Brain Awareness Week (or how to avoid Zombification from a concussion)

This week, be aware of your brain. Your delicious, delicious brain. Not only are they great for feeding your zombies, the gooey center in all of our skulls are extremely important! Here's our own Dr. Ratner weighing in on why concussion baseline screenings are so important:

It is amazing that we are generally so unaware of the organ that does the most for us. Here at Impact we value your brain! Well, most of your brain, anyway. One of the best things you can do as a teenager who is involved with sports is to get a baseline concussion screening. We do not charge for this test. It involves playing a computer game for about 25 minutes. There are no needles, no radiation, or tubes to be stuffed into your nose.  If you ever sustain a head injury or concussion, we repeat the test post-injury and the results help us to determine when it is safe to return to normal activity.

We know so much more about this subject than we did ten years ago. I compare it to seat belts. There was a time when seat belts were not used, but at some point we learned that without a doubt they save lives. It was not easy to convince some people, but now the majority of Americans believe it and wear seat belts. It won’t be long before the same type of paradigm shift occurs when it comes to concussion awareness and management.

So come on by either location, any day between 8AM-8PM for your baseline concussion screening BEFORE you get hurt. That way if you should have a head injury, we can make sure you're back to normal before  you run off into another potential head-bashing opportunity.

Breakfast: The Yummiest part of School!

The yummiest part of school!

March 4-8 is National School Breakfast week. Here are a few words of wisdom from our own Dr. Gutierrez about the importance of breakfast for children:

We have all heard it said, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”.  With that in mind, the week of March 4 recognizes National School Breakfast Week.

National School Breakfast Week raises awareness about the availability of the School Breakfast Program (SBP), as well as highlights the benefits, especially academic, of eating a healthy breakfast.

My grandfather grew up very poor in South Texas, near Refugio.  He tells stories of how he did not have food in the house for days.  He and his brothers would survive on the oranges they picked off the trees in the neighborhood.  He admits he was not a good student and recalls how he had lots of difficulty concentrating.  He remembers feeling extremely fatigued as well as having terrible diarrhea due to eating nothing but fruit for days in a row.  He could have really benefited from a nutritious, well balanced meal provided at school.

The School Breakfast Program started under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966.  This program offers breakfast to children free or at a reduced price.  Currently, about 7 million children eat breakfast at school daily with approximately 85% of participants receiving their breakfast free or at a reduced cost.

According to “Ending Childhood Hunger: A Social Impact Analysis” children who ate breakfast scored 17.5% higher on standardized math tests and attended 1.5 more days of school.  Now that’s powerful food for thought.

Visit the National School Breakfast website to learn more. There's all kinds of cool merchandise for sale to help support the program, and even a writing contest for kids!