Why do athletes use smelling salts in the NFL?
Imagine waking up in a crowded stadium with a smell so strong that it makes you feel black.
The repetitive head trauma of contact sports has led to long-term brain disease for some former athletes.Tim Fox's 10-year pro career ended in 1986.
They put the ammonia tablets under your nose."It wakes you up, whether you like it or not," says Fox, who was the first-round pick in the 1976 draft.
Fox was knocked out on the field and woke up with smelling salts, which can wake an unconscious person after a brain-scrambling impact.Twice he was sent back into the game.
It's not unusual for first-aid personnel to carry Smelling salts on the sideline and for stars to use them as a pre-game pick-me-up.They are allowed in boxing events.
The fifth nerve runs from the nose to the brain and is stimulated by the substances.
"That nerve, that's in your nose, goes back into your brain stem and projects into a very important structure for consciousness called the thalmus," says Galetta, who cautioned he was speculating.
Douglas Smith, director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, says it's like giving a little extra juice to a cold car engine in winter.
Smith says that the loss of consciousness is related to damage to the brain stem and that smelling salts can start a brain back up.
Smith says that when the hemispheres are rotating, they can pull against each other and cause damage to the white matter tracks.
Next time you hear of pro athletes sniffing their own supply of ammonia, think of that.Manning snorted ammonia in the second half of a late-season Denver-New England game.Brady admitted on WEEI's Dennis & Callahan show that he sniffed ammonia out of a cup before a game.