Acupuncture for Sports Injuries

Are you a weekend warrior? Or just love being active? Sports related injuries can hinder you reaching your exercise goals. If you play pickelball and are not able to play due to elbow pain, a long distance runner, or hurt your ankle or foot playing soccer, there is hope for pain relief that does not invole surgery or unwanted side effects from drugs. Acupuncture for sports injuries is the key! Many athletes are turning to acupuncture to help them heal quicker.

Here are some ways acupuncture helps in treating sports injuries

When there is injury to an area, there may be swelling that accompanies the injury. Swelling is a normal biological function and generally you should let it take its course. But, excessive swelling that doesn’t dissipate can lead to stagnation of blood in the injured area. Over time, stagnation can make an injury worse. Acupuncture needles actually encourage the body to release the swelling quicker, getting blood flow to the injured area to promote healing, as well as helping pain pain reduction. With injuries you might also experience muscle tension and spasms. This happens when the muscles surrounding the area become overworked and overextended. Acupuncture works very well for stopping muscle spasms and releasing muscle tightness.

What do the studies say?

Acupuncture has been found to be effective at helping with pain, inflammation, and sparking healing. But what about more specifically for sports injuries? In a recent study looking at how acupuncture could help, found acupuncture could help eliminate inflammatory tissue adhesions and relieves swelling and pain to typically can occur with sports injuries.

Another study looked at how acupuncture could help reduce neck tension with patients going thru rehabilitation for musculoskeletal injuries or disorders. The study found that acupuncture may facilitate and enhance physiotherapy performance in musculoskeletal rehabilitation.

If you suffer from a recent injury or still suffer from chronic pain from a previous injury. Give our office a call at, (425) 686-4498 today to schedule your initial consultation to learn more about how we can help.

Dr. Ellie Heintze, ND, LAc, is a naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist in Bothell, WA at her practice Starting Point Acupuncture. She specializes in chronic and complex cases and commonly treats neuropathy, fibromyalgia, migraines, autoimmune, and infertility cases. Dr. Ellie Heintze is also the author of the book, A Starting Point Guide to Going Gluten-Free  and Keep Calm and Zen Out available on Amazon.

Sources:

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/8226

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0965229908000113