Chiropractic Treatment of Ankle Sprain

​We see quite a few patients in our Napa, CA office with ankle sprains but Dr. Roxann Bettencourt, DC has had a lot of success helping them heal more quickly. Why are ankle sprains so common and how can chiropractic care help?

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), an estimated 25,000 men and women in the US sprain their ankles daily. In fact, these injuries make up almost half of all sports injuries, causing people to spend time away from the activities they enjoy most.

Like most any injury, there are many causes of ankle sprains. The most common is inversion, or when the ankle rolls inward. This injury can take place due to one forceful movement, or it can develop over time, and activities that increase the risk for this type of ankle sprain include running and jumping. You're also at risk if you have pre-existing ankle injuries, poor posture or balance, weak muscles, and reduced range of motion. How can Dr. Roxann Bettencourt, DC help?

A paper printed in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics set out to discover chiropractic's role when it comes to ankle sprain recovery. The authors enrolled 33 men and women between the ages of 18 and 45 who had a history of ankle inversion sprains, who were reporting tenderness and/or pain, and had not re-injured the ankle in the previous six weeks.

18 of the subjects were assigned to participate in rehabilitation and the other 15 people received chiropractic in addition to rehabilitation. Each person had five full weeks of treatment, with the rehab group receiving therapy seven days a week and the rehabilitation plus chiropractic group receiving care six out of the seven days.

The authors found that the people who had both rehab and chiropractic fared the best at the 4-week mark when it came to pain and joint restriction. In addition, no negative effects were reported, showing that chiropractic is safe.

If you're near our location in Napa, CA and you're struggling with an ankle injury, give us a call. We'll do what we can to keep you up and moving...literally!

Citations

• American College of Sports Medicine. (n.d.). Ankle sprains and the athlete. Retrieved from https://www.acsm.org/docs/current-comments/anklesprainstemp.pdf
• Lubbe, D et al. (2015, January). Manipulative therapy and rehabilitation for recurrent ankle sprain with functional instability: a short-term, assessor-blind, parallel-group randomized trial. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 38(1), 22-34, doi:10.1016/j.jmpt.2014.10.001