Home Treatment of Injuries

Many people put off seeing a doctor when an injury first occurs thinking they can “work out the pain.” That is a bad idea.

Additional activity and stress placed on an injury usually results in more injury.

When an injury occurs stop all activity and apply ice to the injured area as soon as possible. If there is severe pain or numbness, you can’t put weight on the injured area, or a joint looks abnormal or appears unstable see a doctor immediately.

If you opt to treat the injury at home, even if you later decide it is severe enough that you want a doctor’s opinion, you should rest the injury, apply ice making sure you place a light cloth such as a towel or tee shirt between your skin and the ice, compress the area with a cloth wrap or splint, and elevate the injured area above the level of your heart if at all possible.

This sequence is often referred to as the RICE technique and is an easy way to remember the steps of Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.

It’s always a good idea to see a Doctor of Chiropractic for any injury regardless of the severity because long term impairments can easily result from a seemingly minor injury that did not heal correctly. 

High School Athletes and Perry Hall Chiropractic and Physical Therapy

High school athletes are a neglected population that will experience lifelong, disabling injuries due to the biomechanical faults they bring to the playing field.

Typically, the athletic physical entails examining the heart, lungs, eyes, ears, nose, and throat but totally ignores a biomechanical examination. The number of young athletes participating in sports with moderate to severe biomechanical problems is staggering and it’s all because an examination of the muscular, neurological, and skeletal systems is not performed in a typical athletic examination.

High school athletes usually do not have a biomechanical examination until after they are hurt. At Perry Hall Chiropractic and Physical Therapy a more proactive approach is taken by performing a biomechanical examination in an effort to identify the faults that will lead to injury.

This proactive approach works in preventing injury and establishes a lifetime of attention directed toward health leading to less degeneration and osteoarthritis formation when the individual reaches adulthood.

If your young athlete is taking to the field make sure they see a competent doctor to have a biomechanical examination before they needlessly suffer injuries that could have been prevented. It will pay big dividends over the course of the athlete’s career.

Shin Splints and Perry Hall Chiropractic and Physical Therapy

Shin splints involve pain along the front of the shin bone just above the ankle and below the knee. Pain can occur on the inside or outside part of the shin and are common in people who run frequently.

While shin splints are often blamed on improper stretching before and after exercise, over training, running and/or jumping on hard surfaces, and using shoes that do not have enough support the most common cause is fallen arches in the feet. Fallen arches in the feet can cause or amplify the effects of all the previously mentioned causes of shin splints.

Properly supporting the arches of the feet with custom made flexible orthotics will help overcome all of the other potential causes of shin splints.

Remember, there are three arches in each foot and most folks cannot assess any but the large medial arch on the inside part of the underside of your foot… and that should be done while you are standing with both feet flat on the ground. That’s why you need to see a doctor who has the proper equipment to adequately assess what is going on under your foot while the weight of your entire body is bearing down upon it.

Knee Injuries at Perry Hall Chiropractic and Physical Therapy

The knee is a very complex structure with a tremendous amount of movement in it. The great amounts of movement found in a knee combined with its function in weight bearing of the entire body makes it very susceptible to injury. In fact, the knee is the most commonly injured joint in the body.

Every year more than 5.5 million people visit an orthopedic surgeon for knee complaints. Many of these problems could have been prevented and may still be conservatively managed without surgery if the condition has not reached a critical point. In other words, don’t put off having your knee injuries properly evaluated or else it may be too late and you could be forced to abandon your athletic activities.

A common situation arises when runners (or other athletes, for that matter) have one of the three arches in their feet fall in comparison to that of the other foot. This creates an imbalance that places tremendous, abnormal stresses on the hips and knees leading to injury.

Unfortunately, many of these athletes are ready to give up their sport because of nagging knee injuries. Correcting the problem in their feet corrects the abnormal stress in the hips and knees thereby allowing them to continue enjoying their sports.

Sports Injuries at Perry Hall Chiropractic and Physical Therapy

Athletes of all ages and levels of expertise, coaches, and health care professionals are interested in how to treat differing types of sports injuries. However, they should be more interested in how to identify the risk factors that may lead to more frequent and more severe sports injuries.

As the number of people becoming physically active increases there is an accompanying rise in the number of sports injuries that could have been prevented. Just like most things in life, preventing bad things from happening is the best policy.

Common injuries that recur can be a major problem for all athletes but the real problem is that they are recurring for a reason. It is up to you to seek care from a knowledgeable doctor who knows what to look for and how to correct the actual cause of your recurring injuries. There is a reason this is happening and it is up to you to take the first step toward getting the cause of your pain corrected.

Fallen arches in the feet can lead to recurring injuries of the ankle, knee, hip, and low back areas. You can keep putting ice on your chronically sprained ankle or knee but if the actual causative factor of these injuries is the fallen arches in your feet then it is the foot problem that must be addressed.