Research Shows Chiropractic Care Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We come across a large number of sports injuries in our Napa, CA office, and Dr. Bettencourt 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 close to 2 million adults hurt each year while engaged in sports-related activities, as reported by statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can start to see the necessity of preventing these types of widespread injuries. One way to possible realize that goal, as stated in a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in routine chiropractic care.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg injuries are commonplace, frequently sidelining the players and affecting their team's likelihood of winning. One specific study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see whether chiropractic could reduce 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 participants received medical treatment. Additionally, half of them also received chiropractic sessions at the rate of 1 treatment per week for the first six weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one session per month for the remaining 3 months of the study. The remaining half had no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic.

After twenty-four matches, researchers reported a diminished amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Moreover, that same group also missed fewer matches related 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 number of leg injuries.

Dr. Bettencourt Can Help People 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 as opposed to on the bench, call our Napa, CA office at (707) 257-3600 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.