Research Shows Chiropractic Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We encounter a large number of sports injuries in our Juneau office, and Dr. Messerschmidt is usually able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that more than 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and below are hurt each year while playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults hurt every year while taking part 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 sorts of widespread injuries. One way to potentially realize that goal, according to a study released in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in regular chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg injuries are common, frequently sidelining the players and impacting their team's likelihood of securing a win. 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 particularly, every one of the participants received medical treatment. In addition, half of them also received chiropractic sessions at the rate of 1 treatment each week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one treatment each month for the remaining three months of the study. The other participants had no chiropractic intervention at all and were used as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

Following 24 matches, specialists noticed a reduced amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Moreover, that very group also missed fewer matches correlated to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to conclude that chiropractic ought to be made an addition to sports training programs to dramatically lessen the amount of leg injuries.

Dr. Messerschmidt Can Help Patients Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Quicker

If you or your child plays sports and you want to ensure greater time is dedicated on the field as opposed to on the sidelines, call our Juneau office at (907) 789-1344 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.