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many if not all sports are inherently
dangerous in boxing for example punching
each other over and over again
it's gonna cause some physical damage
but sports can affect athletes in so
many more ways than first meets the eye
even graceful non-contact sports can be
deceptively dangerous from your toes to
your head here are 5 unexpected tolls
that sports take on your body now on a
daily basis you probably don't think
about your big toe very often but it's
required for things like walking and
balancing which is what brings turf toe
to the list of sports dangers there are
different degrees of injury that can all
be classified as turf toe but it's a
sprained or torn ligament the tissue
that connects the base of your big toe
to your foot can get injured if you're
frequently putting on sudden bursts of
pressure that overstretch it this would
happen if you went from a complete stop
to a sprint or quickly changed
directions and that's a skill that
american football players practice a lot
so it's no surprise that they sometimes
experience turf toe these injuries
aren't exclusive to artificial playing
surfaces though it's just called turf
toe because football players experience
more of this type of injury when they
switch from soft grass to harder turf
it's not the turf itself so much as
harder surfaces that contribute to turf
toe so reducing turf toe cases might be
an argument for real grass instead of
turf in stadiums but turf toe isn't even
specific to american football players
sports like track and ballet are also
turf toe magnets because participants
push off the ground in unique ways that
put incredible force on their big toes
and at extreme angles softer shoes also
increase the athlete's risk of turf toe
because they allow a greater range of
motion so to combat this injury a 2018
medical report recommends wearing shoes
that don't flex too much in the toes but
the good news is that resting turf toe
injuries usually gives them time to heal
on their own going from the bottom of
the body all the way to the top this
next unexpected sporting danger is
starting to get more recognition after
years of neglect while it has an equally
catchy name sled head should be taken
very seriously it's a term used to
describe the concussions common in
winter sports like luge skeleton and
bobsley they may look like smooth rides
after all you're sliding on ice but
there's a lot of rattling around from
the high speed and curves that can lead
to concussions when your head hits
something like your sled your brain can
hit the inside of your skull with enough
force to cause a concussion and sled
sport athletes report symptoms of
concussion with troubling frequency a
1986 paper reported headaches fogginess
and lack of equilibrium in luge athletes
after a run getting worse after more
runs though not much research seems to
have followed since then even so coaches
and doctors for some downhill sports are
beginning to suggest protective measures
like limiting the number of runs an
athlete can complete per day and adding
protective equipment like helmets and
mouth guards since headaches also
increased with bumpier tracks in that
1986 report track maintenance may be
helpful in reducing sled head instances
while more research is needed to see how
these precautions impact the rates of
sled head some change in the sport is
definitely needed because these sports
have accumulated some troubling stats
winter olympic sports have greater
injury rates than summer olympic sports
thanks to all those fast downhill
courses and of the winter sports
sledding sports take the gold for number
of injuries coming in at 26 of winter
olympic injuries at the high end
recreational sledders can travel up to
40 kilometers per hour and even at those
speeds brain injuries can occur and
professional athletes are going twice as
fast at this point there are still
relatively few formal investigations of
sled head so athletes are calling for
more research for now the literature
seems to suggest wearing a helmet and
going down a smooth path are the best
ways to limit injury but sled head isn't
the only injury on ice to make it on
this list because spending a ton of time
at indoor ice rinks comes with health
risks you might not expect at least if
they're not maintained correctly
hazardous gases like carbon monoxide and
nitrogen dioxide can sometimes be found
in ice rinks nitrogen dioxide can react
with water to produce nitric acid in
your lungs low level exposures can cause
respiratory irritation such as coughing
while more extreme cases can cause fluid
to accumulate in the lungs carbon
monoxide meanwhile gets in the way of
oxygen sticking to red blood cells and
in the most extreme cases this causes
suffocation but how much carbon monoxide
you breathe in is an important factor
the authors of one study suggest that
mild cases may be more common in ice
rinks than we realize low levels of
exposure can lead to milder symptoms
like lightheadedness but you might be
wondering what these gases are doing in
ice rinks in the first place well it's
the work of none other than the
charmingly innocent zamboni after all
they're basically just big trucks that
you drive around inside and that's all
fine and dandy when there's really good
air circulation and ventilation but
that's not always the case in north
america there have only been about a
dozen documented instances in which ice
rinks were so under ventilated that
patrons experienced acute symptoms
however milder symptoms have also been
reported you could experience small
amounts of exposure to zamboni exhaust
as headaches nausea and disorientation
while a higher dose can lead to more
acute symptoms and one international
study found that nitrogen dioxide levels
were above safe limits in 40 of the ice
rinks they looked at luckily for more
frequent skaters outdoor ice doesn't
come with the same risks now the
injuries so far have come from
participating in sports but this next
danger comes up when athletes stop
participating although it's really when
they start again after stopping
historically there have been several
reasons for suddenly shutting down a
training season for example in 2011 the
national football league shut down part
of the american football season over a
collective bargaining agreement and of
course there's coven 19. coveted related
pauses affected athletes in sports from
football to baseball to the olympics and
in 2020 major league baseball reported
about double the injuries compared to
the previous two seasons a study out of
the university of kentucky concluded
these injuries were likely the result of
inadequate training in the same way the
football lockout of 2011 forced athletes
to work with an expedited training
season cramming 14 weeks of training
into 17 days and this led to an
unprecedented number of achilles tendon
ruptures that season your achilles
tendon is the fibrous tissue that
connects your calf muscle to the heel of
your foot when you increase the stress
on your achilles tendon and overstretch
it it can tear tears even tend to happen
in the same place there's a spot just
above your heel where the achilles
tendon has to stretch the most when you
use it and so tears or ruptures tend to
happen there it's kind of like how pizza
dough will break at its weak spots if
you try to stretch it too fast gradually
working your way to the desired output
is less likely to result in tears in the
end about 1 3 of these injuries are
career enders for nfl players but this
is often preventable and athletes can
generally avoid it by working in enough
training time there's one more injury
that can be shared between professional
and amateur athletes because it's not so
much a sporting risk as just plain old
human nature if you celebrate your
sporting triumphs just a little too hard
even that can lead to injury a lot of
the time all it takes is literally
jumping with joy just ask these nfl
players cardinal kicker bill grammatica
georgia wide receiver malcolm mitchell
lions linebacker stephen tullock and
bear's defensive end lamar houston who
all tore their anterior cruciate
ligaments or acls from celebratory jumps
that landed wrong the acl is a ligament
that stabilizes the knee and connects
your femur to your tibia behind the
kneecap it can tear from sudden stress
similar to the achilles tendon when you
jump you're putting a lot of
concentrated strain on your joints
especially your knees the human knee can
handle over 12 times your body weight
when jumping so you could give 11 of you
a piggyback ride and your knee could
still handle the impact but it depends
on how you land when you land with bent
legs your leg muscles and bones absorb
the shock from hitting the ground but
landing on straight legs puts more of
that load on your knees and can lead to
injury exercise stretching and proper
jumping technique may help athletes
avoid these celebration downfalls though
nothing can really prevent them from
just landing wrong so please enjoy your
victories responsibly and if you're
trying to get some exercise into your
life proper technique and equipment can
go a long way in preventing some of
these unexpected injuries thanks for
watching this episode of scishow and
thanks as always to the coolest kids on
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