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Girls playing soccer
A 13-year-old girl playing league soccer tried to head the ball and collided with another player. The opponent’s elbow struck her head, resulting in dizziness, headaches, and the inability to focus. It appeared that she had a concussion.
But the teen’s care team knew to look for additional injuries because people who suffer concussions often experience whiplash, too. That makes it vital to treat both areas to help athletes return to academics and action, says Dr. Jordan Knowlton-Key, a chiropractor and sports fellow at Northwestern Health Sciences University Human Performance Center.
In this athlete’s case, a full neurological and cervical exam of her neck revealed that she had experienced a concussion and whiplash. “They are often paired together,” Dr. Knowlton-Key explains. “While we could treat the concussion and return her to activity and play, some of her pain and dizziness came from her neck. If that wasn’t treated, too, she would have prolonged signs and symptoms of injury.”
Concussion Care
Sports medicine and other health care specialists have developed methods to help young athletes heal and ease back into academics and athletics after a concussion. One component happens before the season even gets underway. Athletes older than 9 should receive a baseline test from a trained professional to evaluate their balance and brain function abilities, says Dr. Knowlton-Key, but baseline examinations are reliable after the age of 5 and may be appropriate if a child is active in at an increased risk of injury. If they get injured, clinicians can compare new assessments with their pre-season evaluation of their balance, memory, concentration, and problem-solving speed.
“We don’t know how affected they were from the injury if we don’t have anything to compare it to,” he says. “Then after treatment, we can tell when they have returned to normal. If we don’t have a baseline test, we’re assuming.”
Once clinicians determine that an athlete experienced a head and/or neck injury, the care team develops a plan to help the person heal and return gradually to school and sports. Usually it involves a five-step process including rest, adding light aerobic exercise like walking, and then sport-specific exercise like running for soccer or skating for hockey. Finally, the athlete engages in noncontact training drills and then full contact training after medical clearance. Athletes don’t go to the next phase until they can complete the current step symptom-free.
For the soccer player, Dr. Knowlton-Key recommended that she attend her summer school classes at 50 percent time during the initial recovery period. The care team also provided chiropractic adjustments, did soft-tissue treatments, and taught her exercises to strengthen her neck. She gradually built up the duration and intensity of her exercising, with clinicians checking regularly to ensure she was symptom-free. If symptoms returned, she stopped immediately. “We don’t want them doing anything that puts them at risk for another injury,” he says.
Watch Out for Other Injuries
Head and neck injuries affect male and female athletes, and they tend to crop up most from hockey, basketball, football, soccer, gymnastics, lacrosse, and rugby. Other injuries that youth athletes often experience include rolled ankles and knees, especially when kids aren’t giving their injuries enough time to heal. That puts them at risk for reinjury.
Many young athletes have biomechanical issues that lead to chronic over-use injury, such as overhead hitting in volleyball or throwing in baseball or softball that cause rotator cuff injuries or shoulder instability, Dr. Knowlton-Key says. Meeting with an athletic trainer or sports medicine specialist can help them correct biomechanical insufficiencies and prevent injuries.
Recently, Dr. Knowlton-Key helped a high school volleyball player and track competitor with shoulder pain. He set up a net and watched her hit, noticing that her shoulder blade wasn’t stable because of her form. She learned proper hitting techniques that corrected the biomechanical issues and felt much better.
Mix it Up
One other key way to prevent injuries in young athletes is to have them diversify their sports and take time off of their primary sport annually. Focusing solely and intensely on one sport—including play through school, leagues, and camps—causes overdevelopment of certain parts of the body and leads to injury, Dr. Knowlton-Key says.
Athletes should take a month or two off of their main sport, or do two sports that balance each other out, such as soccer and volleyball or football and track. “We know from research that multisport athletes recover a bit better and aren’t injured as often,” he adds. “They balance out their bodies and develop full-body strength and capabilities.”
Located in Bloomington, Northwestern Health Sciences University is a pioneer in integrative natural health care education, offering degree programs in chiropractic, acupuncture, Chinese medicine—including a new Doctor of Chinese Medicine—massage therapy, nutrition, post-bac, pre-health/pre-med, and B.S. completion. NWHSU Human Performance Center partners with sports teams and athletic departments, and specializes in sustainable, natural ways to improve human movement and overall health.
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