The Role of Chinese Medicine in Treating Sports Hernias

As high contact sports become highly competitive, many athletes find themselves dealing with all sorts of injuries. Health and longevity is key to sustaining on-field success and it’s important for physical therapists to treat injuries in a way that athletes can recover faster. One of the most popular healing methods used in the sports industry today is traditional Chinese medicine. It’s an alternative form of medicine that relies on natural healing methods that supposedly reduces short-term pain and discomfort among injured athletes.

The use of Chinese medicine dates back to over thousands of years and many Western countries are starting to adapt this form of traditional healing. Today, TCM is used in a variety of applications such as treating sports injuries like a sports hernia. Here we’ll be discussing traditional Chinese medicine and how physical therapists are using it to treat common sports injuries.

What is a sports hernia?

Before we get started, let’s define what a sports hernia is. A sports hernia is soft tissue injury that’s characterized by pain located in the groin area. This injury occurs mostly in high contact sports such as rugby, football, hurdling, and soccer where the body is subjected to sudden rotational movements. In medical terms, it’s also known as athletic pubalgia where the soft tissues in the oblique muscles are torn.

The tendons that attach the pubic bone to the oblique muscles are the most vulnerable when it comes to a sports hernia. Planting the feet heavily and twisting with maximum force are often the causes of this injury. To determine if you have a sports hernia, a series of physical tests will be conducted. Your doctor will ask you to perform a resisted sit-up and if you feel pain in your groin area, you most likely have a sports hernia.

How Chinese medicine is used in treating sports hernias

Many physical therapists are touting the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine, especially when it comes to treating sports hernias. The use of ancient healing methods such as acupuncture, cupping, and herbal medicine aim to treat several health problems associated with playing sports such as:

• Swelling
• Pain
• Inflammation
• Fatigue

TCM takes a holistic approach in treating sports hernias to reduce risk of complications and accelerate recovery speeds. Often times, traditional Chinese medicine is combined with physical therapy to help improve the condition after 7 to 10 days. If the injury is severe and surgery is required, herbal medicines are used post-surgery to facilitate surgical rehabilitation. We’ll be discussing how acupuncture, cupping, and herbal medicine influences recovery in athletes who suffer from sports hernias.

Acupuncture treatment

Many professional sports teams have acquired acupuncturists to promote faster recovery and reduce pain in injured athletes. The use of acupuncture to treat acute injuries like sports hernias aims to provide pain relief from the groin area. Acupuncture works by inserting thin, sterile needles into different parts of the body to treat strains, sprains, and swollen muscles. The main principle of acupuncture is to utilize acupuncture points found in the body to address the injury and alleviate the pain associated with it.

Specific styles and techniques of acupuncture were later developed specifically to treat sports injuries. Since acupuncture treats the sports hernia away from the injured site, it reduces the risk of re-inflaming the injury while treatment is ongoing. To help maintain peak performance, many athletes undergo acupuncture to recover from fatigue, bruising, tendonitis, and ligament injuries.

Cupping method

The use of the cupping technique has gained popularity in the sports industry, mainly during the 2016 Rio De janeiro Olympics where swimmers were found with red circles all over their bodies. These circle marks are formed due to cupping. Cupping therapy works by placing suction cups on different parts of your body. The pressure from these cups helps stimulate blood flow to reduce pain and inflammation, especially in injured athletes.

Muscle fatigue and stress are common in athletes who play intensive sports. Cupping therapy relaxes the muscles and helps facilitate rehabilitation speeds for optimum performance and recovery. The increased blood flow removes waste products from the tissues and replenishes it with vital nutrients and oxygen.

Herbal medicine use

To promote natural healing, traditional Chinese medicine also focuses on extracting the medicinal properties of plants and herbs to treat pain and relax the body. Chinese herbal medicines come in many different forms such as powdered herbs, ointments, creams, balms,  and lotions. Depending on its intended use, herbal medicines can be taken internally as well. By combining herbal medicines with physiotherapy, injury recovery is enhanced and body fatigue is significantly reduced.

The most common application of herbal medicine is through a massage. This promotes blood flow and helps treat muscle cramps, sprains, and spasms. There are plenty of different herbal formulas that practitioners use for a variety of different conditions. Before using herbal medicine, TCM practitioners first evaluate the condition of the patient and use the correct formulation to treat it. They’ll use one or two medicinal substances to create a balanced and synergistic herbal medicine to promote a holistic method of treating injuries like sports hernias.

Conclusion

When combined with physical therapy, Chinese medicine treatment does wonders in terms of the overall recovery of athletes with sports hernias. The power of acupuncture, cupping, and herbal medicines combined help facilitate the rehabilitation process so that athletes can come back faster and stronger from their injuries.