Big Brain Saturday 🤯
LISTEN HERE
Season 2: Episode 8 Description
In today’s episode: 🧠 It's back to school time and our brains are pumped! Hear Five Fun Facts about our inner computers. 💻 Why is everyone telling us to watch our heads? Correspondent Kenny Curtis breaks it down. 🏈 And test your noggin knowledge in today's Trivia on the Ten. ✅
Sources for the episode:
https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/11-fun-facts-about-your-brain
https://www.dentinstitute.com/posts/lifestyle-tips/22-facts-about-the-brain-world-brain-day/
https://www.yalemedicine.org/stories/concussions-in-sports/
https://www.ucihealth.org/blog/2018/07/concussion
https://www.nsc.org/home-safety/safety-topics/child-safety/concussions
https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/index.html
Links
🏃♂️ How hard is it to run in a brain costume? See the U.K. runner Bryce Alford, in his brain costume. https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/09/14/Guinness-World-Records-London-Marathon-brain-costume-Bryce-Alford/4021631634298/
📧 Do you have something to tell us? Email us at: hello@thetennews.com
📝 Sign up for The Ten News-letter!
📸 Join us on Instagram
TRANSCRIPT:
Bethany Van Delft 0:00
School assignments, sports drills, and Minecraft. How do our brains process it all? Grab your thinking caps, because today we're talking about our big, beautiful brains. I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's Saturday, September 18th. And this is The Ten News gets extra!
Various Voices 0:22
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bethany Van Delft 0:30
The movie, Inside Out, took us inside the main character Riley's brain and introduced us to her different memories and emotions. Let's go, lead on my map. But what do we really know about our brains? Here are five fun facts about our intrapersonal computers. Number one, it's electric. Neurons in your brain communicate using electrical signals that move pretty fast. 286 miles per hour to be exact. Number two, you use it all. You may have heard that people only use 10% of their brains, but that's a myth. Cool. Different parts of the brain are used for different things. But it's all active over the course of the day, even when you're sleeping. Number three, it's wet. 75% of the brain is made up of water. Wow. And you need it all. If the brain loses as little as 2% of its water, it doesn't work as well. So, stay hydrated. Number four, your memory is short. Well, not all of it. But you do have separate short-term memory for things you need immediately. On average, you can remember numbers for about seven seconds and letters for about nine seconds. Number five, sleep is important. Your parents are always telling you to go to sleep. But with good reason. Seriously? Sleep refreshes your brain, improves your reaction time, and records your memories from the day into long-term memories. If you don't get enough sleep next week, spelling tests could be a lot harder. So take care of your brains Ten'ers to keep them in tip-top shape.
Bethany Van Delft 2:27
Distance runners talk about the mental component of running marathons. That when running the 26.2-mile race, they need to stay motivated and tap into extra energy they didn't even think they had. But, one runner out there is taking the mind to marathon connection to new lengths. A man in the United Kingdom is hoping to break a Guinness World Record by running the London Marathon on October 3rd while wearing a full brain costume. Are you kidding me? The British man, Bryce Alford, works as a fundraiser for a brain injury charity and is looking to bring awareness to those living with brain injuries. Awesome. We've included a link in the show notes to a picture of him in his costume. You've got to check it out. Good luck with the race Bryce! On your marks, get set, go! School sports are back and in addition to new COVID rules, some schools have new rules around contact sports like football, focused on head safety. Why the concern? Our sports correspondent Kenny Curtis is here to answer why everyone is so concerned about your noggin.
Kenny Curtis 3:41
If you play sports, you've probably heard adults talking about concussions. So many people, parents, coaches, professional athletes are discussing the risks of contact sports and the likelihood of brain injuries. So you might be wondering, why is everybody so worried about my head? And what exactly is a concussion anyway? Well, according to the CDC, a concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, a blow, or a jolt to the head that makes the brain move rapidly back and forth inside of your skull. Concussion symptoms differ from person to person. Some people experience confusion, headaches, and blurry vision, but some don't. Some people might be perfectly fine at first and not have any symptoms for hours, or even days after the collision. Many people think those brain injuries are only a problem in football, but they actually occur in all contact sports, lacrosse, soccer, basketball, and ice hockey feature high rates of concussions, especially among youth and student-athletes. Concussions are an issue for both male and female student-athletes. In fact, girls actually have a higher rate of concussions in youth soccer, basketball, and cheerleading. Recent studies show that 10% of all contact-sport athletes experience at least one concussion per year. So that means if you have 10 players on your soccer team, statistically speaking, one of them is going to get a concussion this year at least. As a result, more and more people are working hard to create guidelines that help keep players safe. You've probably heard a lot of talk about concussions and football. The NFL has made several rule changes to try to reduce brain injuries. They've made hits to the head illegal, researched different helmet designs and safety features, and educated players and coaches on concussion protocol. But, with concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE continuing to rise, it remains a big problem in the NFL, and football isn't the only sport committed to reducing head injuries. In 2015, the US Soccer Federation made heading the ball illegal for kids 10 and under. And although this changes the feel of the game, it is helping protect younger players from dangerous head injuries. So yeah, this concussion thing is kind of a big deal. The brain is the most complex organ in the human body, and there's still a lot we don't know about it. You might hear your parents, coaches, and even professional athletes and commentators talk about brain injuries, so follow their advice, and make sure to be safe when playing sports. How else can you help? Be aware of the signs of a concussion. If you feel disoriented after any type of collision, tell a coach or adult, don't continue playing if you're feeling funny. Above all else, keep having fun. Sports are a great way to make friends, work hard and stay healthy. You want to protect yourself, but don't be so afraid of getting hurt that you miss out on all the great things that sports can bring to your life. Just do your part to keep your head as safe as possible.
Bethany Van Delft 7:05
Coming up next...
Various Voices 7:06
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 7:09
Trivia on The Ten. Did you know that you can feel with your brain? The outer layer of the brain called the Meninges has blood vessels that can constrict and expand meaning they get narrower and wider. When this happens, you feel a certain sensation. Can you guess what it is? Is it a) shivers up your spine? b) dizziness or c) an ice cream headache?
Bethany Van Delft 7:45
Did you guess it? The answer is C. Ice cream headaches happen when the blood vessels are exposed to cold and contract quickly, causing you to feel that awful brain freeze. You can fix it by putting your tongue to the top of your mouth or drinking warm water to warm it up. While you don't have to worry about ice cream headaches being dangerous. Researchers study them to learn more about other more serious kinds of headaches. Now that I know it's safe bring on the ice cream.
Bethany Van Delft 8:23
Times up, but before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Watch out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. You can go deeper into today's stories by visiting thetennews.com The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is out getting ice cream and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Andrew Hall, and Nathalie Alonso. Kenny Curtis contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle, and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. I'm gonna go drink some water and use my brain. I'm going to take a nap. I'm going to go take a nap, it takes your brain though, right? Your brains working. I'm going to go work my brain in a nap.
