A motor vehicle impact at a speed as low as 5 MPH creates enough of an impact to cause severe spinal injury or damage. A study from 2006 evaluating the risk of low speed and low impact collisions, determined that a crash occurring at a speed of only 5.97 MPH resulted in symptoms of strains and headaches.
What exactly is WHIPLASH?
Whiplash is an injury to the neck muscles, ligaments, tendons and nerves from a rapid forward and backward motion of the neck caused by trauma (ie. car accident). When a sudden force moves your neck; ligaments and tendons that hold the vertebrae in current alignment, are damaged. The damage causes the vertebrae to change their position and irritate adjacent nerve roots. This then will cause impairment of the function of the body parts that are controlled by these nerves.
What are the symptoms of WHIPLASH?
Whiplash symptoms commonly have a delayed onset often taking weeks or months to present. Even though a whiplash injury can vary greatly in terms of onset and severity, there are a number of conditions that are very common among those who have suffered from a whiplash injury.
Neck Pain & Stiffness: This is the most common complaint in whiplash trauma, being reported by over 90% of patients.
Headaches: After neck pain headaches are the most prevalent complaint effecting more than 80% of all people.
List of more Symptoms that result from whiplash:
Dizziness Ringing in the ears
Brain Injury/Concussion Pain/Numbness in Arms & Hands
Muscle Spasm Sleep Disruption
Low Back Pain Psychological Changes
Fatigue Blurred Vision
Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Problems
What are the long term affects of untreated WHIPLASH?
Patients who have a whiplash injury, treated immediately, suffer significantly less long-term effects than those who delay treatment or receive no treatment at all. Long term effects of untreated whiplash are; chronic pain and loss of function, permanent damage to the vertebrae and nervous system as well as accelerated degeneration of the cervical spine.
7 Strategies to Overcome WHIPLASH
Chiropractic Care: Chiropractic adjustment of the spine restores normal motions and positions of the spinal vertebrae that were effected from the accident. This realignment and motion to the vertebrae allows proper nerve function to the brain to allow the body to heal the damaged areas. It is by far the single most effective treatment for minimizing the long term impact of whiplash injuries. Without it, maximum healing can not be established.
Soft Tissue Rehabilitation: Soft tissues are the muscle, ligaments and tendons and nerves that are damaged during the injury. Very specific stretching and ROM (range of motion) exercises are performed to prevent scar tissue formation and to lessen pain.
Therapeutic Exercise: These are exercises geared specifically to strengthen the muscles and supporting ligaments that stabilize your spine. Without proper muscle stabilization re-injury to the area is more likely.
Massage: A therapeutic massage can be very beneficial to ease muscle tension in your neck. It also helps in the healing process by improving circulation, reducing pain and reducing headache frequency.
Trigger Point Therapy: Trigger point therapy is performed by identifying tight painful points of a muscle by putting direct pressure on these points to alleviate muscle tension.
Nutrition: With whiplash comes inflammation. So, consuming whole foods or supplements that act as a natural anti-inflammatory is beneficial. Also, avoiding and removing those foods that cause inflammation.
Ice: Just as we stated above, these injuries cause a lot of inflammation around your spine. Icing your neck for 10-15 minutes 2-4 times a day will help control the swelling as well as decrease the pain.
When you combine chiropractic adjustments to the rest of the strategies,
restoration of your injury is greatly improved.
So if you’re looking for the most effective way to overcome whiplash without the use of drugs or surgery, then chiropractic along with these other treatments are the way to go. At our clinic we offer all of these ways to help you recover as quickly and as effectively as possible. Just as important, we teach you how to manage this problem once you get over the obstacle in order to prevent further injury to your spine.
Remember spinal problems often turn into major health problems due to the spine’s unstable relationship with the central nervous system and brain. Research continues to prove that even minor fender benders and collision trauma possess enough power to radically alter both the short and long term health of those involved.
Studies show that chiropractic is the only proven effective treatment for chronic whiplash. (Khan, J.Cook)
28 patients who had initially been treated with anti-inflammatory drugs, soft collars and physiotherapy, had all become chronic and later referred for chiropractic care. After seeing a chiropractor 93% of the patients had improved. (J.Cook)
