Studies Show Chiropractic Adjustments Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We come across a lot of sports injuries in our Springfield clinic, and Dr. Delson is often able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that over 3.5 million children aged 14 and younger are hurt each year when 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 potentially achieve that goal, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to receive routine chiropractic care.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are common, often sidelining the players and impacting their team's odds of winning. One particular study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see if chiropractic could diminish these injuries and help keep them playing.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study specifically, all of the players was given medical treatment. Furthermore, half of them also were given chiropractic sessions at the rate of 1 treatment each week for the first six weeks, biweekly sessions for the next three months, and one session per month for the remaining 3 months of the study. The other half were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and acted as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic care.

Following twenty-four matches, specialists reported a diminished 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 come to the conclusion that chiropractic ought to be made an addition to sports training programs to effectively decrease the amount of leg injuries.

Dr. Delson Can Help People Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Quicker

If you or your child plays sports and you want to make sure more time is dedicated on the field as opposed to on the bench, call our Springfield office at (413) 788-4464 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.