Research Shows Chiropractic Care Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We see a lot of sports injuries in our Mt Sterling clinic, and Dr. Linton is generally able to assist these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states that more than 3.5 million children aged 14 and younger are injured each year while playing sports. Add that to the almost 2 million adults hurt each year while engaged in sports-related activities, according to statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can start to see the importance of minimizing these types 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 traumas are common, often sidelining the players and affecting their team's odds of winning. One particular study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see whether chiropractic could cut down on these injuries and help keep them in the game.

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study specifically, every one of the players was given medical treatment. In addition, half of them also engaged in chiropractic sessions at the rate of one treatment each week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly treatments for the next three months, and one treatment per month for the final 3 months of the study. The remaining half had no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and acted as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic.

Following 24 matches, scientists noticed a diminished number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Moreover, that very group also missed fewer matches correlated to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to conclude that chiropractic ought to be added to sports training programs to effectively lessen the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Linton Can Help People Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Quicker

If you or your child plays sports and you want to ensure more time is dedicated on the field as opposed to on the sidelines, call our Mt Sterling office at (859) 499-1009 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.