New product in the works aimed at helping to prevent concussions.
This is the company my father works for. I’ve been pressing and pressing for them to expand testing into the equine sports but so far they’re focused on the team sports like football, lacrosse, etc. Still, an interesting product to consider for our sports.
Wow! Thanks for posting this. Absolutely this needs to be marketed to equestrians. When I read your thread title, I was going to flippantly answer: “Don’t fall off.”
But I’ve had way more concussions (all horse related, but not all while riding) than anyone should ever have. (Ask me about my short term memory.) Two of them occurred while I was wearing a helmet. The most recent one, 3 years ago, my head hit the wall. When we got to the ER I said to the Triage nurse, “But I was wearing a helmet!” He said, “Good. Probably saved you from a skull fracture, but you still can get concussed with a helmet on.”
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LOL! I changed the title to avoid such confusion :lol:
Yes, the main purpose of a hard outer shell is to prevent fracture. It doesn’t really do anything to prevent the sloshing that causes concussions.
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Where are they available? How much do they cost?
I’ve had neck problems ever since a head on collision over 30 years ago (the other vehicle had a drunk driver.) I am very protective of my neck since it hurts so much over minor things. One thing I do is avoid much sitting trot because I worry about causing even more trauma to my neck and my brain. Something like this might actually help me, or at least reassure me that I am not causing myself more brain damage when I sit the trot.
They’re not available for purchase yet.
I hope they can get this on the market. It seems like this would find a lot of customers in various sports, but certainly a great deal of attention is going to go to sports like football as there has been so much discussion the past few years and so there is a more ready market there.
So it increases blood pressure to the brain by restricting venous return? Woodpeckers also have structural skull adaptations. Does this really work in humans or it this just an idea? I’d love to have a link to the data, please!
I hope it works! I recently got a TBI while wearing a helmet. It’s not just about falling off, Mondo! 
(My horse fell on his side, my head hit the arena ground and I was wearing a helmet).
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I also have a TBI from a fall while wearing my helmet. That being said, I did split my helmet almost completely in half, so it was probably a good thing I was wearing it. I fell on grass The very top inch of the plastic of the helmet was the only intact part. I split it back to middle and middle to back on the front and back. You could pull it apart with your hands.
Oh my!! You must have hit “just right” for your helmet to split in half! Damn, good thing you were wearing it and that wasn’t your head!!! My visor was very bent and my helmet had arena sand ground in, but otherwise looked looked fine. Three weeks in the hospital for me and trash can for my helmet.
When I fell, I smashed the back of my head into the ground, splitting my helmet back to front, tumbled, destroyed the visor, smashed my helmet front to back. The ER said I had effectively 4 hard hits to the head back to back - first impact, then brain sloshing backwards, tumble and second impact, brain sloshing forward. Ended up with pituitary gland damage, damaged sinus, impaired sense of smell, ADD, and mega anxiety problems.
Was carted off to the hospital immediately, had an MRI and a CAT scan. They found nothing. Sent me home, told me not to ride for a week. Obviously this was before TBI awareness, so they never told me to come back for scans. Took nearly 5 years for them to discover the TBI.
Edited to add: This was on grass. For anyone familiar with Maryland, it was at Loch Moy
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Great idea but I would also love to see some test results that allow the claim of reducing concussions to really be a valid claim (and no, not suggesting people go out and try to get concussions to confirm if this works or not ).
As J-Lu noted, woodpeckers have a number of adaptations that allow them to “drill” with their heads without suffering brain damage (which overall I think is pretty cool). I suspect woodpecker’s immunity to concussions from drilling are more than just increasing blood flow to their brains.
I love that innovators are continuing to look for ways to minimize concussions as it can be so beneficial for so many different kinds of athletes.
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Holy Cow, Dancing Arabians. I feel that you are lucky that we can read and comprehend your typing after such an accident. OMG, you are lucky. I don’t remember my incident, and was fuzzy for the first few days afterwards. I’m happy about that now, I have nothing specific to fear about getting on again.
As a scientist (study cardiovascular biology including hemodynamics), I’m suspect that increased blood pressure in the brain is beneficial and not problematic in other ways (esp for some people) during one’s ride. I would love to be wrong! I’d love to see links to primary literature.
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It’s just the company my dad works for, I don’t have like a special inside scoop, you can google search it. They have a few other articles out there.
The product’s website : http://neuroshield.com/
Update - the product is now available for sale in Canada as the NeuroShield, and is undergoing FDA approval in the USA as Q Collar.
$200 in Canada, I have no idea what the price will be in the USA.
https://www.sportchek.ca/product/332472101.html
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I missed this first time round. How interesting! Thanks for posting.
At the USEA meeting the guy from Charles Owens gave a really interesting talk on the latest advances in concussion research. One of the things he talked about was research showing that increased volume of the blood vessels in the brain (due to increased blood pressure) DOES DECREASE the severity of concussion injuries.
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I missed this the first time, too. This is great news.
This is super exciting!
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Interesting idea. How was it tested to demonstrate efficacy and safety?
G.
Again,
What is the impact of restricting venous return, thus elevating blood pressure in your brain, EVERY time you ride (and wear this)? What is the protection of accidents wearing it, versus wearing it with no accidents, versus accidents with a helmet, versus no accident plus wearing a helmet. Your link doesn’t provide any scientific data. Where can we find the scientific data?
I’m at Duke University, please send me all scientific references, I should be able to open most if not all of them.
