Football helmets don’t prevent concussions. What can?

On Sunday, countless Americans will hunker down in their living rooms to eat chips and really good dip, socialize with friends, and of course watch the Super Bowl—the cumulative game for a sport that’s been drawing heavy criticism as of late.

Football is one of the most popular sports in America. But recently it's come under fire from coaches, parents, and medical professionals alike for the contact sports’ tendency to result in concussions—not just in professional football, but in college and youth leagues as well. There’s mounting evidence that repeated concussions can lead to a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The degenerative disease can cause severe neurological problems including memory loss, confusion, aggression, and dementia.

Of course, players aren't just slamming into each other skull-to-skull. They wear helmets, which one might reasonably assume cuts down on their concussion risk. Isn't that the point?

Not exactly. And this isn’t news.

Researchers have known for years that helmets actually don’t do a great job of preventing concussions. In fact, most researchers agree they could actually have the opposite effect: wearing a helmet, studies suggest, can often make athletes more likely to use their heads as a weapon. A person is far more likely to actually protect their noggin if they go into a brutal collision without the false security of a helmet.



A helmet-less head has its own protective mechanisms. Cerebral spinal fluid surrounds each delicately squishy brain, and this liquid layer is often enough to protect the organ from various bumps. But a concussion occurs when the brain is accelerating extremely fast and then comes to a hard stop. At that point, the rapid change in momentum causes the brain to jostle inside the skull so much that the cerebrospinal fluid can't protect it.
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