Research Shows Chiropractic Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We see a large number of sports injuries in our Henderson, NV office, and Dr. Russell and Dr. Janda is often able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that over 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and younger are injured each year while playing sports. Add that to the nearly 2 million adults injured each year while participating 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 necessity of preventing these sorts of widespread injuries. One approach to possible realize that goal, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to receive routine chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg injuries are commonplace, frequently sidelining the players and impacting their team's chance at winning. One particular study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see if chiropractic could reduce these injuries and help keep them in the game.

For this study in particular, all of the volunteers received medical treatment. Additionally, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of one treatment each week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one treatment each month for the final three months of the study. The remaining group were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and acted as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

After twenty-four matches, scientists reported a diminished number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given 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 ought to be added to sports training programs to effectively decrease the amount of leg injuries.

If you or your child are active in sports and you would like to make sure more time is spent on the field as opposed to on the bench, call our Henderson, NV office at (702) 990-2225 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.