Millions of people are diagnosed with concussions each year.

每年有數百萬人被診斷出有腦震盪。

In addition to immediate concerns like headaches, dizziness, and fatigue, concussions have been linked with long-term health issues, like depression, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and even Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

除了短期的症狀，如頭疼、暈眩與疲累，腦震盪也被認為與某些長期健康問題有關，如憂鬱症、慢性創傷性腦病變，甚至阿茲海默症與帕金氏症。

But progress in treatment has been hampered by a small problem: No one can seem to agree on what exactly a concussion is.

但治療腦震盪的進展，似乎被一個小問題所阻礙：大家對於腦震盪到底是什麼並沒有共識。

Many neuroscience researchers define a concussion as a specific minor brain injury.

許多神經科學研究者將腦震盪定義為一種特定的小型腦損傷。

But the fancy equipment necessary to detect minor brain injuries is mostly confined to specialty research labs.

但用來檢查小型腦損傷的昂貴機器通常只有專業研究實驗室有。

So instead, when doctors evaluate patients who've recently knocked their noggins, they diagnose based on symptoms like: their short-term memory, their vision, and their coordination.

因此，醫生在評估撞到頭的患者時，會以他們的短期記憶、視力與協調力來看。

If you have too many of those symptoms, they'll diagnose you with a concussion and send you home with the advice to rest, avoid bright lights, and essentially wait to recover.

如果出現太多症狀，醫生會診斷你為腦震盪，並建議你回家休息、避開強光，等待自我修復。

But many concussion-related symptoms aren't necessarily the result of a brain injury.

但許多跟腦震盪有關的症狀，並不一定是腦損傷所引起的。

A headache could actually be the result of a neck injury; dizziness a consequence of an inner-ear problem; and unexpected fatigue could be due to emotional trauma, or even a symptom of preexisting depression rather than recent injury.

頭痛可能是脖子受傷引起的，暈眩也可能是內耳的問題，突如其來的疲憊有可能是情緒創傷，或是本來就有的抑鬱，而非近期的受傷。

All of these issues have their own separate treatments that are overshadowed when the diagnosis is "concussion."

這些問題都有自己的治療法，但如果被診斷為「腦震盪」，就會因此被忽視了。

It's kind of like if a doctor were to diagnose you with "chest pain" and prescribe a generic treatment without determining if the pain is coming from your heart, your lungs, or your ribs.

就像是醫生診斷你有「胸痛」，然後給你通用治療，而沒有仔細檢查胸痛的原因是心臟、肺部還是肋骨。

And even when the symptoms are caused by a brain injury, there's a small chance the injury could be more severe than a concussion diagnosis implies.

即使這些症狀真的是腦傷引起的，有小機率這個傷比「腦震盪」所表示的還要嚴重。

Some dangerous injuries, like subdural hematomas, can present the same symptoms as concussions, and may thus be missed by routine tests—especially when they don't include brain scans.

某些危險的傷，如硬腦膜下血腫，跟腦震盪有一樣的症狀，患者可能因此錯失一些檢查，尤其沒有腦部掃描的話。

So if the diagnosis of "concussion" isn't really working—and may even be putting people at risk—why do we still use it?

所以...如果「腦震盪」的診斷其實沒什麼用，還可能使人陷入危險，為什麼我們還要繼續用？

It's partly because a concussion is simpler—doctors can ask a few questions, diagnose the patient with a concussion, send them home, and move on, and in lots of cases, the patient will be fine.

部分原因是腦震盪簡單多了，醫師問一些問題，診斷患者有腦震盪，請他們回家休息就可以叫下一位了，而很多時候患者自己就會好了。

It's partly because a simple diagnosis benefits influential sports organizations, who like that athletes with concussions can be cleared to return to play much sooner than if they were diagnosed with a more severe injury.

也可能是因為簡單的診斷結果對運動協會比較好，被診斷出腦震盪的運動員比起更嚴重的傷，可以更快回到場上。

And, it's partly because the confusion around the term "concussion" mucks up the available data, so we don't exactly know how big of a problem it is.

還有「腦震盪」一詞帶來許多困惑，讓現有的資料一團亂，所以我們也不清楚問題到底有多嚴重。

If doctors had to make more specific diagnoses, and potentially even ditched the term "concussion" altogether, then researchers would have better data to work with.

如果醫生們被要求做出更精確的診斷，甚至永遠捨去「腦震盪」一詞，研究者就會有更多更好的數據。

And patients could potentially get better treatment—all of which would help us deal with one of our literal biggest headaches.

患者或許也能得到更好的治療，讓我們能好好處理讓人類最「頭痛」的事。

Hey!

嘿！

We just made a new show!

我們剛做了新節目！

It's about the human body, and it's called MinuteBody.

跟人體有關，當然叫 MinuteBody，

I mean, what else would we call it?

不然我們還會叫什麼呢？

Each episode takes you on a minute-long tour of a different body part.

每集都會用一分鐘帶你認識一個身體部位。

There's one about muscles, one about kidneys and one about poop.

有關於肌肉、腎臟，還有一集在講糞便。

Ok, poop's not a body part, but, you know us, we made a video about it anyway.

好吧，糞便不算身體部位，但你懂的，我們還是為它做了一集。

The show is primarily for kids, but adults seem to like it too.

這節目主要是給孩子的，但成人似乎也會喜歡。

We're launching it on Nebula, a new streaming platform built by and for independent educational creators so we can try out new ideas that might not work on YouTube.

這節目會在 Nebula 上發布，Nebula 是新的串流平台，由獨立教育創作者所建立的，如此我們就能測試一些在 YouTube 上可能行不通的點子。

Nebula is usually three bucks a month [3 USD], but now Nebula has partnered with CuriosityStream.

Nebula 通常一個月 3 美元，但現在 Nebula 有跟 CuriosityStream 合作！

If you sign up for a free one-month trial with CuriosityStream at curiositystream.com/minute, you get a Nebula subscription bundled in for free!

如果你訂閱 CuriosityStream 的一個月免費試用，你也可以免費訂閱 Nebula！

That means that you'll not only get to watch MinuteBody, along with all of our friends' Nebula shows, you'll also get access to thousands of CuriosityStream documentaries, like Whale Wisdom and Small Cats Unknown.

這表示你不只可以看 MinuteBody，還有所有在 Nebula 上的節目，你還可以看 CuriosityStream 上數以千計的紀錄片，如 Whale Wisdom 與 Small Cats Unkown。

So go to curiositystream.com/minuteearth and get watching!

趕快到 curiositystream.com/minuteearth 訂閱吧！