Ten million or more
sports injuries are treated in the United States each year. Many musculoskeletal
injuries can benefit from the application of sports medicine, even though they
may have different causes. The resulting injuries in many cases are similar even
though the activity that created them is different. Carrying a suitcase, for
instance, can cause tennis elbow as well as turning a screw, or opening a sticky
door. Similarly, an injury such as runner's knee is sometimes the result of excessive
inward rolling of the foot (pronation) while walking. |
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| How Do Sports Injuries Develop? |
There are many reasons
sports injuries occur, including faulty training methods, imbalanced stress on
certain parts of the body that results from structural abnormalities, and weakness
of the tendons, muscles and ligaments. Chronic wear and tear, which results from
a repetitive motion stressing susceptible tissue leads to many of these injuries.
Pain occurs when a small number of muscle or tendon fibers start to tear. Powerful
pressure, greater than the inherent strength of the muscles, tendons, and ligaments
will often tear them. After a sprain, joints are more prone to injury, especially
when the muscles and ligaments that support them are weak. Faulty training methods,
however, is the most common cause of muscle and joint injuries. The individual
often doesn't allow for an adequate post-workout recovery time or continues to
exercise or play the sport even when pain has developed. |
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| What are Some Common Sports Injuries? |
- Muscle sprains and strains
- Lower back pain
- Bruises
- Torn ligaments that hold joints together
- Torn tendons that support joints
- Dislocated joints
- Fractured bones, including vertebrae
Conventional medical treatments may help relieve the symptoms of sports injuries,
but they do not address the root of the problem. By strengthening structural
weaknesses in the body, as natural treatments like Chiropractic do, pain associated
with sports injuries may be alleviated permanently.
| Natural vs. Modern Medicine's Approach to Sports Injuries |
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| Modern Medicine's Approach to Sports
Injuries |
The customary immediate
treatment for most sports injuries is RICE, which refers to treating soft tissue
injury with Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.
This treatment approach decreases inflammation at a time when the injured area
needs it most, resulting, unfortunately, in decreased healing of the injury.
Anything that decreases the metabolic rate or blood supply to soft tissues, such
as rest, immobilization and ice, will further promote the decline of that tissue,
and profoundly delay its healing. In other words, RICE treatment does nothing
to repair the injured and weakened ligaments or tendons and, thus, does not alleviate
the chronic pain that people who have suffered sports injuries experience, not
to mention the fact that they may be prevented from continuing their sports for
extended periods of time, or even permanently.
Another standard practice of modern medicine is to inject steroids into the
injured area or to prescribe anti-inflammatory medications. However, in the long
run, these treatments do more damage than good. Although cortisone shots and
anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to produce short-term pain benefit for
soft tissue sports injuries, both result in long-term loss of function and even
more chronic pain by actually inhibiting the healing process of soft tissues
and accelerating cartilage degeneration. Plus, long-term use of these drugs can
lead to other sources of chronic pain, allergies and leaky gut syndrome.
When all else fails, individuals with chronic pain from sports injuries that
fail to heal are usually referred to a surgeon. Unfortunately, surgery often
makes the problem worse. In fact, surgery, which usually involves removing damaged
tissue, actually weakens the area. Removing cartilage, ligament or any other
soft tissue of the body will make that body part weaker. In addition, surgeons
use x-ray technology as a diagnostic tool, which does not always properly diagnose
the pain source. And finally, removing cartilage tissue will most commonly result
in arthritis. As a result of these standard modern medical treatments, many soft
tissue sports injuries do not heal completely and are often easily re-injured. |
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| The Natural Approach to Sports Injuries |
Although rest, ice,
compression and elevation may provide temporary relief, they do not aid the healing
process of a painful sports injury. This is one of the major differences between
traditional sports medicine and the natural medicine approach, including INFLAMYAR.
A much better immediate approach to a sports injury is a treatment known as MEAT — Movement, Exercise, Analgesics
and Treatment. Movement increases joint nutrition, exercise
increases blood flow, analgesics increase pain control and treatment completes
the healing. Specific treatments that aid in the healing process include ultrasound,
heat and massage because they increase blood flow.
Pain relief should never be the ultimate goal of sports injury treatment,
but rather repairing injured and weakened tissue. Ibuprofen, aspirin, cortisone
shots and surgery may relieve the pain, but they do not strengthen the weakened
tissue as a Chiropractic
adjustment does. Chiropractic stimulates the healing process and therefore
decreases the length of time it takes for soft tissue sports injuries to heal.
As a result, athletes can not only return to their game and/or sport, but often
the particular area that was injured will be stronger than before the injury
and performance will be enhanced. |
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Recommended Products: INFLAMYAR™
Recommended Articles: Muscle Soreness Vs Pain |
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Recommended Services: Chiropractic
Care, Massage Therapy, Physical
Therapy, Rehabilitative Therapies, Living
Well for Life, Auricular Therapy
If you are interested
in more information about natural treatments or to schedule an appointment at
one of our three convenient locations, please contact Central Health and Wellness
at 972-671-5263 or use the online Inquiry Form
Disclaimer:
The preceding is to provide information about relief and the benefits
that may be derived. It is not intended to claim a cure for any disease or condition.
It should not take the place of your doctor’s advice or treatment.
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