Chiropractic Treatment of Ankle Sprain

We see several patients in our Anchorage office with ankle sprains but Mulholland Chiropractic Center, LLC has had a lot of success helping them recover more quickly. Why are ankle sprains so common and how can chiropractic adjustments help?

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), approximately 25,000 people in the US sprain their ankles daily. As a matter of fact, these injuries make up practically 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 common is inversion, or when the ankle rolls inward. This injury can happen due to one forceful movement, or it can develop over 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.

How Can Chiropractic Therapy and Mulholland Chiropractic Center, LLC Help?

A paper published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics set out to identify chiropractic's role when it comes to ankle sprain recovery. Researchers enrolled 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 receive rehabilitation and the other 15 individuals received chiropractic therapy in addition to rehab. Each individual had five full weeks of therapy, with the rehabilitation group receiving therapy seven days a week and the rehabilitation plus chiropractic group receiving therapy six out of the seven days.

Research Supports Chiropractic Care Helps With Ankle Sprains

The authors found that the people who had both rehab and chiropractic fared the best at the 4-week mark when it came to pain and joint restriction. Additionally, no adverse effects were reported, showing that chiropractic care is safe!

If you're near our office in Anchorage and you're dealing with an ankle injury, give us a call. We'll do what we can to keep you up and moving... literally!

Sources

• American College of Sports Medicine. (n.d.). Ankle sprains and the athlete. Retrieved from https://www.acsm.org/docs/current-comments/anklesprainstemp.pdf
• Lubbe, D et al. (2015, January). Manipulative therapy and rehabilitation for recurrent ankle sprain with functional instability: a short-term, assessor-blind, parallel-group randomized trial. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 38(1), 22-34, doi:10.1016/j.jmpt.2014.10.001