Research Shows Chiropractic Adjustments Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We encounter a large number of sports injuries in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office, and Dr. Stern is generally 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 almost 2 million adults injured annually while participating in sports-related activities, according to statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the importance of minimizing these sorts of common injuries. One approach to potentially achieve that goal, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in routine chiropractic care.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are commonplace, frequently sidelining the players and affecting their team's likelihood of securing a win. One particular study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see whether chiropractic could diminish these injuries and help keep them in the game.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study particularly, every one of the players received medical treatment. In addition, half of them also received chiropractic treatments at the rate of 1 session each week for the first six weeks, biweekly treatments for the following three months, and one session each month for the final three months of the study. The remaining group were given no chiropractic intervention at all and acted as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

After twenty-four matches, scientists noted a lessened number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Furthermore, that very group also missed fewer matches correlated to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to come to the conclusion that chiropractic should be made an addition to sports training programs to effectively decrease the quantity of leg injuries.

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

If you or your child plays sports and you would like to ensure greater time is spent on the field as opposed to on the sidelines, call our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office at (415) 308-7636 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.