Studies Show Chiropractic Adjustments Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

Chiropractic Adjustments Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries in Arlington

We see a large number of sports injuries in our Arlington office, and Dr. Ernst is usually able to assist these athletes. Stanford Childrens Hospital reports that more than 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and younger are hurt each year while playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults injured each year 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 preventing these types of common injuries. One way to potentially achieve that goal, as reported by a study released in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to receive routine chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are common, often sidelining the players and impacting their team's likelihood of securing a win. One specific study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see how well chiropractic care could reduce these injuries and help keep them in the game.

Research Proves Chiropractic Therapy Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study particularly, every one of the volunteers received medical treatment. Furthermore, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of one treatment each week for the first six weeks, biweekly treatments for the next three months, and one treatment each month for the last three months of the study. The other participants had no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic care.

After 24 matches, scientists noticed a reduced amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given chiropractic care. Moreover, that very group also missed fewer matches related to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to conclude that chiropractic should be made an addition to sports training programs to effectively diminish the amount of leg injuries.

Dr. Ernst Can Help Patients Find Comfort From Sports Injuries & Help You Get Better Quicker

If you or your child plays sports and you would like to ensure greater time is spent on the field as opposed to on the bench, call our Arlington office at (360) 659-8464 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.