As we have become more aware of the importance of physical activity to good health, the number of sports-related injuries has increased. The benefits of exercise and recreation outweigh the risks, but it’s important to know what to do and who to see if you have an injury—and to learn how to prevent injury in the future.
Chiropractic is widely recognized in the treatment of sports injuries. All NFL teams and most NBA teams have a team D.C. (Doctor of Chiropractic), and many coaches and trainers refer other professional and amateur athletes to chiropractors on a regular basis. The baseball legend Babe Ruth depended heavily upon Erle “Doc” Painter, a chiropractor who served as athletic trainer for the New York Yankees from 1930 to 1942. And it was chiropractor George Goodheart who became the first of his profession to join the U.S. Olympic Team at Lake Placid, NY, in 1980.
Common Sports Injuries
Of the more than 8 million Americans who suffer sports injuries each year, about 750,000 are under 18. Younger people are more prone to injury because their reaction time is often slower than adults and they may be less coordinated.
Adults, on the other hand, are often injured because they push themselves too hard and develop overuse injuries. They may use improper techniques or equipment, or fail to warm up. Aging baby boomers who want to stay active may need help with chronic pain, flexibility, strength and balance so they can keep participating in recreational sports or exercise.
There is a wide range of sports injuries, but many are musculoskeletal. Among the most common are:
Sprains and strains
Knee injuries
Achilles tendon injuries
Shin bone pain
Rotator cuff injuries
Fractures
Dislocations
Ligament tears
Tennis elbow
With the exception of wounds, fractures, dislocations and some ligament or muscle tears that require quick medical care, sports injuries can often be helped in a chiropractic office, and chiropractors can consult on the advisability of returning to athletic activity.
What Chiropractic Can Do for Sports Injuries
Chiropractic can help you by reducing pain as well as allowing you to regain strength and mobility. All chiropractors are expert in the management of spine and joint problems. Some chiropractors have advanced training in managing sports injuries and are certified as Chiropractic Sports Physicians or International Certified Chiropractic Sports Physicians.
Depending on the diagnosis, chiropractors may use joint manipulation and mobilization as well as soft tissue therapies such as massage, trigger point release, electrical muscle stimulation, cold laser therapy or ultrasound. As you improve, chiropractors can help with a rehabilitation plan. It may include exercises tailored to you and lifestyle advice about nutrition or supplements to reduce the chances of a repeat injury. First aid measures that are common to both chiropractic and traditional medicine in treating sports injuries are rest, ice, compression and elevation to reduce swelling.
Prevention is a key focus of chiropractors who specialize in sports injuries. For anyone who is considering starting a sport or exercise program, periodic manual adjustments of the spine will align and maintain balance of your spinal structures, relieving tension and making you less susceptible to injury. Adjustments will also help keep experienced athletes at their best. For many top athletes, chiropractic is a key element to keeping them on the field, in the ring and on the court.
We can also advise you on how to minimize the chance of suffering sports-related injuries. Here are some important tips:
Warm up and stretch before practice and play
Wear proper equipment
Maintain good nutrition
Hydrate to prevent overheating and cramping
Let your body rest and recover after exertion
Use ice to reduce inflammation
Exercise and sports are a big part of staying healthy, but injuries happen. When they do, whether you’re a weekend warrior or an Olympic athlete, chiropractic can help get you back in the game.
When we think of workplace injuries, we often picture accidents, overexertion, slips and falls—these are the most common ways people are injured on the job. Every 7 seconds, a worker is injured on the job. That translates to 510 per hour, 12,600 a day, 88,500 a week, or 4.6 million every year. In 2017, 104 million production days were lost due to work-related injuries. You don’t have to do physically demanding work to suffer a workplace injury, however. Repetitive motion, stress and poor posture can also be culprits. That means a work-related injury can come from sitting at a computer day after day as well as a mishap on a construction site.
If you are unable to work or are experiencing discomfort from an injury on the job, a Doctor of Chiropractic can often help address the problem without the need for medication, using low-risk procedures.
