NATCHITOCHES—Concussions have always been an enormous problem in sports, but weren't looked into as much as they should have been until recently.

The Northwestern State student-athletes were privileged to be joined by two world-renowned doctors when it comes to concussions in sports Wednesday afternoon.

Drs. Julian Bailes and Neilank Jha, two of the most renowned doctors when it comes to concussion knowledge, were welcomed to Northwestern State to talk to all Northwestern State student-athletes on the subject, as the athletes were given advice on taking care of their body even better to take as many measures as possible to chop the concussion possibilities down.

"It was important to talk to the student-athletes about concussion management," Dr. Jha, who looks up to Dr. Bailes in this profession, said. "Their brain is for the rest of their lives. Their sports career is short. Only two percent of NCAA athletes are going to go onto professional sports, while the other 98 percent are going to go into careers in the community.

"We were trying to give some guidance today and how they can leverage their experience as student-athletes to be successful in the community."

Dr. Bailes, one of the best experts on the impact of concussions, was portrayed by Alec Baldwin in the movie "Concussion."

Over the past number of years, there have been a rise of the awareness of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) cases. The first case involved former Pittsburgh Steelers legend Mike Webster, who was the anchor of the offensive line on the great Steelers teams of the 1970s.

Webster's CTE developed over a long career of repeated hits to the head as an offensive lineman.

Since then, many more have had CTE, including former football players Junior Seau and Chris Henry.

While the past cannot be changed, the future generations can be helped in minimizing the head trauma.

Through Bailes' research and study, he has helped the younger generation become more aware of it and aiming to better protect itself.

As the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee for Pop Warner Football for the last 15 years, he has reduced contact hours to one-fourth of their practice time, among other items and educated the kids on the issue and the concussion rate is less than one percent.

"Teaching about concussions is so important because it is your brain and it's an injury you can't see," Dr. Bailes said. "There's no swelling, there's no bleeding, but it is probably the most important sports medicine injury and has potentially, in a minority of players, long-term effects. If managed correctly and managed conservatively, a concussion will heal and there shouldn't be any long-term effects."

While Dr. Bailes went through how to manage concussions and aim to prevent them as much as possible on the field, he and Dr. Jha also went through how to best prepare yourself and trying to keep from getting them on the field or court.

The pair is determined to limit and prevent as much head trauma as they can. They know they won't be able to outright prevent it, but taking the best precautions will help immensely.

"The lecture was very informative because, as an athlete, we know what the signs are to look for concussions are and how to recover our bodies as student-athletes, especially with all the time we take in school and in our sport," soccer defender Isabella Queneau said.

"It takes me take more precautions on the field after hearing that with all the stuff that happens in soccer. I just have to make sure I am communicating with my trainers and my coaches how I'm doing mentally and physically and how my brain is working as well to make sure nothing dangerous comes out of it."

It just isn't on the field, as it starts at home with how you fuel and re-charge your body, including nutrition as well as sleep.

Sleeping enough is one main item that gets overlooked, as football linebacker Danny Sears admits, it is something he needs to work on.

"The first thing I learned is that I need to work on my sleep," Sears said. "I am pretty bad at that and that is a good way to try to prevent concussions. If you get the right amount of sleep and nutrition plays a huge part in that. Being a student-athlete, doing those things is part of my job."

As we go into the future, both Dr. Bailes and Dr. Jha are about the rise of artificial intelligence and have embraced it, aiming to use it to their advantage and is excited about the possibilities for NSU.

"AI can actually give you the data whether you should go for it on 4^th-and-2 or you should punt the ball," Dr. Jha said. "In addition to that, it can help with training, as well as determine the athletic movements the players have are at risk for injury or if they need to adjust the movements to be more efficient. AI can also help the fan experience in the stadium. There are so many applications of AI all the way from student-athlete to coach to the fan experience that we can adopt at NSU."

During the question-and-answer segment, many athletes had questions during it, and the doctors know they have done a tremendous job publicizing this since many years ago, it was an afterthought.

"The student-athletes had a lot of good questions and I believe were really into it," Dr. Bailes said. "They seemed to have a baseline knowledge, which 10 or 15 years ago wasn't the case."