Whiplash is caused by a heavy hit (usually from a car crash) to the head forward or backward. Although typically associated with neck pain, whiplash is often the cause of other pain as well. It can cause neck strain, dizziness or vertigo, and even concussions.
On top of the physical impact of the hit, emotional stress is often the result of whiplash as well due to the event that caused it – whether a car accident, sports game, or other injury to the head.
The sudden impact on the head tears your muscles and tendons in the neck, which can lead to decreased range of motion, tightness, stiffness in the shoulders, and throbbing headaches.
Long Term Effects of Untreated Whiplash
While sometimes the pain may be immediate, other times it can appear days after an incident, appearing almost out of nowhere. The pain afterwards, however, does not magically disappear in the same way that it showed up.
That being said, to say whiplash is frustrating would be an understatement. Just as it restricts your neck, it can restrict your life. This is why it is imperative you get treatment as soon as possible.
The consequences of waiting are severe. The pain felt in the neck can radiate to your head, shoulders, and arms. This is because injury from whiplash stems from an injury to the spine which is an essential part of the central nervous system and plays an important part of your overall health.
The damage done to your spine is called vertebral subluxation. It can cause stress, fatigue due to lost sleep, difficulty swallowing, bad posture, and weakness in the muscles. Misaligned spines also pinch nerves and can cause blurry vision, dizziness, nausea, and ringing in your ears.
If not treated, the pain will increase exponentially. The pain can easily become chronic and last years if not treated. The neck and spine need to be realigned in order for whiplash to be completely healed.
According to Dr. Jerry Dreessen of Back to Action Chiropractic, the untreated patients are often the ones that get an X-ray as recommended by a primary care physician although the scan does not pick up on muscle or tendon tears.
This leads the patient to thinking nothing’s wrong, therefore the pain goes untreated and sometimes unnoticed due to muscle relaxers that are later prescribed. However Dr. Dreessen insists this is completely inaccurate, as he has seen that this injury can eventually lead to something as debilitating as arthritis.
He also adds that about 90% of his middle aged patients’ injuries are the result of a fender-bender that happened in their 20s. As seen here, the results of going untreated are long lasting.
Long term damage can also come in the form of permanent damage to the spine and nervous system, and deterioration of the vertebrae in your neck.
Clearly, nothing good comes from waiting to be checked out. You need medical assistance immediately if you are suffering from any of these symptoms after an accident.
So what’s the best whiplash treatment? Chiropractic care.
Chiropractic Treatment Is Best For Whiplash
In comparison to other options, chiropractic care is not only the best but the safest treatment for you. It is a noninvasive option that avoids surgery and does not rely on heavy use of painkillers.
Our country is currently in the midst of an opioid crisis and in 2014, Ohio was ranked as #1 for the state with the most overdoses.
Aside from the threat of addiction, powerful painkillers often make your pain worse because they affect your immune cells, which then release inflammatory molecules and increase swelling.
Chiropractors treat your pain simply with the use of their hands. In adjusting the spine they are setting forth a natural healing process rather than changing your body’s chemistry with medication.
Because the pain from whiplash is often rooted in the vertebrae of the neck or spine, chiropractic care treats whiplash through spinal adjustments, muscle stretches, and McKenzie exercises.
Spinal manipulation is the best treatment due to the effect it has on your overall well-being, as mentioned earlier.
By realigning the spine and neck, nerves are no longer irritated and inflammation is reduced. In ridding of inflammation, essential nutrients carried by the blood can flow easily throughout the body and signals sent through the nerves can be sent without disruption.
The healing from spinal manipulation is then supported by stretching, which helps restore elasticity in muscles, and McKenzie exercises, which is a physical therapy designed to help with misaligned discs.
The exercises are first done at your visit with the chiropractor where you can receive proper medical instructions on how to do them at home as well. Read more about the McKenzie method here.
A study done by the Journal of Orthopedic Medicine further supports the idea that patients with whiplash respond best to chiropractic.
The doctors found that 74% of their patients had improvement following chiropractic care. The patients they studied had neck pain with restricted range of motion, and some of the patients’ pain stemmed from nerve damage.
Based on their research, they concluded that “chiropractic is the only proven effective treatment” for whiplash due to the positive response from patients.
Don’t Keep Whiplash Pain, Get Rid Of It
Each year, 5 million car accidents occur in the US. Although there is no way to entirely prevent whiplash as you cannot prevent accidents from happening, there is a way to rid of your emotional and physical stress—through chiropractic care.
Whiplash often causes more than just pain to your neck. On top of the pain radiating throughout your body due to a misaligned spine, you can also have headaches that are emotionally draining when trying to get through your day.
Accidents are also expensive, which may cause even more of a burden. While other treatments may take a long time because your injuries are not found by an X-ray right away or you are just simply prescribed pain medication over a period of time, chiropractic gets you back to being healthier and stronger, faster.
Whiplash pain may come, but it doesn’t have to stay.
Call 513-247-9045 to schedule a visit with your local Montgomery chiropractor, Dr. Scanlon.