Football Injuries – Can Chiropractic Help?
With the SuperBowl just around the corner, the excitement of this most American game of modern gladiators battling over territory cannot be denied. Football must touch an ancient part of our psychology and that is why it draws in millions of people around the globe. Football widows would enthusiastically agree.
However, football, along with so many other sports and human activities, has a dark side: you can get hurt. Badly hurt. We’re not just talking about broken bones. It appears that football (and boxing) causes brain damage known as CTE – chronic traumatic encephalopathy associated with repetitive head trauma.
The problem is worse than we thought. In a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, CTE was diagnosed on autopsy (post-mortem) in a high proportion of former football players whose brains were donated for research. The study found that 110 of 111 National Football League (NFL) players had brain damage, That’s over 99%! Researchers also found brain injury to a lesser degree in non-professional players. For example, CTE was found in 3 of the 14 high school players (21%) studied but 48 of 53 college players (91%) and 9 of 14 semiprofessional players (64%).
Can chiropractic help? Absolutely! Before and after every game (even during the game) all players should be checked and, if necessary, adjusted by a Doctor of Chiropractic for subluxations.
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For Your Health,
Dr. Scott Van Dam