Studies Show Chiropractic Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We come across a large number of sports injuries in our Napa office, and Dr. Bettencourt is usually able to assist these athletes. Stanford Childrens Hospital states that over 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and younger are hurt each year when playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults hurt every year while engaged in sports-related activities, as reported by statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can start to see the importance of minimizing these types of widespread injuries. One approach to potentially realize that goal, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in routine chiropractic treatments.

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

Research Proves Chiropractic Treatment Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study particularly, every one of the volunteers got medical treatment. Furthermore, half of them also received chiropractic treatments at the rate of 1 treatment per week for the first six weeks, biweekly treatments for the following three months, and one session a month for the last 3 months of the study. The remaining participants had no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

Following twenty-four matches, researchers noted a reduced number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Furthermore, that same group also missed fewer matches connected 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 dramatically diminish the number of leg injuries.

Dr. Bettencourt Can Help People Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Heal Quicker

If you or your child are active in sports and you want to make sure greater time is spent on the field versus on the sidelines, call our Napa 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.