Videos & Articles

Chiropractic in the National Football League (NFL)

Maurice Jones-Drew #32-Jacksonville Jaguars    
Chiropractic has been widely used throughout professional sports to assist athletes speed recovery and enhance performance.  On Sept. 27, “NFL Game Day Morning” ran a piece about how Jacksonville Jaguar running back Maurice Jones-Drew heals his body each week.  Jones-Drew said he visits his chiropractor every Monday morning to get his body back in line after the hard hits of Sunday games.  Click Here!

Jerry Rice #80-NFL Hall of Fame
During his spectacular 20-year career in the National Football League, Jerry Rice made quite an impression, to say the least, helping the San Francisco 49ers win three Super Bowls, setting dozens of league records and serving as an inspiration to countless teammates, aspiring players and fans.

According to the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, which announced Rice as an official spokesperson in late 2008, he is also making a significant impression by attracting attention to the importance of chiropractic care.

Specifically, the foundation reports that the Rice advertising campaign, which has featured print advertisements in ESPN the Magazine, Men’s Health, USA Today and Sports Illustrated, along with radio and television public service announcements and a nationally distributed news release, is responsible for more than 150 million media impressions thus far. As of mid-July 2009, the Jerry Rice television release has been broadcast 175 times in 26 different states with a total combined viewing audience of just under 108 million; the radio PSA has been broadcast 206 times in 37 states to a listening audience of more than 16.5 million; and the print matte (a press release written like a news story) has generated 252 news articles in 18 states, reaching a total readership of 9.48 million. The Internet sites on which the print release appeared were viewed by a total of 6.4 million unique visitors per month.

When signed by the foundation, Rice had this to say: “Chiropractic care has been instrumental in my life, both on and off the field, and I am excited to share this with the American public. I have been blessed with a long and healthy career as a professional athlete, and as I move forward into the next stage of my life, chiropractic care will continue to be an important part of my game plan.”

Chiropractor Helps Baltimore Ravens

A feature story appearing in the June 30, 2005 edition of the Catonsville Times in Maryland celebrated the 10 year anniversary that a chiropractor had been helping the Baltimore Ravens Professional Football team. Ten years ago the Ravens came to town.  At that time Dr. Doug Miller (right) started his relationship with the team that has lasted since then. 

Dr. Miller became the team's chiropractor by contacting the Ravens shortly after their move from Cleveland and telling officials about the services he provided to other sports teams in the area.  He was on the playing field when the Baltimore Ravens won the 2000 Superbowl.  He can also be found in the locker room and on the field on most Sundays during football season.

Raven's trainer Bill Tessendorf, refers most of the players that Dr. Miller sees for chiropractic care. Tessendorf, who has 32 years of experience as an NFL trainer explained, "A player favoring a knee or an ankle can cause alignment problems elsewhere. A chiropractor can help with a lot of those issues."

Dr. Miller explained that chiropractic care still remains misunderstood.  Most of his services are not necessarily related to the treatment of injuries.  He explains, "It's not just about relieving pain from backaches and injuries," he said. "It's about achieving optimum health. We can do a lot to help with the conditioning of muscles and joints."

The article notes that presently almost every NFL team has a chiropractor on staff.

Headaches: Study Shows Chiropractic Effective

Evidence reports recently released by the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research (FCER) show the effectiveness of chiropractic care for sufferers of Tension Headaches.  The story released February of 2001, was the continuation of a release of a study done at Duke University several years earlier.  In the study many different types of physical and  behavioral treatments were used for patients with headaches.  Chiropractic care was specifically compared to amitriptyline, a common medication used for headaches.

In this study the staff at the Duke Center screened articles from the literature, created evidence tables, and analyzed the quality and magnitude of results from these studies. They then drafted an evidence report with peer review from a panel of 25 reviewers, including researchers and clinicians in chiropractic.

The results showed that chiropractic was highly effective for patients with tension headaches. When compared with the drug amitriptyline, chiropractic and the drug had similar short term effects during the episode.  However, the drug carried with it an adverse reaction rate in 82% of the patients. 

The most profound effects were seen after the care was discontinued in the study.  In these instances the patients who were on drug therapy essentially returned to the same state as before.  However, the patients who were under chiropractic care continued to show sustained reduction in headache frequency and severity even after the chiropractic care was discontinued.  The implications are that chiropractic is not actually a therapy or treatment, but rather gets to the cause allowing the body to effect a correction that lasts beyond actual care.

Chiropractic Care Beneficial for Chronic Neck Pain According to Study

A new study published in the February 2006 issue of the scientific periodical the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT), shows that patients with chronic neck pain benefit from chiropractic.  The authors start off by noting that neck pain is, "a very cost-demanding health problem."  The study was performed at the Scandinavian College of Chiropractic in Stockholm, Sweden.

In this study patients with complaints of continuous neck pain during the previous 3 months were considered chronic and accepted for participation in the study.  Of all those participating, the patients were divided into two groups.  One group was a control group with no chiropractic care while the other group received chiropractic.

The same outcome measurements were used on both groups to be able to compare the results. A follow up assessment was done on all patients at the time of the initial consultation and then a second time at the end of the 5-week study period which was 2-4 days after the conclusion of the treatments for the patients in the treatment group.

The assessments were done to review three areas, symptoms, cervical range of motion, and head repositioning accuracy. Head repositioning accuracy, (HRA) is a test that measures the ability of the neuroarticulomuscular system to reposition the head in a neutral posture after active movements.

The results showed that for two of the areas tested, the group that received chiropractic care on average showed improvement.  With respect to pain, after the intervention, the chiropractic group showed a significantly lower degree of pain intensity. The results of the testing for head repositioning (HRA) were even more impressive, where significant improvements in all aspects of HRA were seen for the group that received chiropractic care. There was however, no perceivable difference in the groups relative to range of motion at the conclusion of the study.

The researchers noted, "The results of this study suggest that chiropractic care can be effective in influencing the complex process of proprioceptive sensibility and pain of cervical origin."  In other simpler words, chiropractic helped for people with long standing neck pain.