Local medics, parents and coaches learned Wednesday the potential dangers of their young athletes receiving multiple concussions.

With the local high school football season getting under way today, participants learned about the signs and symptoms of a concussion. It was stressed that the hallmark symptom of a concussion is not the loss of consciousness.

There are many other signs, including headache, memory loss, depression, sleep pattern changes, confusion, sluggishness, fuzzy or double vision, confusion, balance problems and nausea.

Symptoms can appear immediately or days after a hit.

Dr. Julian Bailes, West Virginia University Neurosurgery Department chairman, talked about his research with Dr. Omalu Bennet involving retired NFL players and brain injuries. Post mortem tests on five different players' brains revealed major damage to their neurons.

A special stain, called Tau, showed dark brown spots similar to what an elderly Alzheimer's patient's brain would develop, he said.

Bailes performed this same test on the brain of Chris Benoit, a professional wrestler who committed suicide after killing his wife and child in 2007. Bailes said the Tau stain test revealed the same type of neuron damage.

"He wrestled for 20 years, 219 nights per year," Bailes said, noting professional wrestlers use "TLC" - tables, ladders and chairs - against their opponents.

Bailes said he did not want to scare parents or coaches, or cast any negative light on contact sports.

However, multiple concussions, especially head-to-head hits, may be detrimental in the long run.

"The skull is protective to a point, but it has the potential to move," he said, noting there is spinal fluid between the brain and skull. "The brain moves inside the skull. ... A tear in brain cells, in the fibers, can't be protected by a helmet."

Bailes said he has been working to have head-to-head hits, intended or not, made grounds for immediate ejection from a game.

He noted Bennet's book, "Play Hard, Die Young: Football, Dementia, Depression and Death," examines the lives and deaths of NFL players who suffered repeated head traumas while playing their sport.

Dr. John DeBlasis, Wheeling Hospital physical therapy director, noted 80 percent of concussion patients usually can go back to playing their sport in three weeks.

He noted the hospital offers a free service, a computer-based test called Impact, to help doctors evaluate whether an athlete has a concussion.

Dr. Craig Wilcox, a Wheeling dentist, also talked about the importance of contact sports players wearing mouthguards to protect their teeth and face and to prevent concussion via facial injury. He said the Wheeling District Dental Society, which represents dentists in Ohio, Brooke and Hancock counties, will help any athlete or team in need of mouthguards.

For more information, call Wilcox at 304-243-0740.