Overuse or Sports Injuries

Dr. Cori holds additional certification in sports medicine through the Amerian Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians. She enjoys treating youth, competitive athletes, weekend warriors, or anyone looking to stay fit through proper training and exercise.

Sprains & Strains

If you’ve ever participated in a sport, it’s likely that you’ve sustained a sprain/strain injury. Sprains are tears in the ligaments, whereas strains are tears in the muscles. While most of these injuries heal with rest, ice, compression, and elevation (R.I.C.E.), some can linger for long periods of time.

If conservative home treatments and massage are not sufficient, chiropractic is the answer for you. If the muscles have tensed up considerably, they can actually pull the bone and joints out of alignment. When this happens, the bone becomes “stuck” and can irritate the nerve. The nerve then reacts by causing a muscle spasm and a subluxation complex occurs.

Chiropractors not only help calm the muscles down with soft tissue release, we use specific adjustments to move the vertebra back into place. Just like braces for your teeth, the corrections do not occur overnight. It may take several adjustments until the correction holds in place. The proper treatment schedule is designed to help strengthen the muscles to allow for proper correction and injury prevention.

Tendonitis

A common overuse injury is tendonitis, also called tendonosis. In this condition, the tendon becomes irritated or inflamed from repetitive use. For example, after rediscovering your passion for golf, you decide to schedule a game, or impress everyone at the driving range every day for two weeks.

Unfortunately, your body isn’t able to keep pace with your eager desire to improve and your muscles and tendons in the shoulder and elbow become overworked. This often results in pain and dysfunction in those areas. In the shoulder, the rotator cuff (a combination of four muscles that stabilizes and moves the shoulder) becomes inflamed, resulting in rotator cuff tendinitis.

Tennis elbow is another form of tendonitis that occurs along the outside of the elbow, as the name suggests, it is most commonly found in tennis players. In golfer’s elbow, the tendons on the inside of the elbow are affected.

Unilateral sports, such as baseball, tennis, and golf, where players consistently use one side of their body more than the other are at risk for this condition. Playing these kinds of sports encourages the over-development of one side of the body, neglecting the other side, creating muscular imbalance. You can reduce your risk by utilizing regular chiropractic care, as well as following a proper strength and exercise training regimen tailored for these activities.

Stress Fractures and Shin Splints

Some athletes may experience a stress fracture, also called a fatigue fracture. This type of fracture occurs when an abnormal amount of stress is placed on a normal bone, however underlying causes such as muscular imbalance, over training, and poor nutrition can be the real culprits. This type of injury might occur in a runner who rapidly increases the amount of mileage while training for a race, or people who start running as a form of exercise, but progress too quickly.

In either case, the body needs an appropriate amount of time and the strength to endure the increased stresses on the body. Another common injury is shin splints. This overuse injury is caused by microfractures on the front surface of the tibia (shin bone). This is most often seen in runners, although other athletes can also be affected, and the pain is only felt when engaged in high levels of activity.

Concussions

Concussion is defined as a complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain induced by traumatic biomechanical forces. Several common features that incorporate that may be utilized in defining the nature of a concussive head injury include: A direct blow to the head, face, neck or elsewhere on the body with an ‘‘impulsive’’ force transmitted to the head.

Rapid onset of short-lived impairment of neurologic function that resolves spontaneously (loss of consciousness, cognitive changes, behavioral changes, sleep disturbances). A graded set of clinical symptoms that may or may not involve loss of consciousness. Resolution of the clinical and cognitive symptoms typically follows a sequential course. However, it is important to note that in a small percentage of cases, post-concussive symptoms may be prolonged. No abnormality on standard structural neuroimaging studies is seen in concussions. (source: Aubry et. al., Br J Sports Med 36(1): 6-10, 2002)