Which Work-Related Injuries Chiropractors Treat
Many work-related injuries involve your neurological or musculoskeletal system—nerves, muscles, ligaments and joints. With those injuries come discomfort, inflammation and immobility. Chiropractors treat these injuries along with their uncomfortable symptoms, which may include:
How Chiropractors Treat Work-Related Injuries
Once we’ve diagnosed your injury, we typically use spinal manipulation to treat you. We apply highly controlled movements, sometimes called adjustments, to maneuver the spine or joints to relieve compression, restore mobility and promote healing. Pain relief may be immediate as we move your body back into alignment. Some people may experience mild and temporary soreness or stiffness after an adjustment, just as you might after beginning an exercise regimen.
In addition to adjustments, ice, heat, low-level laser, electrotherapy or therapeutic ultrasound may be used or recommended, all of which can help address your symptoms. Chiropractors often do a series of treatments to get you back to your daily routine with less pain and improved function. Chiropractors can also recommend exercises that will help your recovery, as well as nutritional and lifestyle counseling for your overall well-being.
How Chiropractors Can Help Prevent Work-Related Injuries
We can also offer guidance to help avoid further injury at work, including these tips:
Use correct posture: Poor posture increases stress on the neck and back.
Find ergonomic solutions: Sit in a chair with good support and at a desk that makes objects easy to reach. Wrist supports along with ergonomic keyboard and mouse designs can reduce the risk of carpal tunnel problems.
Use correct lifting and moving techniques: If your job involves heavy physical activity, know how to safely carry loads and apply force.
Take breaks: Move your body periodically to relieve stress, no matter what your occupation is. Avoid prolonged sitting in one position.
Research shows that chiropractic can get you back to work faster than other forms of treatment after a job-related injury and make you less likely to miss work in the future. With workplace injuries occurring at the rate of one every seven seconds, chiropractic helps millions of people get back in business each year.
The rotator cuff is an intricate structure of muscles and tendons that support and stabilize the shoulder. Made up of four muscles—the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis (SITS muscles)—the rotator cuff keeps the ball of the humerus, an upper arm bone, inside the shoulder socket and allows you to raise, lower and rotate your arm. The tendons of the SITS muscles attach the shoulder blade to the humerus.
Common Rotator Cuff Injuries
Bursitis
A bursa is a fluid-filled sac that protects and cushions bones and muscles. The fluid inside a bursa is thicker than water—it’s actually similar to an egg white—and allows tendons to glide gently within the bursa, creating smooth movement of the shoulder and arm.
Sometimes repetitive motion, overhead lifting or infection can cause inflammation of the bursa, a condition called bursitis. Inflammation of the rotator cuff bursa is known as subacromial bursitis. In this situation, the rotator cuff tendons are unable to glide smoothly in the bursa, resulting in pain accompanied by limited shoulder movement and arm range of motion. You may feel pain in the shoulder and/or side of the arm with movement or at rest.
Most of the time, rotator cuff bursitis can be treated by a chiropractor. In addition to chiropractic adjusting to help get the joints and muscles around the shoulder and rotator cuff moving well, we may be able to help you with a rotator cuff stabilizing/strengthening exercise program as well as recommend other types of home-care therapies. Other types of treatments may be used in the office to treat the inflammation.
Tendonitis
Rotator cuff tendonitis (tendinitis) is another inflammatory condition of the rotator cuff, and it is often linked to rotator cuff bursitis. Like bursitis, this tendonitis can be caused by repetitive motion and limits shoulder and arm range of motion. With tendonitis, the tendon itself is inflamed and irritated; however, the bursa is not affected.
Treatment for tendonitis is similar to that of bursitis and aims to reduce inflammation and pain while improving or maintaining joint motion and muscle elasticity near the shoulder. Both rotator cuff bursitis and rotator cuff tendonitis can cause rotator cuff impingement, in which the tendons of the rotator cuff are “caught” between bones and make arm and shoulder movement difficult. Without treatment, rotator cuff tendonitis can lead to a rotator cuff tear.
