We’ve been touting the importance of actively treating ankle sprains for years, and now new research is adding another reason why you shouldn’t ignore that sprained ankle – it could negatively affect your gut health.
The problems associated with unaddressed or under-addressed ankle sprains have been well documented both here and in medical literature. Aside from a higher likelihood of future sprains and chronic pain, untreated ankle sprains can lead to balance and mobility issues. This can happen as a result of various sensory-perceptual and motor-behavioral impairments or disruptions.
Research has also shown that your gut microbiota – the microorganisms that live in our digestive tract and help with certain bodily processes – can be impacted as a result of a brain injury or changes in nerve signal relays. This led researchers to wonder if an untreated ankle sprain could in fact have negative consequences for our gut health.
Ankle Sprains and Gut Health
To test their theory, researchers in Japan recruited 32 athletes with a history of ankle sprains and 18 athletes with no history of ankle sprains or any other musculoskeletal injuries to act as a control group. DNA was extracted from fecal samples to be able to track the gut microbiota in each individual.
The team found that athletes with a history of ankle sprains had less biodiversity in their gut bacteria compared to that of the control group. Biodiversity is important in our gut health, and if inflammation or other factors result in too much or too little of certain bacteria in a biome, health issues can develop.
Researchers stopped short of pinpointing the exact reason for the difference in gut microbiota between athletes, but they surmised that it could be affected by a number of factors related to chronic ankle sprains, like:
- The neural effects of ankle sprains
- Increased psychological stress caused by the sprain
- A possible “communication” pathway between gut microbiota and joints, which could cause the selective proliferation of certain bacteria and promote inflammation.
At a minimum, researchers concluded that lateral ankle sprains are a neuromechanical condition that impacts multiple body systems. In other words, don’t just try to walk off an ankle sprain and assume it will get better with time. Untreated ankle sprains can lead to chronic ankle issues, and this can also lead to changes in how our brain receives or interprets nerve signals from the area. Aside from balance and proprioception changes, there’s a possibility that it could also negatively affect your gut health, which helps regulate a number of essential body processes!
