California residents enjoy a wide range of athletic and physical activities. And these activities can lead to injury from time to time, some minor and others more severe. An ACL tear, a rupture of a critical ligament in the knee, is one of the more serious injuries frequently suffered during physical exertion.
An ACL tear tends to require a lengthy rehab period after a personal injury, and it can take months or even longer to regain full range of motion with the knee, which affects almost any physical task or activity. But you probably aren’t aware of the fact that an ACL injury has an affect on the brain as well.
How an ACL tear affects the brain
An ACL injury massively decreases the function of the knee joint while the body recovers from the trauma. Even after a recovery period, it’s possible that the knee won’t function quite the same as it once did. But changes are also happening to the brain in the aftermath of the injury.
It appears that after an ACL injury, the area of the brain responsible for passing messages between the muscles of the leg and the brain atrophy, and as a result become less responsive. This means that less information is going back and forth from leg to brain, which has various effects.
The downside to brain changes after an ACL tear
It’s long been known in medical circles that people who tear an ACL are more likely to injure the ligament again. And while some of this can be explained by weakness or damage to the area, another factor is the changes the brain experiences.
With decreased and weakened brain function in the area governing knee movement, a person is more likely to misstep or make a false move that leads to future injury. Entering a rehabilitation program as soon as possible is crucial to lessen the changes to the brain and increase your chances of recovering normal function.
ACL tears lead not just to damage to the knee but to changes in the brain. These changes can decrease knee function after an ACL tear.
