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Howard G. Smith, M.D. is a former radio medical editor and talk show host in the Boston Metro area. His "Medical Minute" of health and wellness news and commentary was a regular weekday feature on WBZ-AM, WRKO-AM, and WMRE-AM. His popular two-way talk show, Dr. Howard Smith OnCall, was regularly heard Sunday morning and middays on WBZ.

Dr. Smith has adopted audio and video podcasting as conduits for HEALTH NEWS YOU SHOULD USE. Based on the latest medical, health, and wellness literature these reports provide practical information you can use to keep yourself and your family healthy. Many reports have video versions, and Dr. Smith’s YouTube Channel may be found at: http://bit.ly/2rNw6XQ

Trained at Harvard Medical School and a long-time faculty member at Boston Children’s Hospital, he practiced Pediatric Otolaryngology for 40 years in Boston, Southern California, and in central Connecticut.  He is now based in New York City.

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Please note that the news, views, commentary, and opinions that Dr. Smith provides are for informational purposes only. Any changes that you or members of your family contemplate making to lifestyle, diet, medications, or medical therapy should always be discussed beforehand with personal physicians who have been supervising your care.

Jul 20, 2019

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/tLIrv6XIfMg

 

Players who tackle their opponents by leading with the shoulders rugby-style rather than with the head football-style sustain fewer and less forceful impacts.  This is the conclusion of a sports medicine study at West Virginia’s Marshall University to be presented next week to the American Academy of Neurology’s Sports Concussion conference.

 

The study focused on 20 football players and 10 rugby players during practice season play.  The serious impacts they sustained and the impact forces were quantitated by helmet and mouthguard sensors.

 

The shoulder-first rugby tacklers sustained significantly fewer impacts with significantly lower impact forces compared with the head-first football tacklers.  The average football-associated impact force was 63 X g, 3 times greater than the average rugby-associated force at 21X g.

 

If brain-damaging tackling continues to be permitted in high school and college sports at all, mandating shoulder-first tackling may be a first step toward stopping mind- and life-threatening chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.

 

American Academy of Neurology. "Rugby-style tackling may have lower force of impact than football-style tackling." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 July 2019.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190716174114.htm

 

#Rugby #football #tackling #concussion #CTE