Research Shows Chiropractic Adjustments Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We come across a large number of sports injuries in our Chesapeake clinic, and Dr. Block is often able to assist these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states that more than 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and below are hurt each year when playing sports. Add that to the nearly 2 million adults hurt every year while engaged in sports-related activities, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can start to see the necessity of minimizing these sorts of common injuries. One way to possible realize that goal, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in regular chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are common, frequently sidelining the players and affecting their team's chance at winning. One particular study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see if chiropractic could diminish these injuries and help keep them in the game.

For this study specifically, all of the players got medical treatment. Furthermore, half of them also were given chiropractic sessions at the rate of 1 session per week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly treatments for the next three months, and one session per month for the last three months of the study. The remaining group were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and acted as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

Following twenty-four matches, scientists noticed a reduced number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given chiropractic care. Furthermore, that very group also missed fewer matches related to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to come to the conclusion that chiropractic ought to be added to sports training programs to effectively reduce the number of leg injuries.

If you or your child are active in sports and you would like to make sure more time is spent on the field versus on the sidelines, call our Chesapeake office at (757) 436-5428 and make 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.