Studies Show Chiropractic Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We encounter a many of sports injuries in our Tumwater office, and Dr. Harrell is usually able to help these athletes. Stanford Childrens Hospital states that more than 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and younger are hurt each year when playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults injured every year while participating in sports-related activities, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can start to see the necessity of minimizing these sorts of widespread injuries. One approach to potentially achieve that goal, as reported by a study released in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to receive regular chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg injuries are common, often sidelining the players and affecting their team's odds of securing a win. One particular study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see whether chiropractic therapy could lessen these injuries and help keep them in the game.

Research Proves Chiropractic Therapy Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study particularly, all of the participants got medical treatment. Additionally, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of 1 treatment per week for the first six weeks, biweekly treatments for the next three months, and one session per month for the remaining 3 months of the study. The other half were given no chiropractic intervention at all and were used as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic care.

Following twenty-four matches, researchers noticed a diminished amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Moreover, that very group also missed fewer matches related to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to come to the conclusion that chiropractic ought to be made an addition to sports training programs to effectively lessen the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Harrell Can Help People Find Comfort From Sports Injuries & Help You Get Better Faster

If you or your child plays sports and you want to ensure more time is dedicated on the field versus on the sidelines, call our Tumwater office at (360) 489-0635 and schedule an appointment today. We will do our best to keep you in the game!

References

• Hoskins, W, & Pollard, H. (2010, April 8). The effect of a sports chiropractic manual therapy intervention on the prevention of back pain, hamstring and lower limb injuries in semi-elite Australian Rules footballers: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 11(64), doi:10.1186/1471-2474-11-64
• Misra, A. (2014, March 17). Common sports injuries: Incidence and average charges. Department of Health & Human Services.
• Stanford Children’s Hospital. (n.d.). Sports injury statistics.