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Nature Podcast

Audio long-read: why sports concussions are worse for women

Nature Podcast

podcast@nature.com

News, Science, Technology

4.5893 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2021

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As women’s soccer, rugby and other sports gain in popularity a growing body of evidence suggests that female athletes are at a greater risk of traumatic brain injury than men - what's more they tend to fare worse after a concussion and take longer to recover. Now researchers are racing to get to the bottom of why and ask how treatment might need to change.


This is an audio version of our feature: Why sports concussions are worse for women


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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1:05.0

This is an audio long read from nature.

1:08.4

In this episode, why sports concussions are worse for women. Written by Catherine

1:13.2

Sanderson and read by Charmoney Bundell.

1:19.1

Liz Williams was standing pitchside at a woman's rugby match and she did not like what she

1:24.1

was seeing. Williams, who researches forensic biomechanics at Swansea University

1:28.7

UK, had equipped some of the players with a mouthguard that contained a sensor to measure the speed

1:34.3

of head movement. She wanted to understand more about head injuries in the brutal sport.

1:40.3

There were a few instances when my blood went cold, Williams said.

1:48.9

When the women fell in a tackle, their heads would often whiplash into the ground.

1:54.7

The senses showed that the skull was accelerating, indicating an increased risk of brain injury.

2:01.2

But medical staff at the match, not trained to look out for this type of head movement as a cause of injury, deemed the women fine to play on. Such whiplash injuries are much rarer when males play. William's

...

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