sports injuries

Should your child get adjusted?

in Chiropractor by Doroski January 21, 2022 0 comments

With kids getting back to sports and other activities I have a lot of parents asking about heir kid getting adjusted. Of course, it is a good idea to get them adjusted. They are taking more falls and tumbles then we are (thankfully). Your Woodbridge, Dale City VA Chiropractor has some information to better help you understand why it is important for their health.

According to Dr. David Sackett, the father of evidence-based medicine, there are three prongs to the evidence-based decision: clinical expertise, scientific research and patient preference. While chiropractic has more than 100 years of clinical expertise from which to draw, our profession is still quite young when it comes to its base of scientific research—a state that is even more so for one of our youngest subspecialties, chiropractic pediatrics. Dedicated researchers are working hard to fill in these gaps. Recent studies are beginning to confirm what our century of clinical experience has already shown—that chiropractic care for children is not only safe, but also effective for a variety of pediatric conditions.

Dr. Joyce Miller and her colleagues at the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic in the U.K. have contributed much to our knowledge of chiropractic pediatrics in the past few years. Here is a brief summary of some of their latest studies:

Safety study: Miller et al. examined 781 pediatric patients under three years of age (73.5 percent of whom were under 13 weeks) who received a total of 5,242 chiropractic treatments at a chiropractic teaching clinic in England between 2002 and 2004.¹ There were no serious adverse effects (reaction lasting >24 hours or needing hospital care) over the three-year study period. There were seven reported minor adverse effects, such as transient crying or interrupted sleep.

Nursing study: Miller et al. also performed a clinical case series of chiropractic care for 114 infants with hospital- or lactation-consultant-diagnosed nursing dysfunction.² The average age at first visit was three weeks. All infants in the study showed some improvement, with 78 percent able to exclusively breastfeed after two to five treatments within a two-week period.

Colic: Browning et al. performed a single-blinded randomized comparison trial of the effects of spinal manipulative therapy and occipito-sacral decompression therapy on infants with colic.³ Forty-three infants younger than eight weeks of age received two weeks of chiropractic care. Two weeks and four weeks after beginning treatment, the infants in both treatment groups cried significantly less and slept significantly more than prior to receiving chiropractic care.

Long-term sequelae of colic: Research has shown that children who were colicky as infants suffer from poor behavior and disturbed sleep as toddlers. Miller et al. performed a survey of parents of 117 such toddlers who had received chiropractic care as infants vs. 111 who had not received chiropractic care.4 They found the treated toddlers were twice as likely not to experience long-term sequelae of infantile colic, such as temper tantrums and frequent nocturnal waking. In other words, colicky infants who had received chiropractic care were twice as likely to sleep well and to experience fewer temper tantrums in their toddler years.

That is just a sampling of some of the great work that is being done by the dedicated and hard-working researchers focusing on chiropractic pediatrics.

References:

Miller JE, Benfield K. Adverse effects of spinal manipulation therapy in children younger than 3 years: a retrospective study in a chiropractic teaching clinic. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2008;31(6):419-422.
Miller JE, Miller L, et al. Contribution of chiropractic therapy to resolving suboptimal breastfeeding: A case series of 114 infants. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2009;32(8):670-674.
Browning M, Miller JE. Comparison of the short-term effects of chiropractic spinal manipulation and occipito-sacral decompression in the treatment of infant colic: A single-blinded, randomised, comparison trial. Clinical Chiropractic 2008;11(3):122-129.
Miller JE, Phillips HL. Long-term effects of infant colic: a survey comparison of chiropractic treatment and non-treatment groups. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2009;32(8):635-638.

Doroski Chiropractic Neurology

3122 Golansky Blvd, Ste 102

Woodbridge VA 22192

703 730 9588

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Ooops I did it again

in Chiropractor by Doroski August 6, 2021 0 comments

Remember just because you aren’t going pro it doesn’t mean you don’t try way harder than you should. Or should I say you are way older than you were in high school! We’ve all been there and you can’t really help yourself. 18 year old you comes out and it is just instinct but the difference is 40 year old you doesn’t bounce like 18 year old you! Your Woodbridge, Dale City VA chiropractor has a few tips to help you prevent the injuries 18 year old you caused 40 year old you.

Anyone who concentrates all their exercise into 1 or 2 intense bouts a week could be considered a weekend warrior. But physicians agree that weekend warriors tend to be men older than 30, especially former competitive athletes who expect their bodies to adapt to—and recover from—activity the same way it did when they were teenagers.

But even people who are not super athletes can suffer injuries if they do intense activities over the course of a day or two, such as a weekend of yard work or cleaning gutters.

The types of injuries that frequently occur for weekend warriors are:

Muscle strains, such as hamstring injuries

Ligament sprains, particularly ankle sprains

Tendonitis in the Achilles tendon and elsewhere

Shin splints

Shoulder or rotator cuff injuries

Nearly all of these types of injuries can be resolved by following the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevate) protocol. If pain lasts longer than a few weeks or doesn’t improve, make an appointment to see your doctor.

Prevent injuries before they occur

The main trigger for weekend warrior injuries is the abrupt transition from little or no activity to intense bouts of it. Muscles and soft tissues need gradual conditioning to perform at their best.

To prevent this, it’s important to exercise more regularly, if possible. Even if your main period of activity is on the weekends, try to fit in at least 1 or 2 periods of exercise on weekdays.

Build up activity slowly.

If you’ve been inactive for most of the winter or you’re starting training for a marathon in the fall, gradually increase your exercise time and intensity each week.

Warm up.

