Hit head and saw a flash of white light?

I’m a 27 year old male and have been worrying a lot about CTE/early dementia a lot recently, especially since it’s in the news so often and I’ve seen in family members how horrible dementia is. I’ve hit my head like everyone else, but I distinctly remember these incidents:

-Hitting my head on the ground when sledding in the snow when I was very young and getting sick after. I was brought to the doctor the next day, but was not diagnosed with a concussion.
-A basketball falling onto my head years later during a game.
-Hitting my head on a solid wood beam in my friend’s room because I’m tall.
-Falling onto my face onto the mats (2 inches thick) twice from standing doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu recently. I felt fine after both of these falls, but I fell hard. I considered going to the doctor after, but didn’t really have any symptoms after.

I feel like I can’t bring this up with any of my friends because I have some that have been knocked unconscious several times or sustained repeated hits to the head for years playing football. Or they’ll bring up how their infant hits them in the face multiple times a week. I never played football, boxing, rugby, ice hockey, or any of the riskier sports, but CTE is still in the back of my mind. I want to keep practicing Jiu Jitsu, but even though concussions are extremely rare and some people I know have not seen one in a decade of training, it is an extremely close contact sport and sometimes people get hit with elbows and knees in the face by accident.

Connecting a few knocks on the head with dementia is like connecting a few cuts and bruises with skin cancer.

You're worrying about nothing.

Dementia is (now though) to be most likely connected with poor diet and constant inflammation. Especially a diet low in healthy fats.

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Originally Posted by ankietyjoe

Dementia is (now though) to be most likely connected with poor diet and constant inflammation. Especially a diet low in healthy fats.

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There is a connection between poor diet and inflammation and a cause/effect relationship between inflammation-depression - and probably mental health illnesses in general. So the further connection of inflammation to dementia makes sense.

However, whether inflammation is cause or effect still remains to be answered.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KK77

There is a connection between poor diet and inflammation and a cause/effect relationship between inflammation-depression - and probably mental health illnesses in general. So the further connection of inflammation to dementia makes sense.

However, whether inflammation is cause or effect still remains to be answered.

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Current evidence seems to suggest that inflammation is the cause of ALL chronic, non-infectious disease.

In other words, the crap you put in your body and the stress you put yourself under causes everything that isn't bacterial or viral.

You body is capable of processing X amount of inflammation caused by external stress, just not the amount we put ourselves under these days.

A few hours ago, I was training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and during our warmups, I got hit in the back of the head with someone’s knee (maybe it was a foot) by accident when we were doing forward rolls on the mats. I think I saw a quick flash of light, but otherwise have no symptoms so far. I practiced some of the techniques, but sat out during the fast paced rolling sessions. There are no intentional head strikes in BJJ, but I didn’t want to get hit again in the head by a stray knee or elbow. I have had normal conversations with people, my balance is fine, no headache, no vision issues, no memory issues, etc. I’ve had this experience a couple of times before after getting hit in the head (flash of light with no other symptoms) by accident with stray elbows and knees doing BJJ. I love my hobby, but I don’t want to get permanent brain damage from these occasional impacts.

I really don't think you can get brain damage this way.

My partner does bjj training and often comes home from sparring saying he got a kick or flailing arm in the head. Don't worry you'll be fine. You don't have any symptoms so just forget about it :) defo don't give up your hobby. I guess any sport there's risk of a head bang. I got a ball thrown at the side of my head playing netball at quite high speed and was fine! X

I’m not as concerned about a single hit to my head as I am the prospect of getting CTE if I take more hits to the head, even if they’re occasional. I never played a very high contact sport like hockey, football, etc., but CTE seems like a terrifying prospect to me.

Hi everyone, I got accidentally kicked or kneed in the back of the head by someone the other day when I was in my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class. I wouldn’t be concerned if it wasn’t for the fact that I saw a white flash for a split second when it happened, but nothing else happened after. I continued training, but just sat for the last 10-15 min of class. I’ve seen this white flash a couple of other times after getting hit in the head by a stray elbow or knee when training BJJ, but have never experienced any other symptoms that would indicate a concussion. I’ve never experienced a headache, nausea, memory loss, vision issues, mood changes, etc. after taking these hits, so I haven’t seen a doctor.

My only concern is that I’m going to get permanent brain damage if I see the white flash again and am wondering if I should keep doing my hobby or not.

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your thread was merged with another of your threads.

Please when posting on similar topics add it onto your previous post rather than starting a new one.

It is nothing personal it is just to make it easier for people to follow your story and to give you advice as a whole.

Elen