Research Shows Chiropractic Care Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We encounter a lot of sports injuries in our Decatur office, and Dr. Harrison is generally able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that over 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and below are hurt each year when playing sports. Add that to the almost 2 million adults injured annually while participating in sports-related activities, as reported by statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the necessity of minimizing these types of widespread injuries. One approach to potentially realize that goal, as stated in a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to receive regular chiropractic care.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are commonplace, often sidelining the players and impacting their team's chance at winning. One particular study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see how well chiropractic could diminish these injuries and help keep them in the game.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study in particular, all of the volunteers was given medical treatment. In addition, half of them also were given chiropractic sessions at the rate of 1 session each week for the first six weeks, biweekly treatments for the next three months, and one treatment a month for the remaining 3 months of the study. The remaining participants were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and acted as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic care.

Following twenty-four matches, specialists noted a diminished amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given chiropractic care. Additionally, that same group also missed fewer matches related to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to come to the conclusion that chiropractic should be made an addition to sports training programs to effectively decrease the quantity of leg injuries.

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

If you or your child are active in sports and you would like to ensure more time is dedicated on the field as opposed to on the sidelines, call our Decatur office at (404) 325-2856 and make 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.