Research Shows Chiropractic Care Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We see a large number of sports injuries in our San Angelo office, and Dr. Pittman is often able to assist these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that over 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 each year while taking part in sports-related activities, as reported by statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the importance of preventing these sorts of widespread injuries. One way to possible achieve that goal, as stated in a study released 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 affecting 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 in the game.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study particularly, all of the players got medical treatment. Furthermore, half of them also received chiropractic treatments at the rate of 1 treatment each week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly treatments for the next three months, and one treatment each month for the last 3 months of the study. The remaining participants were given no chiropractic intervention at all and were used as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic.

After twenty-four matches, specialists noted a diminished number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given chiropractic care. Additionally, that very 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 dramatically reduce the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Pittman Can Help People Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Faster

If you or your child are active in sports and you want to ensure more time is dedicated on the field as opposed to on the sidelines, call our San Angelo office at (325) 223-9355 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.