Studies Show Chiropractic Care Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We encounter a good deal of sports injuries in our Holtsville clinic, and Dr. Cohen is often able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states 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 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 common injuries. One approach 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 commonplace, frequently sidelining the players and impacting their team's odds of securing a win. One specific study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see if chiropractic could reduce these injuries and help keep them playing.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study in particular, every one of the volunteers got 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 following three months, and one treatment each month for the last 3 months of the study. The remaining participants had no chiropractic intervention at all and acted as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic.

After twenty-four matches, scientists reported a diminished number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Furthermore, that very group also missed fewer matches connected 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 dramatically lessen the amount of leg injuries.

Dr. Cohen 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 Holtsville office at (631) 360-7999 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.