Ankle Sprains
Ankle sprains are very common and can be very frustrating especially if you’re into sport. They occur when the ankle rolls either inwards (most common) or outwards when walking or running. When this occurs without the adequate protection of your surrounding muscles, this puts stress on the supporting ligaments causing a ligament strain. In severe cases the bone can break.
Repetitive Ankle Sprains
What’s interesting about them is that rarely do they just happen once. Often people will sprain their ankle many times over. Why? Well part of the reason often is the same reason why they sprained them in the first place. So often ankles get sprained doing very simple tasks such as walking on uneven ground. A healthy ankle should be able to protect itself against simple tasks like this. When it doesn’t, it suggests there’s a problem in the way the ankle is working, the mechanics as well as the connection to and from the brain.
In this video I explain what causes ankle sprains in more detail and the best exercise you can do from home to strengthen them. Still not getting results? See how Chiropractic can help you further.
The Brain's Connection
Whenever the the ankle goes over uneven ground and gets itself into a position where it could roll over, signals get sent to the brain to let the brain know it’s position. The brain immediately sends signals back to activate the necessary muscle to correct it’s position. If this mechanism doesn’t occur, the ankles rolls, stretching the ligament beyond it’s limits causing a sprain or even a break. This is why we don’t just want to train them with strengthening exercise but with what we call proprioceptive training too (shown in the above video).
How Can A Chiropractor Help With Ankle Sprains?
Chiropractors are trained to assess the mechanics of not just the ankle but the knee, hip and spine (the entire chain) for faults that could be causing issues in the ankle to ensure the ankle has the best function to avoid injury. These faults can cause a malposition of the joints putting the ankle in a vulnerable position, weak muscles and a reduced signalling to the brain. Getting this corrected by a Chiropractor can therefore improve this and reduce sprains in the futre.
If you suffer with repetitive ankle sprains, please do get in contact as we get good results with this type of issue.
See what people have said about their success with Dr Hulme who have had similar problems.