Washington (H24N). Another study on athletes and concussions, this one focusing on collegiate and high school football players, is shedding more light on the dangers of the head injury.

A three-year study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers says that football players who suffer concussions during the course of the season and do not properly heal are three times more likely to suffer a second, and possibly more dangerous, concussion in the same season.

The research is published in the September-October issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

The threat of permanent brain damage is very real when multiple head injuries such as concussions are incurred. "We believe recurrences are more likely because injured players are returning to practice and to games too quickly after blows to the head," said Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., an assistant professor of exercise and sports science at the university and the study's lead author. "Many clinicians are not following the medical guidelines that players should be symptom-free for several days before returning."

Quite the opposite seems to be happening, according to the study's findings. In a random survey of 242 certified athletic trainers in high school and colleges from around the United States representing some 17,000 football players from 1995 through 1997, 31 percent of those athletes who suffered concussions returned to the lineup the same day they were injured.

And although those results are not surprising, says Guskiewicz, they do pose a real reason for concern. Adding that 86 percent of those who suffered concussions reported a headache, Guskiewicz says it is those players that trainers, coaches and parents should be worried about. "You should never return to play with a headache," Guskiewicz said. "It was probably all right for the 14 percent of players with no symptoms to return."

The report also disputes 1983 findings that say that one in every five football players every year suffers a concussion. The latest results say that figure is more like one in 20. Regardless, the threat of vision impairment, brain damage or even death from multiple concussions cannot be minimized and is making football personnel more aware of the dangers.

According to earlier research done by the university, all six deaths of high school students as a result of football in the United States in 1999 were due to head trauma. "Coaches are being smarter in limiting physical contact time in practices," Guskiewicz said. "They are stressing the importance of players' keeping their heads up during blocking and tackling, not dropping their heads, which is against the newer rules and is much more dangerous." Field officials rarely hesitate to throw the penalty flag when players lead with their head. Spearing is the official call, and it carries with it a 15-yard penalty.

The study augments other recent findings and on-field occurrences that magnify the dangers of multiple concussions. Findings presented at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in May suggested that professional football players who suffer head injuries during their careers are more apt to complain of numbness in the extremities and memory loss later in life.

Several high-profile professional athletes in the last six months have battled the effects of concussions. Just last Sunday during a professional football game, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, a former Super Bowl MVP, suffered the ninth concussion of his career and did not play this weekend against the Arizona Cardinals. Former San Francisco 49ers signal-caller and future Hall of Famer Steve Young retired from the game after a series of concussions kept him out of the second half of last season.

Possibly the most reported incidence of concussions and concussion-related symptoms in sports belongs to hockey's Eric Lindros. As a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, Lindros missed the better part of the second half of last season with concussion problems. When the Flyers' season was finally over, with a loss in the Eastern Conference Finals, Lindros had suffered his sixth concussion in three years.

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