Do the days seem to drag on when an injury prevents you from participating in your favorite sport or activity? If you don't want to spend a minute more than necessary on the sidelines, consider paying a visit to your chiropractor. In addition to easing pain and stiffness, chiropractic treatments can reduce your recovery time.
The Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Sports Injuries
When you make chiropractic part of your recovery, you'll enjoy these advantages:
- Pain Reduction. Injuries and falls often cause subluxations, which occur when the vertebrae in your spine become misaligned. Subluxations can press on nerves and tissues, causing pain. Spinal manipulation, one of the treatments offered by your chiropractor, realigns your spine and relieves this pressure. Once pressure on the nerves or tissues eases, pain decreases. During spinal manipulation treatment, your doctor uses an activator or hands-on pressure to quickly realign your spine.
- Less Stiffness. Stiffness in the joints, muscles, and soft tissues is a common complaint after a sports injury. Chiropractic treatments relieve stiffness, while decreasing muscle spasms and loosening painful knots. Spinal manipulation increases flexibility and range of motion, making it easier to move without pain. Soft tissue treatments, like massage and soft tissue mobilization, loosen tight tissues. As tissues loosen, pain decreases and flexibility and range of motion improves.
- Reduction in Scar Tissue. Scar tissue forms when your body attempts to repair itself after an injury. Although this process is helpful initially, scar tissue buildup can limit your range of motion and cause pain and stiffness. Chiropractic treatments break apart scar tissue and help you get back to normal more quickly.
- Faster Healing. Proper blood flow to the injured area is essential for healing. Your blood carries white blood cells, oxygen, and other nutrients essential for healing. Spinal manipulation, massage, ultrasound therapy, and other treatments increase blood flow to the injured area, speeding healing.
- Less Inflammation. Inflammation is an important part of your body's response to an injury. Unfortunately, tissues become painful and stiff if inflammation continues for too long. In a study on low back pain and chiropractic, chiropractic treatments had a moderating effect on substances involved in inflammation. Patients received spinal manipulation treatments during the study, which appeared in Chiropractic & Manual Therapies in 2021.
- Reduced Reliance on Pain Medication. When you're in pain, popping an over-the-counter or prescription pain medication might seem like the easiest way to treat pain. Although the medication does ease the pain, it will return in just a few hours after the medication wears off. Chiropractic treats the source of your pain, preventing symptoms from recurring. Treatments also activate your body's natural pain control system and increase production of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. These hormones relieve pain naturally while also improving your mood.
Regular Chiropractic Care Helps You Reduce Your Risk of Sports Injuries
Are you worried about reinjury after you recover from your initial injury? Chiropractic treatment not only treats your current injuries, but also helps you avoid new ones. When your spine is properly aligned and your tissues are loose and flexible, you're less likely to become injured.
Good spinal alignment is essential for body symmetry. Subluxations affect your body's balance and may cause weakness in opposing muscles. If this happens, you're more likely to lose your balance and hurt yourself when you're defending the goal or trying to shag a fly ball. Subluxations may also increase your risk of injury by changing your gait, the way you walk and run. Fortunately, periodic spinal manipulation treatment will improve your symmetry and balance.
It's not unusual to feel a little sluggish after you've been sidelined for a few weeks or months. Chiropractic just may help you get up to speed more quickly. According to a study published in Trials Journal in 2019, chiropractic treatment improves reaction time. Military personnel who participated in one chiropractic manipulative therapy session completed a whole-body motor task faster than other soldiers who received no treatments.
Whether you recently experienced a sports injury or want to avoid getting hurt, chiropractic is an excellent addition to your sports regimen. Ready to get started? Contact our office to schedule your appointment with the chiropractor.
Sources:
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies: Effects of Spinal Manipulative Therapy on Inflammatory Mediators in Patients with Non-Specific Low Back Pain: a Non-Randomized Controlled Clinic Trial, 1/8/2021
https://chiromt.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12998-020-00357-y
Trials Journal: Effect of Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy on Reaction Time in Special Operations Forces Military Personnel: A Randomized Controlled Study, 1/3/2019
https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-018-3133-2
National University of Health Sciences: Everything You Need to Know About Chiropractic Medicine for Athletes, 6/12/2020
https://blog.nuhs.edu/the-future-of-integrative-health/chiropractic-medicine-for-athletes