Tear
A rotator cuff tear is a tear in one or more of the rotator cuff muscles. Symptoms of a rotator cuff tear are similar to rotator cuff bursitis or tendonitis, with pain and limited shoulder and arm mobility. However, a rotator cuff tear may also make it difficult for you to lie comfortably on the side of the injured shoulder, and you may hear grinding, grating or cracking noises when you try to move your arm. A rotator cuff tear may not only be caused by overhead lifting or trauma; it may also be caused by degeneration of the rotator cuff muscle(s).
Rotator cuff tears are graded based on how much any of the rotator cuff muscles and tendons are torn:
Grade 0, I or II tears can generally be treated with chiropractic care. In these cases, your chiropractor will work with you to stabilize and strengthen your shoulder, arm and back joints and muscles through chiropractic adjustments, targeted exercises and other therapies available in the office.
Chiropractors can assess your shoulder injury and provide you with treatment options for your condition. If necessary, an X-ray or MRI of the shoulder may be requested. Whether you have a known shoulder injury or are bothered by shoulder pain, chiropractic care can help.
Whiplash happens when a sudden blow or action throws your head violently in one direction and then whips it back in the opposite direction. It may be the result of a car accident, from playing sports or even from a physical altercation. This hyperextension and hyperflexion can cause injury to your neck that can include your cervical (upper) spine, spinal discs, ligaments, muscles and nerves. It may even affect more than your neck.
There are an estimated one million cases of whiplash per year in the U.S. alone, and chiropractors treat a lot of these whiplash cases—we see it all too often.
Symptoms of Whiplash
If you feel a tightening in your neck and shoulders after an incident that snaps your head back and forward or from side to side, you may wonder if you have whiplash. You may feel symptoms right away, or not for a day or two. The type and extent of injuries that result from whiplash vary from person to person, but here are some possible symptoms:
Whiplash can also cause dizziness, difficulty swallowing, nausea and blurred vision, though these symptoms tend to go away quickly. Recovery varies, but many people do recover fully, though some develop ongoing problems as a result of whiplash. You may be more likely to have chronic pain if you felt severe symptoms right after the incident. Chronic pain and injury can interfere with other structures such as the curvature of the neck. If your neck loses its natural curve, you are more prone to further injury as well as cervical arthritis and herniated discs. Prompt chiropractic treatment can head off some of these long-term conditions.
How Chiropractors Diagnose and Treat Whiplash
When you come to a chiropractor with a possible whiplash injury, if you did not seek medical attention after the accident, it will first be necessary to rule out a possible fracture by obtaining an x-ray. We will ask about your symptoms and palpate (feel) the neck to see if there is loss of mobility, injury to the joints between the vertebrae, or a muscle or ligament injury. We will also check for tenderness, stiffness and tightness and look at how well your spinal joints move. Chiropractors examine the whole spine, not just your neck, and look at your biomechanics—posture, alignment and how you walk and move—because whiplash accidents can cause serious injury to multiple areas of the body, not just to the neck.
After a whiplash injury, if you’re experiencing tingling sensations in your arms or elsewhere or if severe trauma is suspected, it may be necessary to get an MRI that shows more about the injury. If whiplash is diagnosed and you are in the acute phase—soon after the incident—it will be important to reduce inflammation as quickly as possible. Chiropractors often perform gentle stretching or manipulations during the acute phase. If you have particularly tight muscles, a stronger touch will be used, but the stretches are very safe.
Chiropractors can also apply pressure on trigger points—sensitive areas that cause pain—to relieve muscle tightness. In addition, we may give you instructions about icing at home, which you should follow carefully. In some cases, a soft cervical collar may be recommended for a few days.
As the inflammation goes down and your neck starts to feel better, further adjustments or other chiropractic techniques can help restore mobility and range of motion. Your treatment plan may also include massage and an at-home exercise regimen to help shorten recovery.
