Dangers of Cheerleading

Cheerleading may seem like a great profession but the truth is that it does not bring so much cheer for the cheerleaders.

A recent study has revealed that nearly two-thirds of grave sports injuries occur among cheerleaders in the United States, especially girls and shockingly, many such incidents do not come to light.

When researchers scratched the surface, they found that cheerleading at the college level caused more than 70 per cent of severe injuries among females. High school and college cheerleading injuries resulted in visits to the casualty and these figures touched 26,786 in 2007. In 1980 it was only 4,954.

In some cases, cheerleading also caused head and spine injuries, some even resulted in irrevocable brain injury. Many cheerleaders are victims of heart problems and stroke.

"Given these results, it is of concern that most return-to-play decisions after concussion have relied heavily on the athlete's self report of symptoms," study authors said.



Source: Medindia