How Chiropractors Heal Sprains and Strains

ART (Active Release Technique) for sprains, strains, and pain relief
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The chiropractic profession seems to have become synonymous with low back pain, and as much as we can help with low back pain, chiropractors can also speed up your recovery with sprains and strains. Many chiropractors go above and beyond their regular 4 year chiropractic education to stay up to date with the newest and most effective treatment techniques that exist, in order to maximize their healing potential. The techniques I personally have found to be most effective include FAKTR, ART, and laser therapy.

Active Release Techinque (ART)

ART is a movement based soft tissue therapy that uses tension instead of pressure to release adhesions/scar tissue/trigger points within muscle, ligaments, tendons and even the fascia that connects all these things together. By using tension instead of pressure, we can help to pull apart scar tissue that develops in an injured area like a sprain. This also helps muscles and nerves to glide past each other more effectively, making it effective for nerve entrapments like sciatica, carpal tunnel syndrome, and even headaches. Read more about ART here.

Functional and Kinetic Treatment with Rehab (FAKTR)

FAKTR is a set of principles in treatment that integrates your rehabilitation exercises with hands-on treatment to help improve your movement, make you stronger, stabilize an area, and treat muscles at the same time. With this therapy, I use a set of metal instruments to break up stubborn scar tissue that goes hand-in-hand with chronic pain, since these types of symptoms often result from the painful tugging of scar tissue fibers (like those in ligaments after a sprain) when you move an injured area.

Cold Laser Therapy

Laser therapy is useful for helping to reduce the inflammation in an injured site as well as providing a deep irritation within muscles/tendons/ligaments that increases the blood flow to the area to promote healing. The ability to help improve blood flow to an area makes laser therapy a very powerful option for treatment of ligaments and tendons in sprains and strains, due to their minimal blood supply. Read more about laser therapy here