacts? Okay well certainly immediately
people are going to be having symptoms potentially like dizziness loss of memory
and so forth they're not going to be feeling well and a lot of people who go
to the emergency department do so because they don't feel quite right and
they're right to go to an emergency department or to see a doctor to get
sorted out. The good news is that most of the symptoms of concussion do resolve
over two weeks and that's why we have return to play guidelines that say
really people shouldn't be returning to play until after then. It's if you've
got some symptoms that exceed that two week period that you really don't need
to get more medical attention. As Mark said concussion doesn't show up on a
brain scan but there are other tests that our medical professionals use
neurophysicians can use to look for signs of long-term damage and those are
the ones that really we need to be worried about. The NFL the American
football obviously had incidents that I guess the brain bank is that only a
positive thing I guess I mean it's what's happened is bad but for future
research? I think it's going to be very good for future research but I should
point out that a lot of that work looking at potential long-term damage
and for something called CTE chronic traumatic incapulopathy, get that word
right, has been identified in American studies of deceased footballers so all
of the studies have been conducted by pathologists who've looked at the brains
of people who've died not of players who are still playing and some of that
damage can actually be caused by things like drug-taking, alcohol, violence and
other abuse and so that sort of study and that evidence is actually limited
because we only know that it's occuring dead people. We do need to have long-term
studies. Having said what I've just said we don't know that it doesn't cause that
damage either so really I think having brain banks but more importantly having
longer-term prospective studies where we follow up players who are healthy at the
start of the season and then follow up those who do and don't have concussion
or have or have not suspected bumps that we follow those up and look at their
history over time. That's where we're going to need to go in the future. Mark
obviously you work in a professional environment. How about at the amateur
level where maybe doctors aren't available? What are the risks there? I
guess it goes down to kids too? Yeah I think at the amateur level it's of more
concern. At AFL the professional level they get well looked after, they get
assessed regularly, the professional athlete but at the suburban level of any
sport those sort of medical services are not readily available so people could
very easily slip under the radar suffering from the consequences of a
concussion so which part of one of the reasons why we're here tonight is
education to people who participate in any level of sport should they suffer
any type of injury but in this particular case head injury to get
medical attention and there are a lot of education programs now sports trainers
who look after football clubs are generally well aware of the issues
related to concussion and we certainly get a lot of referrals now to assess the
concussion episodes after football and so I think any any person who suffers
from a head injury where concussion has been diagnosed it's a pretty much a
blanket rule now they shouldn't return to sport until they've had a medical
assessment. Yeah that's a good rule. Is there is a headache equal a concussion
because sometimes I guess that could be confused? No that's pretty
simplistic to say I've got a headache therefore on concussed you can suffer a
migraine headache and not be concussed so I think headache on its own is a bit
simplistic there are a range of symptoms that we look for in concussion I mean
headache is certainly one of them but as Caroline said dizziness, confusion, some
short-term memory loss and and the very common thing that I often take note of
is they people they report to you I just don't feel right and and that is
probably of more significance they just don't feel normal they feel cloudy fuzzy
in the head they can't concentrate so there are a range of symptoms that you
can suffer from with concussion not just a headache. We'll go to that Brad
Simms incident he was playing for Central District this video will be courtesy of
kettle nine. Former Port and Crow star Brad Simms has revealed grave fears for
his long-term future following 11 serious concussions. The 29-year-old last
night made a tearful farewell from SA&FL club Central District and in an
exclusive interview with Warren Treadray reveals how serious health concerns
led him to quitting the game he loves. It was this bump four weeks ago that
signalled the end for Bulldogs captain Brad Simms unconscious for seven minutes
it was the latest in a string of crippling concussions. I've had at least
11 pretty good ones that I can remember and three of those have been in the
last 18 months and they seem to be getting worse and worse each time when
you kind of hear that and look at those numbers it is it's a little bit scary
and you do have to weigh things up a bit. Simms today revealed the head knocks
began when he was a youngster he even wore a helmet to appease his long
suffering mother. Even when it happened to me when I was 13 forward I should be
by my hospital bed begging me to stick with my cricket and give up footy. Last
night it was Simms who shed tears as he told his teammates of his decision to
retire after 98 games and two premierships finally putting family before footy.
You just got to weigh up the potential consequences versus what you're going to
get out of playing again and it probably wasn't worth it in the end. A decision
welcomed by the medical profession concerned by the 29-year-old sheer
number of concussions. I would have thought that with 11 he stands a much
higher chance of developing some chronic problems. Loss of short and long-term
memory loss of coordination, persistent headaches, persistent neck aches. There is
some concern that they may develop some of the chronic neurological conditions
such as Parkinson's. Fears shared by Simms now a father to eight-month-old
Harper. When it comes to the brain trauma and that kind of thing you don't
really get a second crack at it. He suffered headaches for two weeks after
the latest hit and still has neck pain. He's even undergone brain scans which
have cleared him of serious damage for now. And at the moment I feel pretty good.
