Research Shows Chiropractic Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We see a good deal of sports injuries in our Springfield, MA clinic, and Dr. Delson is generally able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that over 3.5 million children aged 14 and below are hurt each year while playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults injured each year while taking part in sports-related activities, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the necessity of minimizing these types of common injuries. One approach to potentially realize that goal, as stated in a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in regular chiropractic care.

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 specific study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see whether chiropractic could reduce these injuries and help keep them playing.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study particularly, every one of the participants was given medical treatment. Furthermore, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of 1 session per week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one treatment a month for the final three months of the study. The other participants were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

Following 24 matches, researchers noted a reduced amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given chiropractic care. Moreover, that same group also missed fewer matches correlated to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to conclude that chiropractic should be made an addition to sports training programs to dramatically decrease the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Delson Can Help Patients Find Comfort 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 as opposed to on the sidelines, call our Springfield, MA office at (413) 788-4464 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.