You don't have to be a professional athlete to experience a sports injury and need the natural rehabilitation treatments and therapies of an alternative sports medicine doctor or healer.

The continuing growth in the popularity of recreational sports and fitness has multiplied the number of strains, sprains and breaks which can be classified as a sports injury.

What To Do When You Suffer A Sports Injury

At the first sign a body part has suffered a sports injury, elevate it and apply an ice pack to reduce swelling and inflammation. If something feels broken, misaligned or torn seek a professional diagnosis immediately. Whether it's aching, sharp, dull, burning, stabbing, pounding, throbbing or shooting--pain is a warning sign that something's wrong in your body.

What Not To Do When You Suffer A Sports Injury

Refusing to sit at the sidelines and recuperate from a sports injury, some amateur athletes try to play through their pain. This can result in even more serious injuries involving joints or muscles called up to compensate for damaged body parts.

Identifying Acute Sports Injury Pain

Most sports injury pain can be classified as acute pain. This type of pain is an immediate warning something is wrong with the body and provokes a quick reaction. Acute sports injury pain can usually be traced to a source, like a muscle strain or injury.

The majority of acute sports injury pain comes from strains and sprains which, while painful, don't involve nerve damage. Inactive lifestyles allow muscles to lose their natural flexibility and strength, making weekend warriors vulnerable to injuries.

When weak muscles are suddenly exerted by an activity as simple as lifting something, they can respond with a spasm and the pain of a strain. The resulting sports injury limits the range of motion.

Identifying Chronic Sports Injury Pain

If pain from a sports injury doesn't subside after a natural healing period of about three months, it's labeled chronic pain. Unlike acute pain, chronic pain is continuous and unchanging.

Unrelenting sports injury pain can raise blood pressure to dangerous levels that might lead to a heat attack or stroke. It has been determined that chronic pain is as great a contributing factor in heart disease as smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The persistent stress of some sports injury pain can affect the nervous and immune system. Coping with chronic sports injury pain can also bring on depression and cause the brain to perceive even more pain.

Tendonitis Sports Injury Pain

Overuse is the most common cause of a tendonitis sports injury. When tendons (which transmit the power of a muscle to move your bones) are called upon to perform tasks they're not used to (as in amateur athletics) they frequently tear and become inflamed.

Overly aggressive exercise programs are also responsible for sports injury tendonitis pain. "Tennis elbow" or "golfer's elbow" are both tendonitis pain in the elbow but in different areas. "Jumper's knee" is caused by overuse of the knee joint.

Repetitive movements found in activities like swimming and bowling also produce tendonitis sports injury pain in the elbows, knees, hips and shoulders.

Normal aging contributes to tendonitis pain as well. Tendons lose their elasticity over the years and become more prone to injury. A rotator cuff injury in the shoulder is an example of this.

Bursitis Sports Injury Pain

Like tendonitis, repetitive movement and extreme pressure are responsible for sports injury pain in the elbows, knees, hips and shoulders. Prolonged movements involved in tennis, bowling and golf create the type of repetitive motions that inflame a joint's bursa.

The bursa are located throughout the body between hard bone and soft tissue like muscles, ligaments and tendons. These small, slippery sacs reduce friction between these soft tissue and bone when they're in motion. That is unless a sports injury irritates them through pressure or overuse, making joint movement difficult.

Herniated Disc Sports Injury Pain

The terms "pinched nerve," "slipped disc," "ruptured disc," and "throwing your back out" all refer to the same back sports injury--herniated disc pain.

Discs act as rubbery shock absorbers between the hard bones of the vertebrae which make up the spinal column. They provide the back with its flexibility. The gel-like cushioning material of the disc (the nuclueus pulposus) is contained by an outer ring of fibrous cartilage (the anulus). As we get older and out of shape, the anulus dehydrates, degenerates and becomes susceptible to tears during strenuous sports activity. This allows the soft inner material to bulge out or herniate.

Pain is triggered when the inner gel that's slipped out of the degenerative disc presses against the spinal cord or pinches nerve roots which occurs when moving toward the side in which the disc is bulging.

Often, when pinching the sciatic nerve, the disc herniation may cause severe leg pain and a condition called sciatica.

Sciatica Sports Injury Pain

Sciatica gets its name from the sciatic nerve. This long nerve extends down the lower back, through the buttocks and continues down the back of the legs.

Knowing the location of the sciatic nerve helps sufferers and sports medicine doctors diagnose sciatica. Generally, the pain of sciatica radiates through a leg and/or buttock on only one side of the body. Tingling, shooting pain that's persistent on one side and makes it hard to both sit and stand are signs of sciatica.

Fortunately for those with this sports injury, the nerve pressure and inflammation triggering sciatica pain usually subsides in a few weeks. And fortunately, sciatica isn't associated with permanent damage.

Surgery for Sports Injury Pain Relief and Pain Management

Surgery is a last resort for chronic sports injury pain. The procedure generally involves some form of blockage to inactivate the nerve causing the pain. This can involve either traditional surgery or, more recently, microwave heat.

The success of surgery in the relief of chronic sports injury pain is approximately 50% and long term results are rare. Individuals who've gone to doctors for a series of surgeries experience a lower level of pain relief with each subsequent operation.

Sports Injury Pain Relief Medications

Pharmaceutical treatments for sports injury pain management range from over-the-counter medicines like aspirin to prescription drugs. The problem with chronic pain management treatments that involve drugs is that they lose their effectiveness. Worse, they actually create more chronic pain and pain.

Excessive use of aspirin, acetaminophen and ibuprofen create what is called analgesic rebound effect in which the body creates more pain so it can receive a larger dose of drugs. In other words, an painkiller addiction has been created. Drug use can also alter serotonin levels in the brain which are linked to chronic pain pain like migraine attacks.

More sophisticated prescription sports injury pain remedies carry with them additional harmful side effects like heart disease, digestive disorders, ulcers and liver damage.

In some cases, steroids may be prescribed for pain associated with chronic pain. These may be administered by injection as a nerve block (a pharmaceutical approach to the surgery mentioned earlier). Though steroids may, at best, provide temporary chronic sports injury pain relief, they carry with them life threatening side effects and shouldn't be used for prolonged periods of time.

Alternative Sports Medicine Doctors and Rehabilitation Therapies

Fortunately, alternative sports medicine doctors and healers offer the option of natural sports injury rehabilitation treatments and therapies without the risks of surgical and pharmaceutical approaches. Besides being more conservative than the medical establishment's methods, natural, alternative sports medicine doctors are just as effective if not more so.

Pain Relief Professionals connects you to alternative medicine sports medicine doctors and healers--Acupuncture and Massage Therapy healers, Doctors of Chiropractic and Doctors of Naprapathy. Their state licensed status assures you of expertise in natural sports injury pain management and pain relief that's superior to unregulated alternative medicine healers.

For natural sports injury rehabilitation treatments and therapies, click a button below to find alternative sports medicine doctors and healers near you.