Chiropractic Health & Wellness Blog

Ankle Injuries can always cause a quick lifestyle change, slows you down and stops your training!  So, if you do sprain your ankle get treated quickly either at our clinic, Lyn Lake Chiropractic or seek care from your local sports doctors.

Ankle sprains are common, and they do not, and should not prevent you from returning to your sport or recreational activity. Mild and moderate sprains can be treated very successfully by a chiropractor. Lyn Lake Chiropractic has great results with treating mild and moderate sprains. Any severe sprains, where there is absolute loss of any movement, should be referred to the orthopedist. Some sprains can also have underlying fractures, so it is imperative that a doctor of chiropractic, or any other specialist evaluate your ankle as soon as possible.

After a thorough evaluation, treatment could consist of any number of therapies. One therapy in particular, for ankle inversion / eversion Quick read more or view full article sprains, is extremity joint manipulation. I find adjusting the ankle to be quite effective at helping to restore nomal function to an injured and dysfunctional area. When an injury occurs to a joint, the muscles surrounding the joint will splint and alter the motion of the joint. I have found that restoring the motion of the joints through joint manipulation, profoundly speeds up the healing time.

After getting the ankle joints and surrounding joints to a state where they are working better, Lyn Lake Chiropractic typically use our GameReady Ice Compression machine, along with Ultrasound, Laser and ROCKTAPE or Kinesio Tape to help with drainage of the inflammatory products.

Other treatments in the early and late stages of the sprain include:

* Protect with athletic tape, removable air cast, loose lace up support
* Rest – possible use of crutches, but wean ASAP
* Ice – 20 min on, 1 hour intervals to control inflammation, this is most important for the first 24 hours
* Compression – elastic wrap or sleeve
* Elevate – helps control swelling
* Pain free active range of motion (can use slushy bucket), tilt your ankle up and down and side to side, the movement will help control  
  swelling, will help prevent muscle splinting, and will help get blood to the area .
* Cold Laser – Speeds up Mitochondrial ATP production which speeds up the healing process.
* Pulsed ultra sound indirect in cold water
* Electrotherapy – EMS/TENS helps with pain control and will also indirectly decrease muscle splinting
* Kinesio Tape or ROCKTAPE – help with inflammatory fluid drainage, will also help restore normal muscle tension, restore appropriate nervous
  system feedback to help improve proprioception (that is how your body knows where it is in space)
* Osseous Manipulation – Get adjusted! It is a very safe procedure, and it feels great – give it a shot! This will dramatically affect alignment of your joints, help allow correct muscle tension on the joints, and wil help restore normal muscle receptor feedback ( golgi tendons and muscle spindles ) to your brain.
* Anti – inflam nutrition – Vitamin C,  EPA/DHA and Bromalain use as directed.
* Alternate heat and ice after the first two days of injury
* Isometric exercises – contract the different muscle of the foot without moving your foot
* Continue weight bearing walking
* Running in swimming pool
* Ice after exercise
* Toe raises – flat ground – progress to step
* Balance drills – wobble board, rocker board, balance sandals.

So, there is a ton of therapies that can be done to fix your once new ankle. This information is no substitute for a visit to the doctor. Go to a pro and get yourself looked at, you will be glad you did. Your return to the living will be much quicker. Lyn Lake Chiropractic treat many runners that have that occasional sprain ankle while training, and we runners back in their runnings shoes quick!