Studies Show Chiropractic Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We come across a large number of sports injuries in our Anchorage clinic, and Dr. Matthisen is often able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states that more than 3.5 million children aged 14 and younger are hurt each year while playing sports. Add that to the almost 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 necessity of minimizing these types of common injuries. One way to potentially realize that goal, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in regular chiropractic care.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg injuries are commonplace, often sidelining the players and impacting their team's likelihood of winning. One particular study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see if chiropractic could cut down on these injuries and help keep them in the game.

Research Proves 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 1 treatment per week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly treatments for the next three months, and one treatment a month for the last three months of the study. The remaining group had no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic.

Following twenty-four matches, researchers noticed a diminished number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given chiropractic care. Furthermore, that very group also missed fewer matches connected to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to conclude that chiropractic ought to be added to sports training programs to effectively lessen the amount of leg injuries.

Dr. Matthisen Can Help People Find Comfort From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Quicker

If you or your child are active in sports and you want to ensure more time is spent on the field versus on the bench, call our Anchorage office at (907) 349-4212 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.