CINCINNATI -- Q-Collar tests are showing positive results on girls high school athletes as well as boys, research shows.
The simple-looking experimental neck collar is designed to protect athletes from harmful effects of concussions and head impacts.
After testing boys football and hockey players, Cincinnati Children’s put it to the test with the Seton High School soccer team in Ohio.
Dr. Gregory Myer, Director of Research in the Human Performance Lab at Children's, says the Q-Collar creates an “artificial air bag for your head so the brain can't move and slosh when it gets a head impact.”
The Q-Collar puts pressure on the jugular restricting the blood flow leaving the brain, but not the blood flow entering the brain, he said.
Research data with boys shows the Q-Collar protects the structure and function of the brain from repeated blows, according to Myer. That prompted the question: Can it help girls?
Millie Poehner, a Seton senior, said it helped her.
“I did experience a concussion and my symptoms were very low,” Poehner said. “It helped me feel safer and more protected wearing that collar."
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The Seton soccer players also tested an accelerometer. Placed behind the ear, it measured the speed, magnitude and direction of the impact.
"We found the females who wore the collar performed tasks with the same level of brain activation as in pre-season. Those who didn't had to work the brain a little harder,” Myer said.
The maker of the Q-Collar, Q30 Innovations, is pursuing FDA approval and hopes to make it available in 2019.