Studies Show Chiropractic Adjustments Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We come across a lot of sports injuries in our New Carrollton office, and Dr. Heusler is generally able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states that over 3.5 million children aged 14 and younger are injured each year while playing sports. Add that to the close to 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 start to see the importance of preventing these types of widespread injuries. One way to potentially realize that goal, as stated in a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in regular chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are commonplace, often sidelining the players and affecting their team's odds of securing a win. One particular study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see how well chiropractic could reduce these injuries and help keep them playing.

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study in particular, every one of the players received medical treatment. Additionally, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of one treatment per week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly treatments for the following three months, and one session per month for the final 3 months of the study. The remaining participants were given no chiropractic intervention at all and acted as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic care.

After twenty-four matches, scientists noted a reduced number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Furthermore, that same group also missed fewer matches correlated to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to conclude that chiropractic ought to be added to sports training programs to dramatically reduce the amount of leg injuries.

Dr. Heusler Can Help People Find Comfort From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Faster

If you or your child are active in sports and you want to ensure greater time is spent on the field versus on the sidelines, call our New Carrollton office at (301) 577-0023 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.