Ottawa Holistic Health Centre
Multidisciplinary Health Care Practitioners
- Pre and Post Natal
Mother and Infant Care
- Adult and Pediatric Osteopathy
-Adult Osteopathy
-Athletic Osteopathy
-Visceral & Structural Osteopathy
Treating Sports Injuries with Osteopathic Medicine
An osteopath detects and treats damage to the body such as injured ligaments, joints and muscles and therefore it makes perfect sense to seek osteopathic care for a sports injury.
There are hundreds of possible ways to damage your body during athletic activity, however, approximately 80% of all sports injuries are made up of three common injuries – runner’s knee, shoulder injury and a sprained ankle.
Incredibly, more than half of all sports injuries afflict the knee and even more astonishing is the fact that one out of four people will seek treatment for that problem from an orthopedic surgeon. Often, the cartilage and ligaments can be torn but sometimes, multiple aches and pains located on the kneecap can be attributed to “runner’s knee”.
Runner’s knee involves either an inflammation of the tendon behind the kneecap or
degenerative changes and the pain associated with them such as arthritis. This type of injury is not only limited to runners but also occurs commonly in other athletes such as swimmers and cyclists as well as volleyball, basketball, football and hockey players.
Shoulder injuries make up almost a quarter of sports injuries and are most commonly found in tennis players, weight lifters and baseball players. Lastly, ankle sprains are quite common especially in sports that require a lot of fast movements like running, jumping and turning suddenly such as in soccer. Unfortunately, most physical damage could have been prevented if the athlete had only warmed up properly.
Aside from the previous three most common injuries, athletes could expect to experience some additional impairments during their careers such as shin splints, back pain, pulled muscles, groin strain, concussion or even Achilles tendinitis (inflammation of the ankle tendon). Elissa Gustafson, DOMP and Carolyn Smith, DOMP are both osteopaths in Ottawa who have extensive experience in treating sports injuries. Sometimes, injured athletes will also seek chiropractic, massage therapy, athletic therapy and physiotherapy.