Studies Show Chiropractic Care Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We see a large number of sports injuries in our Stacy office, and Dr. Ulvin is often able to assist these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that more than 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and below are injured each year when playing sports. Add that to the nearly 2 million adults hurt annually while taking part in sports-related activities, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the necessity of preventing these sorts of common injuries. One way to possible realize that goal, as reported by a study published 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 impacting their team's likelihood of winning. One specific study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see if chiropractic could cut down on these injuries and help keep them in the game.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study in particular, every one of the players was given medical treatment. In addition, half of them also received chiropractic sessions at the rate of one treatment each week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly sessions for the next three months, and one treatment a month for the remaining three months of the study. The other group had no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

Following twenty-four matches, specialists noticed a diminished amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Additionally, that same group also missed fewer matches correlated 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 dramatically lessen the amount of leg injuries.

Dr. Ulvin Can Help Patients Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Quicker

If you or your child plays sports and you would like to ensure more time is spent on the field versus on the sidelines, call our Stacy office at (651) 462-3243 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.