Osteopathy Resolves Concussion Symptoms

The importance of treating head injuries and concussion is becoming much more well-known lately. While most patients with mild concussions recover in a few days, as many as 15 percent experience longer-term complications.

Two case reports published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association document improvements in concussion symptoms after an initial osteopathic treatment.

In the first case report, a 27-year-old man was treated three days after a snowboarding accident, in which the patient fell and wasn’t wearing a helmet. He suffered from headache, nausea, dizziness and tinnitus during the days after the fall. After one osteopathic session of sport injury treatment Brisbane, the patient reported the dizziness, tinnitus and nausea had resolved.

The second case involved a 16-year old girl with a history of three head injuries, the most recent involving a head-to-head collision. Three weeks after that injury, she reported headache, fatigue, mood swings as well as memory and concentration problems that limited her ability to participate in school and band practice. After six treatments, she had none of these symptoms and her balance had improved significantly.

“OMT (osteopathic manipulative treatment) has long been an instrumental tool in treating athletes,” said Dr Naresh Rao, an osteopathic sports medicine physician who was the doctor for the USA Water Polo team at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics. “With manual techniques including craniosacral therapy, we as osteopathic physicians have the ability to help the body restore the flow of cerebrospinal fluid through the central nervous system to promote healing and get our athletes concussion-related symptoms back to their normal activities.”

“These cases are consistent with the clinical experiences of osteopathic physicians who use OMT as part of a multidisciplinary approach to concussion,” said Dr. Rao. “While the mechanisms of healing are not well understood with concussion, formal studies measuring OMT’s impact on recovery and quality of life are much needed to demonstrate its efficacy as a viable therapy where there are very limited therapies to date.”

Please click here to read more about the research.

Disclaimer – Please be aware that each person’s body is different, so individual results may vary. If you have an osteopathy appointment at our clinic, your therapist will conduct a detailed assessment of your condition, and they will be able to advise you on how successful your treatments are likely to be. A result is not promised and/or guaranteed  from the act of receiving a treatment.

Centenary Natural Therapies specialise in a wide range of sports injury treatments for Brisbane athletes. If you have any questions regarding the treatment of concussion, please give us a call. Be well, and have a great life!