Korean medicine and sports
By Ko Seong-Gyu, Lee Seung-hwan & Jimmy Youn,
Last month, after 64 unforgettable games, the World Cup closed its curtains in Russia. As millions of football fans waited for the World Cup, teams and players put enormous efforts into building a high-performance team to make their dream come true, winning the trophy.
Team performance is affected by a wide array of factors: the venue, weather, grass condition, team work, fans and injuries. Among them, the biggest concern with the teams was their players' unanticipated injuries during training and matches. So as to minimize the injuries, medical staff work arduously to develop on-and-off the pitch protocols and plans to prevent injuries in all cases.
To better assist the medical staff, FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC) surveyed injuries in its tournaments since 1998 to monitor and analyze the incidents and characteristics of injuries incurred during training and matches at World Cups.
Even though the overall incidence of injury during the World Cup decreased by 37 percent from 2002 to 2014 due to the successful collaboration between the F-MARC and referees amending foul play regulations, it is noteworthy that the injuries most frequently affected lower extremities, and contusions marked the highest ― ligament and muscle damage (14 percent to 24 percent), sprains (8 percent to 15 percent), fractures (1 percent to 6 percent) and concussions (1 percent to 5 percent) ― among the types of injuries according to the data collected. Essentially, the most frequent diagnosis was a thigh strain, and the second most frequent diagnosis was an ankle sprain.
A great number of soccer players have the same injury to their biceps femoris muscle which is on the lateral aspect of the hamstring group and is the most common site of injury. Thigh muscle strain is usually of sudden onset; players probably have done activities involving sprinting, jumping and bursts of speed running. Importantly, acute thigh muscle strain comes from over-stretching the thigh in vigorous training sessions and competitive matches every three or four days.
Thigh strains mainly occur during training, but few of the same injuries happen during matches. When acute thigh strains occur on the pitch, medical staff quickly apply first aid procedures. It consists of local anesthesia by using ethyl chloride spray and icing; however, it is unknown how helpful it is to actual recovery.
Given this circumstance, acupuncture, cupping, chuna and pharmacopuncture, which is a combination of acupuncture and herbal medicine, treatments may be exceptionally supportive. The treatments have proven their effectiveness in numerous domestic and international studies, and they are known to be safe and can even be applied instead of spraying on the pitch. In addition, acupuncture as a treatment for sport injuries, especially hamstring injuries, is a tremendous method for treating acute and chronic muscle strains.
The number of elite and non-elite athletes who seek Korean medicine treatment is constantly increasing as acupuncture improves function and mobility, reduces inflammation, helps to alleviate the pain, prevents future injuries and enhances the athletic endurance and performance.
As Korean medicine has the potential to become the next powerful tool to treat sports injuries, football clubs perhaps ought to consider including Korean Medicine physicians as part of their medical staff.
Professor Ko Seong-gyu (epiko67@daum.net) serves as vice dean of the College of Korean Medicine at Kyung Hee University. Dr. Lee Seung-hwan (
wooricare@naver.com) serves as the chief Korean medicine physician at Tong-In Korean Medicine Clinic; and Jimmy Youn (james.miller.youn@gmail.com
) serves as the chief executive officer at James and Company, a sports marketing and management agency.