Research Shows Chiropractic Care Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We encounter a good deal of sports injuries in our Woburn & Chelmsford, MA clinic, and Dr. Ellis is often able to assist these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that more than 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and below are hurt each year when playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults hurt every year while engaged in sports-related activities, according to statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can start to see the importance of preventing these sorts of common injuries. One approach to potentially achieve that goal, according to a study released in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in regular chiropractic care.

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

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study in particular, every one of the participants was given medical treatment. In addition, half of them also engaged in chiropractic treatments at the rate of one session per week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly sessions for the next three months, and one session each month for the remaining 3 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 24 matches, specialists noticed a reduced number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given chiropractic care. Moreover, that very group also missed fewer matches connected 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 dramatically lessen the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Ellis Can Help Clients Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Quicker

If you or your child plays sports and you want to make sure greater time is dedicated on the field as opposed to on the sidelines, call our Woburn & Chelmsford, MA office at (781) 460-0939 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.