Sports Medicine & Chiropractic Care

Many of us are influenced in one way or another by sports. You may play sports, be a sports fan, be a parent of someone who plays, or work for a sports team. Perhaps you only go to your high school’s football games when dragged by friends. Maybe your spouse has people over periodically for a viewing party and you stay in a different room to avoid the yelling at the TV. Whatever your connection, there are very few of us who are not affected at all by the wide world of sports. You don’t have to be a diehard fan to be involved, but sometimes being a huge fan can be painful when your favorite player ends up hurt. When you see those people run out onto the field in those polos, you may hold your breath waiting to hear what happened. Just who are those people though, and what do they do for the team?
Those people who come running out when your team’s only hope is hurt are athletic trainers. They are the ones who help to keep the players on the field healthy. This means they help to try and fix a problem that may occur with the athlete’s bodies before it becomes a bigger problem. Like anything else, if a sports injury is left untreated for a period of time it can and often does get worse. Sometimes the injury heals incorrectly and then there is nothing that can be done for it. While normally this is thought of for things like broken bones or muscle and tendon tears, an athletic trainer also tests for things like shin splints and tendonitis. Very often, once a diagnosis is found, an athletic trainer will suggest chiropractic therapy for the athlete. This is true for a wide variety of injuries.
Although chiropractic care used to be strictly for the back and neck, the field has slowly grown to include a large amount of injuries. Chiropractors often see people who have sports injuries such as ACL and meniscus tears. Even things like torn rotator cuffs can be helped and rehabilitated by chiropractors. Through the years, athletic trainers have become more accepting of chiropractic care and now the two often are used in tandem to help get an athlete back on their feet and playing on the field they love so much.