sports injuries
Research shows that about 8.6 million sports- and recreation-based injuries occur on an annual basis. In half of those cases, the patient needed to visit a doctor’s office or health clinic.
As someone who stays active, it’s important to understand what sports injuries are. You should also know the symptoms and treatments associated with them in case an injury happens to you.
Sports injuries are the types of injuries that often happen during exercise or sports, but individuals who are not athletes can also suffer from these things. Some of the more common sports injuries include strains and sprains, tendon or ligament tears, dislocated joints, and fractures.
Engaging in sports can be fun, and it can help keep the human body healthy. However, there are many risk factors to be aware of. Some of these are related to the player, such as:
- Age
- Anatomy
- Body composition
- Health
- Psychological factors
- Physical fitness level
- Sex
- Skill level
There are also external risk factors that make it less or more likely to experience a sports injury. These include:
- Environment
- Protective equipment
- Sports factors
Improper training practices, bad health conditions, wearing the wrong gear, and failing to stretch and warm up can also lead to a higher chance of sports injuries.
As sports injuries can run the gamut from a sprain or strain to a broken bone or tendon tear, the symptoms vary. Below are a few of the most common symptoms that someone has experienced a sports injury:
- Bones or joints that are visibly out of place
- Extreme bruising or swelling
- Extreme weakness of an injured foot or arm
- Inability to move a joint in a normal manner
- Inability to place weight on a foot, leg, knee, or ankle
- Severe pain that comes on suddenly
The above symptoms are associated with acute injuries. However, some sports injuries are chronic and can last a long time after the initial injury. Some symptoms of chronic injuries include:
- Dull ache or swelling when resting
- Pain when exercising or playing a sport
There are a variety of treatment options for sports injuries. Using the RICE method is a good choice immediately after an injury. This means engaging in rest, using ice packs, compressing the injury, and elevating the injured body part above the heart.
In some cases, RICE will be used with other sports injury treatments. For instance, taking ibuprofen or other NSAIDs.
Physical therapy or steroid injections are used when the injury doesn’t heal from at- home methods. Physical therapy involves manipulating and moving the area of the injury. With injections, a corticosteroid and an anesthetic are introduced to the injured area, which alleviates inflammation and pain.
Surgery is also a method to handle serious sports injuries but is often used as a last resort.
At Modern Pain Consultants, we focus on treating each person as an individual. We provide several solutions to help if you have experienced a sports injury. We’ll examine you and diagnose the injury before creating a treatment plan to get you feeling better as soon as possible.