Dissertated on the subject, has been rehabilitating brain injuries for over 20 years, performs neurological physiotherapy in Pihlajalinna and is familiar with brain injuries and concussions Matti Vartiainen states that the boxer on Robert Helenius is a place for personal risk analysis.
The expert justifies his opinion by the fact that the Finnish heavyweight star has two knockout defeats to the head in less than a year, due to which he is banned for two months according to the rules of the Finnish Professional Boxing Association.
– The biggest risk for him (Helenius) in theory is that there will be another injury and what the consequences will be. It basically doesn’t look at whether it’s the Fifth Cerebral Palsy or the first cerebral palsy. Boxing is such a sport that it can be the first fall, and that was it, says Vartiainen.
Professionally, according to Vartiainen’s point of view, boxing is a very contradictory sport, because it basically aims to cause a brain injury to the opponent.
– In a certain way, the fact that there are several concussions or brain injuries, and whether the athlete has more age than a young man, and whether there is more of a career behind him than in front of him, puts it into perspective. So the question becomes, what am I willing to sacrifice?
Mostly, the reaction to brainwaves is too late
Vartiainen works a lot with prolonged concussions and brain injuries. The athlete’s self-awareness is the most important sign of a possible bigger scar.
– As a rule, we react to this too late. A little sport, and then we rest again before returning. In the end, only after several weeks do we start to think that there must be something “else” involved.
– One typical (brain injury) situation is that the athlete’s brain does not necessarily recognize an abnormal condition. Objective monitoring is also needed here.
If Vartiainen was involved in the process of an athlete like Helenius, then “Robbe” would be in the exact reasons before and after the event.
– If the lights-out effect has occurred twice during the year, then what is relevant is how long the person has been symptomatic or, at worst, whether there is any after-effect. The situation needs to be thoroughly analyzed in order to know when to return to normal everyday life, let alone sports or contact.
According to Vartiainen, the central nervous system gets an impact from the blows, where the “computer” seems to be disrupted. This usually indicates that some degree of milder mechanism has been exceeded.
– The most black and white line related to concussions is that unconsciousness follows. The threshold has then been exceeded. It is known in science that if there are several concussions, let alone mild brain injuries, then it is more likely to have more devastating effects on a population level.
Recovery from concussions, i.e. mild brain injuries, is largely individual.
– Helenius still had a week before Anthony Joshua -match match (From Mika Mielo against). Even though he didn’t suffer any neurological symptoms from that, but he has still received massive blows from that match as well. In a certain way, the number of blows and how hard the blows are to the head, and what follows from them, is actually the equation, says Vartiainen.
Helenius a year ago for Efter Nio – “The brain is fine”
Deontay Wilder knocked out Helenius in October last year in the first round. After the event, Helenius was a guest on Ylen’s Efter Nio program. At the time, he said he didn’t remember leaving the ring.
– I remember that I was in the ambulance and asked how the match went. There were doctors there to examine and monitor me. The coach was worried because I didn’t recognize him or the others who were there. It was scary when I worked in the ambulance, Helenius admitted in the program.
Helenius has previously said that he goes for magnetic resonance imaging of the brain at least once a year – always before a match and especially after a knockout.
Magnetic resonance imaging checks that there is no bleeding in the brain. According to the boxer, Helenius’ brain has been monitored since he was 18, and no change for the worse has been observed.
Expert Matti Vartiainen emphasizes that, in his opinion, none of the world’s scanning methods are the only yardstick to ensure that “everything is fine” in the brain.
– I can say that magnetic images are not dichotomously the criterion for whether an athlete can continue to compete or not. If there is any change in the pictures, then we are really talking about a brain injury.
– Also, no one can say with certainty and completely unbiased whether a boxer can fight or should stop.
League players are blamed more precisely than Helenius
Vartiainen points out that in the hockey SM league, for example, every player is tested before the season with various tests, where the athletes’ memory, balance and reactions are more precisely blamed. This has been done regularly since 2015.
– The league uses a test set that can more accurately measure, for example, reaction speed, memory or balance. There is personal data about individuals’ functional abilities, which always tells more than just pictures or a comparison with age reference values.
– I would argue that ice hockey SM league players are examined more specifically for brain injuries and concussions on an individual level than, for example, boxers such as Robert Helenius. In boxing, I think the blaming of these things is on a much rougher level. I’m happy to be wrong about this, says Vartiainen.
According to the expert, the careful study of concussions is not limited to sports stories.
– Every person who has fallen on a bike, roller skates or electric scooter, the process is very similar, even if no baseline data can be found.
After the tests, if you notice features in yourself that are not normal (headache, dizziness, fatigue, lack of memory or concentration, sensory hypersensitivity), then alarm bells should start ringing quickly.
– It’s not worth waiting and burdening yourself, because, for example, brain work after a stroke can be more toxic than returning to sports, the brain injury rehabilitation expert reminds.