One second you’re there, the next you’re not.
Rendered unconscious, on the floor, your world has turned to black.
It could be for a matter of seconds, minutes, hours, or worse.
Today we’ll investigate how and why, in this episode of the Infographics Show, What
Happens When You Get Knocked Out?
When we say “knocked-out” we’re talking about loss of consciousness as a result of
a blunt force trauma to the head.
So, what happens?
If we look at the word “concussion”, also referred to as a “mild traumatic brain injury,”
we know it comes from the Latin “shake violently.”
And that’s what happens to your brain when you get knocked out; it does a jiggle in your
skull.
This may not always result in loss of consciousness, but today we are talking about just that:
knocked out cold.
Inside our tough skulls is our very soft, ultra-sensitive brain, which is layered with
arteries, veins, and nerves.
It’s not only protected by the skull, but something called cerebrospinal fluid that
stops the brain from hitting the skull.
If you get hit hard enough, this fluid cannot fully protect the brain from impact with its
protective cranium.
When it does hit, it is called trauma.
You have trauma on one side, which bruises the brain, and possibly on the other side,
when the brain bounces back.
Your brain might also twist in your skull.
All this trauma damages the brain’s cells and also leads to neurotransmitters firing
rapidly, overloading the nervous system, which can result in a kind of paralysis, or shutdown…
and then it’s lights out, as they say.
By the way, getting hit hard on the chin or jaw sometimes causes intense rotational force
in the brain, and this is why boxers often go for those areas to get their knockout.
Experts say for most people, this will last a few seconds to a few minutes, and we should
recover without sustaining a bad injury to the brain.
But if you are unlucky, your knockout might lead to cerebral bleeding and even death.
How much force does it take to get knocked out?
There is no exact science, but the bigger the force, the more chance there is of a knockout
happening.
You can see that in boxing.
There are more knockouts in the heavier weight categories.
A flyweight might punch with a force of 750 pounds, but a heavyweight may punch at well
over 1,000 pounds of force.
But as you may have seen on any of those “guy gets owned” videos circulating the web,
you don’t need massive punching power to knock someone out.
It’s not only about how much weight is behind the punch, but also the momentum of the punch,
and the speed the fist or other body part is moving at.
(It’s said Connor McGregor’s running punch has about 932 pounds of force).
If the person being hit can’t see it coming, this will also have more impact and there
is more chance of a knockout.
That’s because our muscles tense in a way to take the blow when we see it coming.
For instance, self-defense expert James LaFond studied 1,675 acts of violence.
According to him, a sucker punch by a boxer on a civilian’s jaw or chin will 100 percent
of the time lead to a knockout.
Being hit behind the ears and at the back of the head can also easily lead to being
knocked out.
The CDC studied traumatic brain injuries from 2007-2013 in the United States (there is no
updated study) and found that 2.8 million Americans visited the Emergency room, were
hospitalized, or died, as a result of head trauma in 2013.
Most of the instances were old people falling, but second was being struck by or against
something.
50,000 people died that year of head trauma.
Nonetheless, it’s said that around 80 percent of head traumas are mild.
Some people just get right back up after being knocked out, and seem to have no underlying
problems.
Others may be confused, and later suffer from headaches, dizziness, or memory loss.
Some may develop post-concussion syndrome, for days, weeks, or months after the injury,
and this could result in physical symptoms, but also other symptoms such as depression,
anxiety, confusion, impulsiveness, or other changes in personality.
Much of the time these ailments do get better as the brain heals itself.
Generally speaking, the shorter the time you were knocked out, the less chance there is
of severe symptoms occurring.
So, have you ever been knocked out?
Tell us all about it in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called This Will Happen in the Next 60 Seconds!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!