Research Shows Chiropractic Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We see a lot of sports injuries in our Memphis clinic, and Dr. Amodeo is usually able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states that over 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and younger 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, according to statistics collected 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 potentially realize that goal, as reported by 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 impacting their team's likelihood of securing a win. One particular study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see whether chiropractic could cut down on these injuries and help keep them playing.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study in particular, every one of the players received medical treatment. In addition, half of them also received chiropractic sessions at the rate of one session each week for the first six weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one session a month for the last 3 months of the study. The remaining group had no chiropractic intervention at all and acted as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic.

After twenty-four matches, researchers noticed a lessened amount 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 conclude that chiropractic should be made an addition to sports training programs to effectively reduce the number of leg injuries.

Dr. Amodeo Can Help Patients Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Faster

If you or your child plays sports and you want to ensure more time is spent on the field versus on the sidelines, call our Memphis office at (901) 757-8311 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.