Sports medicine has been revolutionized to achieve the quickest possible healing times with the least invasive of practices. Sports injuries are common and technological advances in medicine have significantly increased the efficacy of medications and topical treatments, providing athletes with shorter recovery time and doctors with more treatment options. Sports injuries can be categorized as either traumatic injuries or injuries from overuse. Not surprisingly, traumatic injuries make up a majority of the injuries found in games. In the NBA, the most common injuries are broken fingers, muscles strains, bone bruises, and torn ACL’s.
Sports medicine has become advanced to allow fast turnaround time for injuries and pain
Common Athletic Injuries and Sports Medicine
One of the most useful and shared methods to treat mild injuries is the RICE method, or “Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.” This is a non-invasive method for the more common injuries sustained in sports, but X-Rays and MRI’s are needed to determine the severity of the injury. For more significant injuries, such as torn ACL’s, you can also apply these methods during the healing process.
Traditional Pain Relieving Treatments
A conventional treatment in sports medicine is surgery followed by opioid pain relief. For less severe injuries that may not require surgery, narcotics are still used as a means for pain management. Though effective in relieving pain, athletes commonly complain about the side effects of opioids and how their performance is adversely affected. Mild injuries that athletes sustain, but can play through, need relief due to the demanding nature of professional sports. In instances like this, a topical compound could prove very effective for pain management while not risking the athlete’s overall health and wellness by avoiding narcotic pain relievers.
The Model of Sports Medicine
Sports Medicine focuses specifically on the prevention of injuries rather than treatments. However when an injury does occur, trainers will evaluate the severity to determine the most efficient path to rehabilitation. Since sports doctors are caring for multi-million dollar employees for any given team, sports medicine has pioneered the advances in technology and medicine protocol for the safest and quickest treatments.
Topical Compounds for Athletes
Narcotic pain relief is becoming an outdated method of treating pain. Instead, research has begun to provide more data that topical analgesics are for more efficient in treating the types of injuries sustained in sports. Doctors can now use topical compounds instead of using narcotics that have terrible side effects in the treatment of athletes. Athletes can then use topical pain treatments before games for pain relief without interfering with performance, and afterward in conjunction with ice/heat treatments. Topical compounds have many benefits when compared to traditional narcotic or opioid pain relievers. Adding a topical compound to your medication regimen for chronic pain can be incredibly beneficial and provide relief for daily pain symptoms.
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The use of topical compounds allows you to apply the cream directly to the source of pain. This has shown to be more effective than orally consumed pills or opioid pain relievers. Using topical compounds in conjunction with the other suggested methods should provide pain relieving results in a more natural manner.