Studying head injuries

High-school athletes playing at elevation suffer far fewer concussions than their sea-level peers, according to an intriguing new Colorado School of Public Health study that could lead to the first innovations in helmet design in decades.

“At higher elevations, your brain swells a bit, so it takes up more room in the skull and there is less room for it to slosh around,” explained concussion researcher Dawn Comstock, Ph.D., an associate professor of epidemiology at the school. The Colorado School of Public Health is a collaboration of the University of Colorado Denver, Colorado State University and the University…