Posture-Centric Chiropractic Care and Shockwave Therapy
INNOVATION
A Dream Team for Athletic Injury Recovery
Dr. Marco Ferrucci
DC
IMAGINE YOU’RE A COLLEGE ATHLETE training for a Division 1 football program when you suddenly pull a hamstring while running a route. Afterward, you can barely walk, and everything is on hold because you need to nurse that injury. Knowing hamstring injuries can linger for a long time, you start to think that your chances of making the team have diminished, and you feel extremely disappointed.
Many athletes face such setbacks. The next step typically involves athletic trainers, physical therapists, chiropractors, or orthopedic surgeons for nonsurgical injuries. For the purposes of this article, let’s assume that surgical intervention is not required.
The athlete mentioned earlier was a patient of mine. After the injury, his father contacted me because they both wanted it to heal quickly. The athlete came home, and I treated him over two days.
So, what did I do first?
I checked his posture and spinal structure, noting a pelvic rotation and forward head posture, both of which can stress the muscles and nervous system. Postural evaluation was followed by full-spine adjustments to correct his spinal aligmnent, significantly improving his mobility. I also took a series of X-rays to see the spinal structure precisely. He stated that he was able to walk better after that initial adjustment.
Next, I applied shockwave therapy to his hamstring, targeting the most inflamed areas. Immediately following, the patient said he felt about a 50% improvement in his pain and mobility. The next day, I repeated the same treatments, and he saw even greater improvement.
He left with a new hope that his injury would not sideline him for a long time. Two weeks later, he was sprinting pain-free, confident about returning to play sooner than expected.
Our approach of combining postural correction and shockwave therapy has significantly expedited healing for athletes with similar injuries. Focusing on postural corrective care improves overall body biomechanics, and shockwave therapy helps the body recover faster than anything I’ve ever seen. It has been a game-changer for our practice and patient success, especially for those with nagging sports and overuse injuries.
Athletic Injury Management in Chiropractic Practice
Chiropractors frequently treat athletic injuries, ranging from amateur youth sports to professional levels. Effective treatment protocols are essential for rapid recovery. Athletic injuries are prevalent and vary by sport, competition level, age, and gender:
• Youth Sports Injuries: Annually, over 3.5 million1 injuries occur in children under 14 because of sports or recreational activities.
• High School Athletes: About 1.5 million high school athletes face injuries each year in the U.S.2, according to high school RIO data.
• College and Professional Athletes: Higher intensity and physical demands in college and professional sports lead to significant injury rates, with contact sports showing higher incidences.
• Overuse Injuries: Sports involving repetitive motions, such as running and tennis, often result in overuse injuries, potentially exacerbated by improper posture.
Chiropractic care, especially postural-centric methods combined with shockwave therapy, may enhance the body’s natural healing processes. Chiropractors are uniquely positioned to regenerate the body without drugs or surgery. Are you ready to leverage chiropractic care and shockwave therapy to benefit athletes’ recovery and health?
Posture-Centric Chiropractic Care
Athletes often consult chiropractors, who typically focus on soft tissue and injuries, directing their care to the affected area, such as a knee or shoulder. However, this approach can overlook a crucial aspect of recovery — spinal posture.
Posture, reflecting the spine’s condition, is foundational to health, affecting every cell tissue and organ. The spine’s structure, ensuring upright posture and its role in protecting the spinal cord, are pivotal for well-being. According to Davis’ law, soft tissues adapt to tension, underscoring the influence of spinal posture on injury and healing.
Chiropractic care that prioritizes posture can enhance recovery, addressing the root postural stress of injuries. Posture-centric chiropractors examine the entire spine’s structure and its connection to the injury, offering comprehensive treatment.
Chiropractic care emphasizes that correcting posture significantly affects the body’s overall healing. Therefore, incorporating shockwave therapy is highly beneficial because it locally stimulates soft-tissue healing. Adjustments improve overall function by relieving stress on soft tissues from a postural standpoint. A brief yet efficient five-minute treatment of shockwave therapy complements this by targeting local tissue healing. This one-two-punch approach has proven transformative for numerous patients, providing comprehensive healing benefits.
What Is Shockwave Therapy?
Shockwave therapy, also known as extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT), is a noninvasive treatment that employs acoustic waves (shockwaves) to stimulate healing in a variety of musculoskeletal conditions. These shockwaves are acoustic pulses characterized by high positive pressure with a rapid and steep rise time, followed by a comparatively small negative pressure, known as a tensile wave. Initially developed to fragment kidney stones,3 shockwave therapy has since expanded into orthopedics, sports medicine, and rehabilitation.
Shockwave therapy harnesses the biological process of mechanotransduction to expedite the body’s natural healing mechanisms. Mechanotransduction is the process wherein mechanical stress — in this instance, shockwaves — is applied to cells, inducing a chemical and biological response. This reaction triggers a remarkable healing cascade unrivaled by any other biological process.
Our clinic has incorporated shockwave therapy to enhance our capability to treat patients with more localized injuries. Before shockwave therapy, we effectively addressed our patients’ spinal and postural issues, but extraspinal problems, such as knee arthritis, rotator cuff injuries, and tennis or golfer’s elbow (hamstring injuries included), proved more challenging. This technology has revolutionized our treatment approach, allowing us to assist athletes across all levels, from high school to professional.
It is crucial to conduct thorough research when selecting a shockwave device because they are not all equal. For example, radial pulse wave therapy is sometimes misrepresented as “shock-
wave therapy,” despite being a distinct technology.
Shockwave therapy can be generated through electrohydraulic, electromagnetic, or piezoelectric means. Moreover, the energy can be delivered to the body either in a focused or broad-focused (sometimes referred to as unfocused) manner. It’s vital to understand each device’s energy generation and delivery method to make an informed choice that aligns with your clinical objectives.
After extensive research, I chose a broad-focused, electrohydraulically generated shockwave device for its efficacy in treating our patients. Its broad and deep penetration allowed for effective treatment with fewer shockwaves and sessions. As demonstrated, this device enabled the successful treatment of a strained hamstring within just two treatments.
The Dream Team for Healing
The experience that my patient had is just one example of many that we see when we use a combination of posture-focused chiropractic care and shockwave therapy. This duo has been a dream team for athletes who want to heal faster than anything they can imagine.
BDr. Marco Ferrucci, DC, cofounding partner of The Chiropractic Source and SoftWave Mobile LLC, earned his chiropractic degree at Life University. He is a certified chiropractic biophysics (CBP) practitioner, ISMST-certified shockwave therapy provider, and Northeast Regional. He’s authored Change your Mindset, Transform Your Life and From Passion to Purpose. For more information visit TheChiropracticSource.com & SoftWaveMobile.com or contact Dr. Ferrucci at 973-228-0500 [email protected],
References
1. Stanford Medicine Children's Health: Sports injury statistics [Internet], San Francisco, CA: Stanford Medicine Children's Health [cited 2024 April] Available from: https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=sports-injury-statistics-90-P02787
2. Pizzarro IN, Chiang BJL, Monroig-Rivera CA, Mehran N, Tabaie S: Poster No. P0439. Epidemiology of sports injuries among high school athletes in the United States. AAOS 2023 Annual Meeting Proceedings. Las Vegas, Nev.
3. Simplicio CL, Purita J, Murrell W, Santos GS, Dos Santos RG, Lana JFSD. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy mechanisms in musculoskeletal regenerative medicine. J Clin Orthop Trauma. 2020 May;ll(Suppl 3):S309-S318. doi: 10.1016/j jcot.2020.02.004. Epub 2020 Feb 12. PMID: 32523286; PMCID: PMC7275282.
