SCRANTON, Pa. — With many young women and girls in our area playing fall sports, more research continues to stress the importance of taking a proactive approach to prevent ACL injuries and concussions, just to name a few steps in sports safety.
Healthcare providers in our area, including those at Northeastern Rehabilitation Associates in Scranton, say concussions among female athletes are more common than males and usually more severe. However, there's not as much discussion/buzz about the impact on this topic on women vs. men.
Newswatch 16's Ryan Leckey explored this all more in-depth at Northeast Rehab on Thursday. The organization is also a corporate sponsor of WNEP-TV's Ryan's Run. To date, Northeast Rehab has donated $180,000 to Ryan's Run, which helps kids and adults with disabilities served by Allied Services.
The pros at Northeast Rehab, including doctors and physical therapists, helped shine a light on this topic and provide tips for parents and athletes.
Physical therapist Maurya Mellody-Carr says there have been several recent studies that suggest female athletes may be more prone to concussions. It's attributed to their neuronal make-up in the brain. Also, females have a decreased girth and strength in the neck region, which may also play a role in these concussions.
Published articles/studies:
Maurya stresses that there are ways to help prevent a concussion in female athletes with specific neck exercises. At Northeast Rehab, she often uses something called an "iron neck," which is a halo device for strengthening the neck.
Experts suggest that any type of head injury during athletics should always be looked at by a medical professional.
Also on Thursday's show, Dr. Sheryl Oleski addressed knee issues among female athletes and why they are more susceptible to ACL injuries. She discussed the more importance of athletes working in exercises that help reduce ACL injuries with specific exercises, core work, and gluteal strengthening as well as jump landing work.
Dr. Oleski also shared a few tips female athletes can consider to improve their overall health on and off the field:
- Get adequate sleep. According to National Sleep Foundation, the average adult needs between 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night to feel refreshed. However, research suggests that women tend to sleep just a little bit longer — 11 minutes, to be exact — than men." Learn more here.
Other things parents should consider with their daughters is being aware of any disordered eating, osteoporosis, and any disturbances in their menstrual cycle.
Also during Newswatch 16 This Morning, some members of the Lady Knights Hockey Team joined the crew at Northeast Rehab. They are one of the few all-girl hockey teams in our area. Northeast Rehab has also been a proud sponsor of the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Knights Hockey organization for the past two years.
The doctors and professionals at Northeast Rehab have provided baseline ImPACT testing for their players.
