Sports Kids Need Chiropractic Care Too
If you are over 40 years old, you might remember being a kid and playing a sport on a rec team in the spring, fall and winter seasons. It was all for fun and gave you something to do to keep active.
Things are different now.
Sports have become increasingly competitive and significantly more intense these days, with some children starting with high intensity “play” as early as 4 years old. The impact of this high level of physical stress on the body has become the source of increasing concern as kids show up in emergency rooms and doctor’s offices with injuries previously associated with high school athletics.
Young bodies, and most importantly, young spines are not designed or prepared for the high intensity physical stresses of competitive sports at an early age. Growth and development in these young bodies has only just begun and early injury can dramatically affect health outcomes as children age.
Where spinal degeneration was seldom apparent before the mid-20s a couple of decades ago, permanent joint degeneration and structural alteration in bone growth have become increasingly and disturbingly commonplace in children as young as 12 years old. Joint surgeries, previously seen only in college athletes are now prevalent in adolescents.
This short message is unlikely to prevent signing Johnny up for PeeWee football or soccer. It is our hope that the knowledge that high impact sports at an early age may lead to health problems later in life. We encourage parents to do everything they can to minimize the effects of childhood trauma from sports.
Chiropractic care helps to minimize the impact of sports related trauma and optimize the body’s ability to heal. If your kids are into sports, make sure they get IN TO their chiropractor regularly because it’s not about how you feel, it’s about how you heal.
If you have a child or know families with children involved in competition sports. pass this information along and get those kids to a chiropractor. If you are in or around the Branchville, NJ area, we would be honored to help your family to better health and a safer, more successful sports season.
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