American football and concussions is a real issue and one that Al Wallace and his wife Sharyne are tackling head on. Al and Sharyne Wallace have personal experience of this in their family. So they decided to do the right thing and share their story to all. Al and Sharyne created a family foundation and are sharing their knowledge with all. But they are doing more than that. They are working on educating as well as helping make improvements in sports gear and other initiatives.
Here is more from information from their web site –
Welcome to the Wise Up Initiative!
AN INITIATIVE OF THE AL AND SHARYNE WALLACE FAMILY FOUNDATION
Wise Up has been organized to bring awareness to the public on the various dangers and issues surrounding concussions, as well as raising research funding for the advancement in concussion research. Awareness of issues over concussions is at an all-time high, but unfortunately, the research is lacking. Our goal is to help further research and continue to educate the public as new findings become available.
Since its beginning, The Wise Up! Initiative has been actively engaged in numerous events providing educational materials to over 3,000 individuals, as well as being the major sponsor for Alabama’s first Cutting Edge Concussion Summit at Children’s Hospital. By partnering with UAB Sports Medicine, Children’s Hospital, and other local, state, and national organizations, Wise Up! is uniquely positioned recover for “making an invisible injury a visible issue.”
Wise Up!, has been organized to bring awareness and education to the public on the various dangers and issues surrounding concussions, as well as raising research funding for the advancement in concussion research. The Wise Up Initiative is a Registered 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization. Wise Up!, is an initiative of the Al and Sharyne Wallace Family Foundation.
Since its beginning, The Wise Up! Initiative has been actively engaged in numerous events providing educational materials to over 3,000 individuals, as well as being the major sponsor for Alabama’s first Cutting Edge Concussion Summit at Children’s Hospital. By partnering with UAB Sports Medicine, Children’s Hospital, and other local, state, and national organizations, Wise Up! is uniquely positioned for “making an invisible injury a visible issue.”Wise Up!, an initiative of the Al and Sharyne Wallace Family Foundation
Helpful Links –
UAB Sports Medicine at Children’s of Alabama www.childrensal.org/UABSportsMedicine
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention www.cdc.gov/TraumaticBrainInjury
Alabama Head Injury Foundation www.ahif.org
Brain Trauma Foundation www.braintrauma.org
Chris Nowinski www.chrisnowinski.com
Here is more information on U.S. football concussions I found at https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/07/26/nfl-concussion-head-trauma-studies-football-timeline.
A highly–publicized study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in 110 out of the 111 studied brains of former NFL players.
CTE occurs when repeated head trauma leads to the buildup of “tau,” an abnormal protein, in the brain. Tau negatively effects how the brain’s blood vessels function and eventually erodes nerve cells themselves. Symptoms, which generally do not manifest until years after the repeated trauma, range from mood disorders on the more mild end to crippling dementia in more serious cases.
That the NFL has a head trauma problem isn’t news to anyone—the 2015 film Concussion, chronicling the life of Dr. Bennet Omalu, who discovered CTE for the first time in a football player, publicized the issue even beyond sports fans—but the most recent study is the latest evidence that football can lead to traumatic brain injury.
We are thankful for Al and Sharyne for sharing their heart to all and working on making a difference in saving people’s lives through their foundation.
Please connect with Al and Sharyne on their web site at http://www.wiseupinitiative.org/ and here on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wiseupinitiative/.
Good Neighbor Insurance always appreciates those who are looking after people’s well being, especially when it is related to keeping our bodies healthy. Thank you Al and Sharyne for helping us to understand better about contact sport concussion challenges!