Whiplash injuries are very individualized, and everyone heals differently. Chiropractors tailor the treatment to your specific situation, but over time, in most cases, the soreness and stiffness of whiplash dissipates. If you do have chronic pain, we will help you focus on what you can do and how to accommodate any loss of function. With time and chiropractic therapy, you can move past whiplash and get on the road to a healthier spine and a healthier you.
Repetitive stress injuries can occur when you regularly use an area of your body as part of an active or professional lifestyle. Motions that include swinging, reaching or lifting that you repeat consistently throughout your day can result in a stress injury like tennis elbow, tendinitis (or tendonitis) or carpal tunnel syndrome, among others. These injuries can range from inflammation of muscle tissue or tendons to tears and nerve damage.
Active lifestyles are becoming more popular as people focus on the importance of physical health, but a repetitive stress injury can hinder anyone’s lifestyle. These injuries extend to desk jobs, physically demanding careers, recreational sports and routine maintenance like yard work and cleaning the house. Although the goal of these common activities is to make our lives more comfortable, pushing yourself too hard while doing them may result in lost time and permanent damage. Though it can take days, weeks, or even years before these injuries develop, knowing the warning signs early can help to slow them down before they slow you down.
Tennis Elbow, Golfer’s Elbow and Pitcher’s Elbow
You might have heard the term “tennis elbow” before and, if you don’t play tennis, thought that it wasn’t anything you needed to worry about. But this stress injury can result from any activity that requires you to contract your forearm muscles or maneuver your arms over your head and, perhaps surprisingly, it is most common among non-tennis players.
Placing stress on the tendons in your elbow may cause micro-tears where the outer bone connects to your forearm muscle. Tennis players are repeatedly performing overhand serves or delivering strong, backhand swings, so less experienced players are more likely to develop this condition. But people working as plumbers, carpenters, butchers, chefs and in other labor-related careers with repetitive motions can also suffer from symptoms. Even musicians with repeated bowing motions have commonly experienced this problem.
Other repetitive stress injuries like golfer’s elbow and pitcher’s elbow are similar to tennis elbow. Like tennis elbow, pitcher’s elbow affects the inner tendons of the elbow, but the term “golfer’s elbow” refers to tendon injuries on the outer tendons. We associate these repetitive stress injuries with sports because young or beginning players are most likely to damage themselves since their bodies are not conditioned to the repetitive demands of the motions made in these sports.
However, wrist exercises like clenching a stress ball can help to condition your grip. You can also stretch your wrist by rotating your arm below the elbow as if you are turning a doorknob. These may help to prevent tennis elbow from developing by increasing mobility and strength in your muscle tissue.
Chiropractic treatment can alleviate symptoms without drugs or injections. Some chiropractors may use methods like myofascial release, a type of massage that stimulates connective muscle tissue. Other treatment may also include Active Release Therapy. This breaks up scar tissue and increases blood flow to the area to improve the rate at which the injury will heal. Manipulations can also be performed to allow for optimal movement of the elbow joint.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Daily repetitive micro-movements of the hands and fingers, such as when operating a cash register or working at a computer, are major contributors to the development of carpal tunnel syndrome. This repetitive stress injury can be the result of using your hands, wrists and fingers throughout the day in task-oriented careers. Repeated movements are likely to cause irritation and swelling around the median nerve; once this irritation develops, the nerve becomes compressed. Then the carpal bone and surrounding tendons will be constricted you will begin to experience symptoms.
If you’re suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome, you may notice pain, numbness or a burning sensation in the hand and wrist area. You’re also likely to notice a tingling sensation or the feeling that your hand has fallen asleep when grasping objects or making a fist.
Surprisingly, carpal tunnel syndrome is one of the conditions that is most commonly treated by surgical procedures or steroid injections in the United States. However, roughly half of these invasive treatments are not successful.
Consider a consultation with a chiropractor before taking more drastic, permanent steps to rid yourself of symptoms. Chiropractors take low-risk, drug-free approaches to treating carpal tunnel syndrome. Some treatments include manipulations of the elbow or wrist, or adjustments of the cervical spine (neck). Since the median nerve originates in the upper spine, the origin of the problem might be found in your neck. A consultation with a chiropractor may help you to stay away from surgical procedures that might not work or that could limit your recovery.
