Research Shows Chiropractic Effective at Preventing Sports Injuries

We see a large number of sports injuries in our Harleysville, PA office, and Dr. Szilagyi is generally able to assist these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that more than 3.5 million children aged 14 and younger are injured each year while playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults hurt annually 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 common injuries. One way to potentially realize that goal, as reported by a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in regular chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are common, often sidelining the players and impacting 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 playing.

For this study specifically, all of the players got medical treatment. Additionally, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of 1 session each week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one treatment each month for the last 3 months of the study. The remaining half were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

Following twenty-four matches, scientists reported a reduced amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Additionally, that same 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 effectively reduce the amount of leg injuries.

If you or your child plays sports and you would like to make sure greater time is dedicated on the field versus on the sidelines, call our Harleysville, PA office at (215) 256-4345 and schedule 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.