Chiropractors are Helping Athletes of All Ages

Copyright (c) 2014 LifeWorks Integrative health

With back-to-school right around the corner, it is time to start thinking about athletics again. Whether your child (or yourself) is a weekend warrior, hoping to make the baseball team this year or is seeking a college scholarship for athletics, it is important to keep your athletes in top shape. For years, athletes have been benefiting from chiropractic care. However, only recently has chiropractic care for athletes gained the spotlight with the media. Chiropractic care for athletes is beneficial to athletes of all levels. Chiropractic care for athletes is a drug-free way to better the overall health of an athlete as well as enhance performance.

Chiropractors help athletes to function at the top of their game. This can help to maximize healing and recovery from all types of injuries, thus making chiropractic care for athletes favorable for getting back in the game after an injury. If you are a soccer mom or a baseball dad, you are probably well aware of the fact that athletes get hurt. No matter how much protective gear you purchase, there are just some injuries that seem unavoidable. Chiropractic care for athletes can center around the treatment of strains, sprains, stress fractures, tendonitis and more.

By ensuring that the spine is properly aligned and free for structural stress, chiropractic adjustments help to ensure that the body's biomechanics (or posture) as well as nervous system are in top working order. Chiropractic care for athletes helps to ensure balance and alignment.

Chiropractors focus heavily on the functioning of the nervous system as well as the biomechanics of the body? By focusing on these areas, chiropractors help athlete's bodies to function properly. Not only does chiropractic care for athletes center around proper functioning, but routine chiropractic care can help to ensure that the body is better able to heal itself in the event of an injury. This means your young athletes will spend less time recovering from injuries and more time enjoying their favorite sports. Research has even shown the chiropractic care has amazing potential when it comes to assisting the body in healing itself from a wide-variety of injuries.

Since chiropractors focus on the entire body rather than just the injured part of the body, chiropractors are often able to detect and prevent injuries that are otherwise overlooked or ignored. Chiropractors are considered to be experts in the field of human biomechanics. Chiropractors are very much aware of posture and movement. By simply observing an athlete, chiropractors are often able to detect as well as prevent structural proteins that can lead to injury as well as decreased athletic performance. A large number of athletic injuries are the result of improper biomechanics (or muscular imbalances) within the spine. This is why chiropractic care for athletes is very important in keeping athletes in top shape.

Research conducted in Canada examined 16 injured, female, long-distance runners. These runners all included chiropractic care as part of their rehabilitation programs. Researchers found that these runners recovered quicker. Even more importantly, seven of the runners ended up with personal best times while under the care of a chiropractor.

The New Zealand School of Chiropractic and the University of Auckland studied reaction times as they relate to spinal adjusments. There are two groups followed during this study. One group received spinal adjustments while the other group was only allowed to rest for a short period of time (this group acted as the control group). Those who received chiropractic care had quicker reaction times than those who did not. The group that was able to rest had an average decrease in reaction time of 58 milliseconds -- an 8 percent faster reaction time. The group, who received chiropractic care, showed a decrease in reaction time by 97 milliseconds -- a 14.8 percent faster reaction time.

As a result, not only can chiropractic care for athletes help to prevent injuries, but chiropractic care can also help athletes to improve their reaction time. A fast majority of sports require athletes to be sharp and able to react quickly.

Chiropractic care for athletes can also be combined with physical therapy as well as massage therapy. This may occur in an integrative medical setting.

Chiropractors, physical therapists and massage therapists all join forces to provide athletes with the best possible care. In these settings, chiropractic care may also include time spent with a physical therapist -- learning exercises, muscle stimulation and hot/cold treatments are often used in the treatment of injuries. Sports massages are also beneficial to athletes of all ages and skills levels.