Preventive, Proactive Care
There’s no better way to keep yourself active and productive at work than to never develop a repetitive stress injury. But physical labor, exercise and recreational sports can be demanding. So to ensure that you’ll remain in the game, at work and free of stress injuries, you should always be sure to know which areas of your body you’ll be using most.
If you keep track of your work environment and intersperse physical demands with recovery breaks, you can keep yourself at work with maximum efficiency. This way you won’t need to take days off or dig into vacation time to recover. And depending on the demands of your job, you can help protect yourself by using a back brace, arm rests, wrist supports or an ergonomically designed keyboard.
Also, keep track of each exercise session and how hard you push yourself to get a better idea of where your threshold into excess lies. Although it’s sometimes good in exercise to go beyond your regular limit, don’t make a habit of exerting all of your resources in one session.
These preventive measures help to avoid injuries, but if you’re experiencing symptoms of a repetitive stress injury, consult with a chiropractor. Proactively seeking maintenance, information and solutions to your problem can speed up recovery time and help to prevent future injuries.
If you’ve been in a car accident, you may feel your injuries right away or not for days or even weeks. A chiropractor can evaluate and treat you after an accident, both for injuries to the spine and muscles that are immediately apparent and for many of those that are “silent.”
Getting timely chiropractic care can lower the risk of long-term complications from car accident injuries. One study showed that accident victims with neck, upper back and lower back pain who had chiropractic care experienced a significant decrease in pain and increase in movement compared to patients who received a cervical collar and rest. Experts rated 83% of the subjects as “much improved” after chiropractic treatment.
Typical Musculoskeletal Injuries From Auto Accidents
What is remarkable is that many musculoskeletal injuries result from low speed car accidents—the typical being the rear-end collision with vehicles moving 15 miles per hour or less. In such cases, newer vehicles are designed to withstand such impacts with minimal damage, but unfortunately those forces can be transmitted to the occupants instead. The result is injury in situations that you might normally regard as minor.
Here are some common injuries from car accidents that chiropractors see and treat on a regular basis:
Early diagnosis and treatment is vital after a car crash, and chiropractic treatment can help relieve pain without the use of medication. Although pain medication is frequently used after an injury, it can mask a problem rather than addressing the cause of pain. Some prescription painkillers, like opioids, come with the danger of overuse and addiction. Research has shown that opioid use for the treatment of pain is less common among patients who see chiropractors.
Chiropractors are experts in addressing disorders of the spine, nervous system and supporting structures using conservative, non-invasive techniques that help the body heal naturally. Even if you walk away from a fender bender, consider scheduling a consultation with a chiropractor, who can evaluate you and suggest a treatment plan to address both symptomatic and hidden injuries.
When a vertebrae becomes misaligned or moves out of its normal position, this is referred to in the chiropractic profession as a subluxation, or more precisely, the Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC). VSC can be caused by a wide range of issues ranging from a minor slip or bump to a car accident or any sudden trauma. When a vertebrae is subluxated, it begins to put pressure on nerves, blood vessels and other surrounding structures.
The subluxation interrupts the natural nerve pathways that carry messages to and from the brain. In addition, as time goes by and the subluxation remains untreated, the spine and surrounding features such as discs can begin to degenerate.
This degeneration becomes more difficult to reverse as time goes by and the surrounding muscles, nerves and bones begin to adjust to the new shape. Because the body is a remarkable machine, it will start to accommodate these changes by compensating in other areas. The longer the subluxation is untreated, the longer it will take for treatment to return the vertebrae to its normal position.
A vertebral subluxation can be identified by its five components:
Chiropractors are experts in the manipulation of soft and hard tissue. Small, quick movements to the spine can reposition the vertebrae into its natural position. Through treatment, a vertebral subluxation can be corrected back to healthy functionality.
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