Sports Injury Information

Injuries that happen while playing sports can be quite severe because that is the nature of sports. There is competition involved and that means that people have to push themselves beyond their normal capabilities. Because of this there are many problems with overuse of joints, muscles, and ligaments. Some of the more common names for these are runner’s knee, golfer’s elbow, and tennis elbow. There are from repetitive movement and overuse. Basically the tissues do not get enough time to heal, or the joint and surrounding structures could have been damaged before from some type of trauma and thus cause pain and not work properly later. In some cases there can be fractures to the bones, and a common type is a stress fracture and this can also come from repetition.

The body works very fast right after the trauma. There is inflammation, pain, swelling, heat, redness, and loss of function all within a few seconds. The cells quickly release chemicals that cause inflammation and there is new scar tissue placed down fast by the fibroblasts. It is recommended by doctors to immediately rest the area, put cold ice on it, put pressure on it and elevate the area above the level of the heart to slow the blood flow. Some athletes want to keep on pushing through the pain and this is just not a smart thing. It can cut someone’s ability to play a sport down, and if they keep playing while injured it might even damage it enough where they will have pain for the rest of their life.

If this happens to the lumbar spine or cervical spine the first thing to do is go ahead and lay down on your back and ice the area. There are so many important vital nerves and vessels close to the spine that an x-ray is important to check for vertebral fractures. If further symptoms are present and it is indicated that an MRI is needed, then that would be of great benefit. Getting the advice from the doctor is critical so that everything can heal properly. If a disc is herniated then you might want to visit the leading non-surgical spinal decompression clinic in Los Angeles. Once an area of the body is injured it is smart to get the body to work to heal in the most natural and best way possible. It can save you from many years of pain down the road and possibly let you get back to playing the sport that you love so much.