Before you jump into activity, warm up your muscles with 10 minutes of moderately paced activity like jogging, for example.

Stretch.

After doing a few minutes of light exercise, stretch your major muscle groups, such as your quads and hamstrings, as well as any muscles that will be heavily used during your chosen activity. You can also benefit from using a foam roller before you stretch, which has been shown to increase flexibility and lessen post-exercise pain.

Don’t forget to stretch after you finish exercising too. The findings about the benefits of pre-exercise stretching are mixed, but stretching after exercise has clear benefits for decreasing soreness and helping muscle tissue return to its normal state.

Use proper technique and proper equipment.

It may help to consult a coach, trainer, or physical therapist if you’re new to a sport or piece of equipment.

Find an exercise program.

A class or race training group can help you set a good pace for working toward your exercise goals.

Don’t push through serious pain.

Mild muscle soreness is normal after a workout, but stop exercising if you experience sudden, piercing pain or if you have pain that’s getting steadily worse.

Doroski Chiropractic Neurology

3122 Golansky Blvd, Ste 102

Woodbridge VA 22192

703 730 9588

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in Chiropractor by Doroski May 22, 2015 0 comments

Here we go again weekend warriors! Yes you played baseball in high school; surely recreation softball has to be easy! Well it would be if you were still 18! Doroski Chiropractic Neurology in the Woodbridge, Dale City VA area wants to alert you to some common sports injuries.

Participation in sports or exercise is an important step in maintaining your health. Exercise strengthens your heart, bones, and joints and reduces stress, among many other benefits. Unfortunately, injuries during participation in sports are all too common. Often, these injuries occur in someone who is just taking up sports as a form of activity, doesn’t use proper safety equipment, or becomes overzealous about the exercise regimen.

The more commonly injured areas of the body are the ankles, knees, shoulders, elbows, and spine. Remember that you should discuss any exercise program with your doctor of chiropractic before undertaking such activities.

Strains and Sprains

Although bones can sometimes be fractured with acute sports injuries, the most commonly injured structures are the muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Tendons attach muscles to bones, and ligaments attach one bone to another.

An acute twisting or overextension of a joint can lead to tears of muscles and tendons, called “strains,” and tears of ligaments result in “sprains.” These tears range from mild to severe. In mild injuries, just a few fibers are torn or stretched. Severe injuries, where there is a tear through the full thickness of the structure, are most often considered unstable injuries and frequently require surgical intervention. The intervertebral disc, a ligament between the vertebrae of the spine that works as a shock absorber, can also be torn, resulting in a disc bulge and/or herniation.

Ankle sprains most often involve tears of one or more of the ligaments along the outside of the ankle. Knee ligaments, including the larger external supportive ligaments and the smaller internal stabilizing ligaments, can also be torn. The cartilage on the back of the patella (knee-cap) can also become eroded from overuse, leading to a condition termed chondromalacia patella.

Tendinosis

In those who are training too much, overuse of a particular joint or joints in the body can result in pain and dysfunction. These injuries are called “overuse syndromes.” A common overuse injury is tendinosis, also called tendinitis. In this condition, the tendon becomes inflamed from repetitive use. In the shoulder, the rotator cuff (a complex of muscles that stabilizes and moves the shoulder) becomes inflamed, resulting in rotator cuff tendinitis. Tennis elbow is another form of tendinitis that occurs along the outside of the elbow, most commonly in tennis players. In golfer’s elbow, the tendons on the inside of the elbow are affected.

Stress Fractures

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. This might occur in a runner who rapidly increases the amount of mileage while training for a race. Stress fractures also occur in people who begin running as a form of exercise but overdo it from the start, rather than gradually progress to longer distances.

One final common injury is worth mentioning, and that 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.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Sports injuries are most often diagnosed from the history of the activity that brought on the pain, along with a physical examination. In some cases, x-rays are necessary to rule out a fracture. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diagnostic ultrasound are also used in finding soft-tissue injuries, like tendinitis and sprains.

Fractures require the application of some stabilizing device, such as a cast, after the bone is put back into position. Rarely, surgical intervention is required. There is a relatively standard treatment protocol for most of the other overuse types of injuries. This protocol involves the following:

Rest

Generally no more than 48 hours of rest and/or immobilization is needed, depending on the severity of the injury. In most cases, the sooner the person becomes active after an injury, the more rapid is the recovery. In fact, long-term immobilization can sometimes be harmful to recovery. Your doctor of chiropractic will guide this process, as too early a return to activity, choosing the wrong type of activity, or excessive activity can be detrimental.

Ice or heat

Ice or heat can be helpful with pain reduction and tissue healing.

Compression

Compression of the area may reduce the amount of swelling from the injury. Your doctor of chiropractic will determine if this will be beneficial in your case.

Elevation

Elevation of the injured arm or leg above the level of the heart is thought to be helpful in reducing swelling.

Pain relievers

Recent research has demonstrated that some nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may actually slow the healing process by restricting the body’s natural healing mechanisms, so they should be used sparingly.

Joint manipulation

Recent research has shown us that, in some cases, joint manipulation can be helpful with pain reduction and more rapid recovery. Your doctor of chiropractic will determine if this procedure will be helpful in your case.

A Word about Prevention

In many cases, sports injuries can be prevented. Proper conditioning and warm-up and cool-down procedures, as well as appropriate safety equipment, can substantially reduce injuries. Understanding proper techniques can also go a long way toward preventing injuries.

Sufficient water intake is also an important preventive measure.

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Doroski Chiropractic Neurology

3122 Golansky Blvd, Ste 102

Woodbridge VA 22192

703 730 9588

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