Every year, ACSH posts a list of commonsense actions individuals can take to either improve or protect their health. As part of our advice to exercise regularly, we emphasize that bike riders should always wear protective helmets -- which can reduce the risk of head injury by over 85%.
The importance of that particular piece of advice was brought home to me by a phonecall from a friend a couple of weeks ago. "Did you hear," she asked, "about Erica's accident?" No, I hadn't. "What happened?"
To make a short story even shorter, Erica -- a compulsive bike rider who regularly rises at 5am to get in her twenty miles before breakfast -- had been hit by a truck and tossed many feet off the road. Miraculously, she survived, and more to the point, thanks to her helmet, which was cracked in several places, she sustained no severe head injury.
When I spoke with Erica a few hours later, she told me that she had no memory of the accident. She had sustained myriad injuries -- a compound fracture of the lower left arm, several cracked vertebrae and ribs, and massive bruising of one hip. But her head was OK. "That bike helmet saved my life," she emphasized.
It's a lesson in how donning a simple piece of equipment can make the difference between life and death -- a lesson that bears repeating.
Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D., is Director of Nutrition at the American Council on Science and Health.
