INQUIRER Sports

ARCHERS, swimmers, boxers of the national team are weakened by sports injuries. Hairdressers can lose their precision in cutting because of the tingling or numbness that shoots from the wrist to the shoulders. Sedentary executives get grouchy and workers decrease their productivity because of stiff necks and bad backs.

These occupational hazards can be dealt with the natural way – and hopefully keep surgery at bay.

Intercare Healthcare Systems opened in 1993 when alternative and natural approaches to ailments for musculo-skeletal conditions were unheard of. As a chiropractic center, it offered a drugless, nonsurgical option for such conditions as slip disc, scoliosis, sports injuries and shoulder pain.

Over time, Intercare has incorporated other natural disciplines such as acupuncture, Pilates, myotherapy, and even counseling.

A basic in treatments, myofascial training enhances the healing because of its integrated approach. Fascia is a continuous network of connective tissue that binds the muscles, nerves, organs and bones. Muscle and fascia are united, forming the myofascia system.

“It’s about how the bottom of the foot is connected with the top of your head through myofascial lines,” says Intercare chiropractor Dr. Martin Camara. “Instead of looking at foot as the problem, we look at the myofascial line that crosses and we release the restrictions in the different layers. Instead of looking at an isolated area, look at it from a holistic viewpoint. This enhances the healing.”

He adds that pain can also be triggered psychologically. “The way people deal with stress affects their physical condition. By dealing with only the physical condition, you are leaving something out of the loop.”

A professional counselor helps to analyze emotional concerns or situations that have led to the physical pain.

Camara was a sports doctor and chiropractor for the Turino Winter Olympics in 2006, Doha Southeast Asian Games in 2006 and Beijing Olympics in 2008. He has helped boxer Nonito Donaire in his last three championship fights.

The boxer met him at Intercare Cebu when he complained of a shoulder problem called rotator cuff tendonitis. Camara worked on the scar tissue, stretched the shoulder, provided a program for flexibility and strengthening the muscles and put his body alignment in order. The overall treatment allowed Donaire to train harder the following day.

“Athletes have a pre-competition and a post-competition ritual. Their bodies go into maximum contraction for an intense period that they accumulate so much inflammatory muscles. Those are weeded out slowly,” explains Camara.

Donaire underwent myotherapy, a deep-tissue massage that involves pressing on constricted points that trigger pain in areas away from these points. The muscles were also stretched so he could box better.

I-Smart

In many sports injuries, Camara utilizes I-Smart or Intercare Specific Myofascial Active Release Tools, instruments that combine Eastern and Western methods in dealing with pain.

The premise is similar to the Chinese guasha therapy, an ancient healing method that uses natural materials such as jade to scrape out stagnated energy which can lead to ailments.

I-Smart was also largely inspired by the Graston technique, a healing method that uses patented stainless steel instruments to detect and remedy scar tissues that limit the patient’s range of motion and cause pain. These instruments winnow over the affected areas and break up the scar tissue so it can be assimilated by the body. The connecting tissues and muscle fibers are the lengthened and circulation is improved.

Trained in the Graston technique, Camara developed his own tools, which can work on the joints and contours.

“I have a set of three tools that work like a stethoscope. These tools amplify the sensation of touch so the doctor can feel what’s wrong. In the process of working on an area, the tool breaks up the scar tissue, releases the myofascial restriction and makes it more pliable,” he explains.

Camara once had a patient who, while hiking in Mount Apo, found his kneecap suddenly compressed. The rubbing between the kneecap and the groove in the thigh bone resulted in inflammation, particularly on the cartilage holding the knee.

Using I-Smart, Camara worked on the muscles around the knee joint and relieved the pressure underneath the knee. He warns that if pain from such accidents is unattended, it could lead to arthritis or a tear in the ligament.

Kinesiology

Another approach to strains and injury is functional or kinesiology taping. During the Beijing Olympics, just about every country was equipped with this tape.

“It’s a special therapeutic muscle tape that stabilizes the joints without restricting movement. It lifts the lymphs on the area to get rid of inflammation and changes functional pull of the muscle. That little pull can dramatically unload pressure injured areas. You have time to heal while doing sports,” says Camara.

Although Intercare has served national teams and elite athletes, many patients are weekend athletes, particularly those who engage in outdoor sports such as marathons.

“It forms a huge segment of the population where people do too much too soon, or are not previously engaged at a certain fitness level. They end up injuring themselves,” says Camara.

Intercare also developed a program for companies and even a beauty salon chain that provides physical therapy aside from medical care. Camara points out that 70 percent of Intercare’s patients complain of low back pain. Big firms such as the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and Petron have invested in pain rehab services for their employees.

Intercare employs licensed professionals who are trained to heal with their hands. “When you work on the physical body, it is very important to feel. Machines can’t do this,” says Camara.

“The primary reason people take time off from work is low back pain. It’s become an occupational health care problem. People sit behind desks too long. They don’t use their bodies the way they should. If the condition worsens, it could lead to ligament ruptures, slip disc or osteo arthritis. The costs go up as the condition becomes chronic and more difficult to treat. Getting into our program allows us to address the problem early before they can become debilitating,” he says.

Intercare Building, 8420 Kalayaan Ave., Makati, tel. 8903378 to 79; Unit D, Upper GF, Westgate Tower, Investment Drive, Madrigal Business Park, Alabang, Muntinlupa, 8076863; 26-A Eisenhower Street, Greenhills, San Juan, 7246631; 13 Molave St., near Escario St., Cebu City, tel. 2323264.