There is no such thing as a minor concussion.

Any type of head injury should be followed by a medical examination to check for concussion, according to MSN.

A bump, blow or jolt to the head or a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth can cause brain tissue to change shape, which can stretch and damage brain cells, resulting in traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to the report.

Signs of TBI include poor concentration, mood changes, irritability, changes in your ability to focus and follow through on mental tasks, poor word recall, foggy thinking and sleep problems.

The dangers of concussions are very much in the news after 34 U.S. service members suffered concussions and other traumatic brain injuries during Iranian airstrikes on Ayn al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, and following the release of the Netflix documentary, “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez,” which highlights how severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), has affected the entire NFL. CTE is a brain disease caused by repetitive brain trauma.

An estimated 80% to 90% of people have had some form of traumatic brain injury. Military personnel, football players, soccer players and boxers tend to be at particularly high risk, but TBI can happen to anyone, for a range of reasons.

Chronic and severe TBI conditions force 4 million to 6 million people to be on disability. Many more have undocumented TBIs, be it from a car accident, slip and fall incident or simply hitting their head on a cabinet.

The accumulation of mild head trauma over time has been shown to raise your risk for being diagnosed later in life with diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

One study showed that even a single concussion in your lifetime could increase your risk for Parkinson’s by 56% to 83%, depending on the severity of the injury. Those with one or more TBIs in their past also received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s on average two years earlier compared to those who had never had a TBI.

The medical records of nearly 326,000 U.S. military veterans ranging in age from 31 to 65 were evaluated and showed that a TBI resulting in loss of consciousness raised the risk of Parkinson's by 56%. Veterans who had more serious TBIs were 83% more likely to develop Parkinson's.

In addition to veterans and adults and children involved in sports, the elderly also suffer a high percentage of concussions, primarily from falling.

Of Americans aged 75 and older, 1 in 45 suffered from a brain injury that led to an emergency room visit, hospitalization or death in 2013, and falls were blamed for the majority of those injuries.

Older adults can lessen their risk of falling with regular exercise, protecting their vision and removing home hazards such as rugs and obstructive furniture.

TBI treatment aids for any age group include floatation therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, photobiomodulation, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, transcranial direct current stimulation, neurofeedback and CBD oil.