We see quite a few patients in our State College office with ankle sprains but Drs. Matt & Annie Reyes has had a lot of success helping them recover more quickly. Why are ankle sprains so common and how can chiropractic help?
According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), an estimated 25,000 men and women in the US sprain their ankles daily. In fact, these injuries make up nearly half of all sports injuries, causing people to spend time away from the activities they enjoy most.
Like any injury, there are many causes of ankle sprains. The most frequent is inversion, or when the ankle rolls inward. This injury can take place due to one forceful movement, or it can develop over a period of time, and exercises that increase the risk for this type of ankle sprain include running and jumping. You're also at risk if you have past ankle injuries, poor posture or balance, weak muscles, and reduced range of motion.
A paper published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics set out to discover chiropractic's role when it comes to ankle sprain recovery. The authors recruited 33 people between the ages of 18 and 45 who had a history of ankle inversion sprains, who were reporting tenderness and/or pain, and had not re-injured the ankle in the previous six weeks.
18 of the participants were assigned to participate in rehabilitation and the remaining 15 subjects received chiropractic adjustments in addition to rehabilitation. Each individual had five full weeks of therapy, with the rehab group receiving therapy seven days a week and the rehabilitation plus chiropractic group receiving treatment six out of the seven days.
Researchers found that the individuals who participated in both rehab and chiropractic fared the best at the 4-week mark when it came to pain and joint restriction. Additionally, no bad effects were reported, showing that chiropractic is safe.
If you're near our office in State College and you're suffering from an ankle injury, give us a call. We'll do what we can to keep you up and moving... literally!
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Dr. Matt Reyes was born and raised in Apalachin, a small town in Upstate New York. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology with a concentration in Fitness Development from the State University at New York College at Cortland. He then fulfilled his ambition to become a Doctor of Chiropractic when he graduated from New York Chiropractic College in 2013.
