Q Collar and Concussions

If you’ve been watching any football on television this season, you may have noticed that a growing number of players are wearing a strange looking collar. It’s called the Q Collar, and it’s designers claim that it helps reduce the effects of blows to the head by using pressure on the neck to increase blood volume in the brain’s venous structures, thereby reducing the harmful internal movement that causes brain injury and concussions. The fact that the Q Collar even exists offers evidence that we are learning what repeated blows to the heads can do. Recently, the New York Times ran a report where five parents of young athletes diagnosed after death with Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy talked about how little they knew about the potential for long-term consequences when they first registered their elementary-aged sons for tackle football. The Concussion Legacy foundation reminds parents that it is wise and necessary to hold kids out of tackle football until high school.