Studies Show Chiropractic Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We see a good deal of sports injuries in our Agassiz clinic, and Dr. Henke 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 injured each year when playing sports. Add that to the nearly 2 million adults injured each year while participating in sports-related activities, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the importance of minimizing these types of widespread injuries. One way to potentially realize that goal, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to receive routine chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg injuries are common, often sidelining the players and affecting their team's chance at securing a win. One specific study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see if chiropractic could cut down on these injuries and help keep them playing.

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study specifically, every one of the participants got medical treatment. In addition, half of them also received chiropractic treatments at the rate of one session per week for the first six weeks, biweekly sessions for the next three months, and one session each month for the last three months of the study. The remaining half were given no chiropractic intervention at all and were used as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic care.

After twenty-four matches, researchers noticed 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 connected to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to come to the conclusion that chiropractic should be added to sports training programs to dramatically reduce the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Henke Can Help Clients Find Comfort From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Faster

If you or your child plays sports and you would like to make sure greater time is spent on the field as opposed to on the sidelines, call our Agassiz office at (604) 491-1000 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.