Football Helmet Design Can Lower Concussion Risk, Study Finds

[Fox News]

The ability of the Riddell Revolution (left) and the Riddell VSR4 (right) helmets to reduce concussion risk was compared in the study. A significant difference in concussion risk between these two helmet designs was found by the authors. (VIRGINIA TECH)

As the Super Bowl approaches on Sunday, more and more attention is being paid to the concussion epidemic surrounding the game of football. During the 2013 regular season, NFL players suffered a total of 121 concussions, equating to more than seven concussions per week.

Many experts claim that proper helmet design can ultimately lower the incidence of concussions in the game – an argument that has now been confirmed by new research conducted on the football field.

After embedding sensors into two different types of football helmets, researchers from Virginia Tech University have revealed that one helmet was much more effective at preventing concussions than the other.  According to the researchers, their findings confirm that helmets can actually be designed to reduce the risk of concussions during gameplay.

Study author Stefan Duma, professor and head of the Virginia Tech – Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, has been researching helmet design in relation to concussion risk for years, but this is the first study to compare helmet differences on the field, rather than in the lab.

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