Pediatricians seek to KO youth boxing
More proof that doctors can be really, really stupid.
Some of the dumb things suggested:
- Children under the age of 19 should never box because they might hit their head....even though at 18, sending them to foreign deserts with machine guns is A-OK!
- Kids who box might develop long-term brain injuries because professional boxers sometimes do...
- Kids should never, ever do something where the "[I]risk is not zero[/I]".
- Boxing promotes violence...and [I]"[B]if boxing rules were changed to prohibit punching above the neck -- as they were to protect the testicles, in 1938[/B] -- pediatric organizations might rethink their opposition to the sport.[/I]" [B]Huh??[/B]
- Hahaha racism...those inner city black kids should stick to bicycling, running, and b-balling because "[I]long-distance cycling and triathlons also foster self-discipline and a work ethic without as much risk, she says, and [B] underprivileged youth without access to such activities can get a lot of benefit from basketball[/B].[/I]"
- Football and hockey are OK because unintentional strikes to the head are rare...even though for every one boxing injury there are probably thousands of football injuries every year.
In a new policy statement published today in the journal Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics, along with the Canadian Paediatric Society, is recommending that doctors “vigorously oppose boxing for any child or adolescent” under the age of 19 because of the risk of concussions and other injuries, and instead steer kids toward non-collision sports.
“There’s no reason why we as pediatricians should be condoning such a thing, when we know that the risk is not zero for these kids, and perhaps the damage may be more long lasting,” says Claire LeBlanc, M.D., the lead author of the statement and the chair of a CPS committee on sports medicine and active living.
The pediatricians based their recommendation, in part, on the number of boxing injuries recorded by U.S. and Canadian health officials. In 2003, for instance, there were roughly 14 boxing-related hospital visits for every 1,000 people between the ages of 12 and 34 who participate in the sport, according to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The main concern is serious head injuries among kids and teens. Young boxers have been known to suffer concussions, just like the pros, but the data on head injuries is scarce, LeBlanc says. The limited government records in the U.S. suggest that the rate of head injuries among 12- to 17-year-olds, as well as older boxers, is about 3 for every 1,000 participants.
Perhaps even more alarming to pediatricians is the creeping possibility, based on studies of professional boxers, that young boxers could develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition caused by repetitive blows to the head that can lead to dementia-like symptoms later in life.