Posts Tagged ‘sports’
NSAIDs Hamper Athletic Performance
The use of painkillers is widespread in the athletic community
You would be hard pressed to find a sport that doesn’t involve athletes using non-steroidal. anti-inflammatory drugs, (NSAIDs: think advil, ibuprofen), to manage the natural pain that is associated with their level of physical activity. These drugs aim to inhibit the body’s production of prostaglandins which contribute to the perception of pain in the body. This is problematic to begin with because they block all prostaglandins, even the good ones which protect the stomach lining. But then the problem gets worse:
- NSAIDs lead to over-training syndrome by tricking your body into thinking it is not in pain, therefore causing you to push past the point of no return.
- When rehabilitating an injury, persistent use of NSAIDs is linked to actually slowing the rate of recovery for muscles and connective tissue.
Chiropractic: the Natural Way to Improve Athletic Performance
When it comes to increasing performance to a higher standard, few options are as potent as chiropractic. There are innumerable ways that chiropractic helps the serious athlete, and its efficacy is proven by the growing ranks of professional athletes who use chiropractic as a part of their repertoire.
Here are some of the ways that chiropractic helps the athlete within you:
- Improved mobility: range of motion is immediately improved, allowing you to move as you were intended. By releasing accumulated tension, mobility is improved.
- Treats sport-specific injuries: have you suffered from tennis elbow? sports hernia? Different injuries correspond to different sports, but both high and low-impact sports come with their own set of risks. Chiropractic lowers the risk of injury for both while reversing the strains that are inherent in athletic endeavor.
- Injury prevention: misalignment in the spine is a key retardant to successful rehabilitation. We focus on reducing inflammation and improving blood circulation, to bring nutrients and oxygen to areas that are in dire need.
- Decrease pain in the ligaments, joints and muscles. Chiropractic adjustment alleviates pressure on spinal nerves which can cause pain and also combats the severity and frequency of acute back pain.
One of the biggest reasons athletes suffer injury is because of asymmetry in the body: if one side of the body is weaker than the other, then limitations will obviously ensue. Often times prolonged periods of tension in one side of the body can cause misalignment. At Holmes Chiropractic, we are well versed in the biomechanics of an athlete’s body. Call our office in Houston and let us start helping you optimize your athletic performance today.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.