Cutting edge helmet research or more of the same?

[Heltor Chasca]

My research conducted in front of my teen daughter’s big mirror show conclusively that I LOOK better with a lid, but I FEEL better with a cap. I’m my opinion.

Because I’m older, uglier and not convinced by any helmet argument to date, I go with the second camp.

 

[fossyant]

Its up to the individual what they wear or don't wear. If you have an accident you'll be mithered to death by medical professionals about having a helmet. I had to tell them look at my helmet, not a mark. Its not my head its my back.

I wear one. Deffo recommend one and elbow pads if MTBing on unfamiliar trails as your guaranteed a crash or two, especially if going quickly.

Ive had a few offs where i was glad that bit of polystyrene hit the ground rather than the thin skin on my skull. Some nice gouges in the lid.

Thats my last on the subject as the anti helmet bunch will be along to argue against everything.

Wear one if you want to, don't wear one if you want too. Free choice.

 

[roadrash]

Wear one if you want to, don't wear one if you want too. Free choice.

This statement sums up helmets perfectly, I cannot understand anyone who feels the need to push their own opinion/views on anyone else.

wear what you like and like what you wear

 

[I like Skol]

As i have already said, i am not interested in individual cases....

All I want to know is, in a million bicycle accidents, how many were wearing helmets and is there any difference in the proportion of fatalities in either group?

If someone can show me genuine figures that prove 'on average' a cyclist involved in an accident is less likely to suffer life changing or terminal head injuries if wearing a helmet then I'm in, no further questions. I am very surprised that this data is not available already. It is almost stupidly obvious that if you protect your head you will receive less severe injuries, my gut feeling tells me this is true, but my head thinks more deeply than my gut and questions the fact that there is nothing more substantial than 'it's obvious innit?' to support this!
In the vein as the @steveindenmark comment, my experience of being involved in a serious rta that left me with a broken neck and fractured skull is that I walked away from the accident (until the paramedics caught up with me and strapped me to a spine board ) and appear to be on the road to a full physical recovery. There has also been no long term harm to my amazing good looks after the initial bruising scabs cleared up. The closest a surgeon or doctor ever got to me was purely examination so i would have to surmise that the compelling result of my experiment is that a helmet is totally uneccessary?

 

[swansonj]

This statement sums up helmets perfectly, I cannot understand anyone who feels the need to push their own opinion/views on anyone else.

wear what you like and like what you wear

Would you also say that you cannot understand anyone who feels the need to push their opinion that smoking is bad for you on anyone else? That clean air is better for society? That exercise is good for you?

If the evidence shows that something is hurting people, anyone from a public health perspective will quite rightly feel a duty to promote the healthier policy.

 

[Profpointy]

Why is basing a safet

Would you also say that you cannot understand anyone who feels the need to push their opinion that smoking is bad for you on anyone else? That clean air is better for society? That exercise is good for you?

If the evidence shows that something is hurting people, anyone from a public health perspective will quite rightly feel a duty to promote the healthier policy.

There's a strange and subtle aspect to that comment. It's seemingly not helmet wearing that is hurting people, but pushing of helmet wearing that is hurting people

 

[roadrash]

yes I would , educate people , gladly , but that doesn't mean push your personal oppinions on them,I still think each individual can make up his or her own mind if its something they want to do whether its wear a helmet , smoking or whatever

 

[swansonj]

....There's a strange and subtle aspect to that comment. It's seemingly not helmet wearing that is hurting people, but pushing of helmet wearing that is hurting people

Yes.

I carefully wrote the post so it was neutral as to whether advocating helmet wearing or discouraging it was the public health policy in question. Whichever way you view the science, I just do not understand the view that we should back away from the science and just let people make up their own minds on a whim or an anecdote. As @roadrash says, as an absolute minimum, educate people.

However, my own view is that we should actively discourage helmet wearing, as that being in the best overall long term interests of society.

 

[classic33]

But let's make this clear: you are making the mistake of assuming there's no drawbacks to helmet use, even on a personal level. Did helmet use help cause the crash? That's what we simply don't understand yet. It would seem a reasonably likely explanation for why cycle helmets don't reduce injury rates in the real world. After all, why did you crash in this way on this particular occasion when you used a helmet, rather than the times you didn't?

And then there's the far more famous drawbacks on a societal level from discouraging cycling.

There's an even easier way to stop the cycle helmet debate, respecting the majority who don't use them. Ban them in law outside closed-road racing and the discussion will eventually go away.

Did you stop wearing a helmet in order to have fewer crashes?

 

[mjr]

Did you stop wearing a helmet in order to have fewer crashes?

The main motive was one causing me a neck injury but it did move me to consider why I was crashing more in the few years of using than the many years before.

 

[Profpointy]

Did you stop wearing a helmet in order to have fewer crashes?

On a society wide, rather than individual basis, that isn't quite as silly as it may sound