We see a lot of sports injuries in our Portland clinic, and Dr. Helton is usually able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that over 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 participating 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 preventing these sorts of widespread injuries. One way to potentially achieve that goal, as stated in a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in routine chiropractic treatments.
In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are commonplace, often sidelining the players and impacting their team's odds of winning. One particular study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see how well chiropractic could diminish these injuries and help keep them in the game.
For this study specifically, every one of the players was given medical treatment. Furthermore, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of one treatment each week for the first six weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one treatment per month for the remaining 3 months of the study. The other group were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic care.
Following twenty-four matches, researchers noted a diminished number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Additionally, that very group also missed fewer matches connected to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to come to the conclusion that chiropractic ought to be added to sports training programs to dramatically lessen the amount of leg injuries.
If you or your child are active in sports and you want to make sure more time is dedicated on the field versus on the sidelines, call our Portland office at (503) 771-1974 and schedule an appointment today. We will do our best to keep you in the game!
References
Dr. Helton, a Portland chiropractor, has been providing chiropractic health care and treatment for accident injuries for over 30 years. Dr. Helton specializes and is an expert in the evaluation and treatment of injuries from auto accidents. He has passed advanced certification training and testing by the Spine Research Institute of San Diego in the evaluation, treatment, and management of injuries from whiplash and brain traumatology.
