Research Shows Chiropractic Adjustments Beneficial at Preventing Sports Injuries

We encounter a lot of sports injuries in our West Palm Beach office, and Dr. Dennis is often able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that more than 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and younger are injured each year when playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults injured every year while taking part in sports-related activities, as reported by statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the importance of minimizing these types of widespread injuries. One way to possible achieve that goal, as stated in a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to receive regular chiropractic care.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg injuries are common, often sidelining the players and affecting their team's chance at winning. One specific study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see whether chiropractic could reduce these injuries and help keep them playing.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study in particular, all of the participants was given medical treatment. Furthermore, half of them also were given chiropractic sessions at the rate of 1 treatment per week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one treatment per month for the remaining three 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 adjustments.

After 24 matches, specialists reported a reduced amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given chiropractic care. Additionally, 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 effectively decrease the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Dennis Can Help People Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Faster

If you or your child are active in sports and you would like to make sure more time is spent on the field versus on the bench, call our West Palm Beach office at (561) 966-6171 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.