I don't know what's ahead of me and you know I may have played for one or two
more years but hopefully I can live for the next 50 or 60 so you want to be in a
mentor and physical state that you can get the most out of your life with your
family after football. Warren Tredray, 9 News. Tough story there are 11
concussions over his career and played professionally at Port Adelaide and the
Crows as well. Caroline what are the things that players need to consider
when balancing their sports career with their health? Yeah that's a very good
question particularly too because it's very hard for these young players to
think about what's going to happen to them when they're 40 and 50 post the
career. So we do need to look at that as well. When we're talking about amateurs
or community level players too, those players have other impacts like they
might not be able to work, they might not be able to study and how can they
support their family. That's less likely to be a concern for our elite players
because they'll have their salary. So sports injuries actually have a wide
ranging impact on all family aspects. Well it makes a difficult decision as well
because sometimes it's a release for people but if they're getting injured
and can't work I guess that's a big problem. It is but I think it's looking
too as we saw at the start of tonight's event that you can actually do cross
training and vary up your activities so by no means don't stop your sport
because that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about maybe
changing your training regime, balancing up playing different sports and taking
some things a bit slowly but certainly maintaining activity is much better than
not doing anything at all. For parents it's they probably see these incidents in
the NRL and the AFL as well. Should they be concerned about these sports the way
they're going with these injuries? Yeah that's a really good question. We've done
some work nationally that shows that one in four parents stops their children
from playing sport because they're scared about the risks and when you look
at it in particular it's parents of boys want to stop their boys from playing
particularly the rugby codes and parents of girls interestingly don't want
them to do roller sports. Now when you look at the injury hospitalisation
statistics those sports feature highly but I can tell you no we're near at the
level of one in four presentations to hospitalise those. I think what we're
finding is parents are getting their information from watching the elite
forms of the games on the weekend but the injury rate in community football even
in the adult level at the community level is about one twentieth of what it is
at the AFL and for kids it's probably about one hundredth so the sports are
relatively safe. The key things are to choose a sporting club that's got a very
good ethic and a good approach to risk management and particularly it's got a
highly trained credible coach who will oversee things and that's the best thing
that parents can do for their child sport. I guess Mark do you think the I
guess the idea has changed that you're not tough anymore is that changed
especially in professional sport? Yeah I don't know I don't think it has
changed I think there's a still that culture that you've got to be tough to
reach and the league level of sport and you do have to be tough I mean I don't
think there's any argue about that. Regarding dealing with injury yes there
is this element of you've got to tough it out and you've got to you know work
through the pain you have to put it in perspective I mean you ask any AFL player
when they go out and play at a professional level do they go into a
game with no pain at all and there would be very few who don't have some pain
somewhere but you need to differentiate between we often talk to them about
good and bad pain it's not so much good pain but it's not bad pain so it's not
a necessary injury it might be a bruise or might be a bit of a aching muscle from
their training lobes compared to a serious injury where they're playing
with pain and so everybody's perception of pain is very different so it's very
hard to generalise it's at an individual level some people are able to
play with pain more than others just the point on children I mean certainly my
understanding Caroline correct me if I'm wrong most children's injuries and I'm
talking under the age of say 14 15 are actually sustained in the playground not
organised sport so again we need to put it in context that parental concern
about children getting injured at an organised sporting level it's relatively
low incidence and even the injuries that children do suffer are not terribly
serious so the positive benefits of sport and participation and athletic
experience far outweigh the injury risk at a childhood level at least and
talking of awareness Caroline what sort of role can the media or does the media
play in raising awareness about these injuries I think that we have some
negative influence when the focus is on our late footballers of whatever code on
the weekend someone else has been involved in another bump someone's been
taken off and so forth I think that that gives a false impression of how serious
the injury risk is you know as Mark said you know it's very different for elite
sport and community sport elite athletes professional athletes they're
they're pushing their bodies to the length of physical capability that's
what elite sports about but for everyone else we're not doing that whether you
have to have fun to develop skills and to be fit and healthy so we've got to take
that into account and you know I sometimes think it'd be really great if
the media could focus on look at this player this is the one who's remained
injury free for the greatest part of the season let's try and get some new role
models up yeah that's a challenge for people like you I think just to add to
that you can you can turn into a positive I mean the weekend AFL football of
those who watched it a West Coast player lost three of his front teeth because
he wasn't wearing his mouth guard and we'll talk about protective gear later
on but that that's a really good example of educating people to say look this is
what happens when you don't wear a mouth guard so and he was an elite
professional athlete and you can use that example to teach younger athletes to
say this is what you should be doing so I regard that as a media exposure that
puts above a positive nature
