Research Shows Chiropractic Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We encounter a lot of sports injuries in our Land O' Lakes, FL clinic, and Dr. Michael Craven is often able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states that over 3.5 million children aged 14 and below are injured each year when playing sports. Add that to the almost 2 million adults hurt 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, as stated in a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to receive routine chiropractic care.

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

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study specifically, all of the volunteers was given medical treatment. Additionally, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of one session per week for the first six weeks, biweekly treatments for the next three months, and one treatment per month for the final 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.

After twenty-four matches, scientists noted a reduced amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Additionally, 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 decrease the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Michael Craven Can Help People Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover 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 Land O' Lakes, FL office at (813) 996-9800 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.