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Whiplash is not a disease like
arthritis or high blood pressure but a description of how an
injury occurred. When a person suffers a whiplash injury, there
spine, usually their neck, was hurt by being thrown around in
a certain manner.
 Whiplash
Mechanism
Whiplash usually occurs when
the head and neck are unexpectedly or suddenly thrown
very quickly in one direction and then rebound in the opposite.
You might say the head is "whipped around" on the neck.
In a motor rear-end injury the first thing that occurs is the
body is thrown forwards but the head is thrown backwards and
the neck is hyperextended. A whiplash can also result from the
sudden stopping of a car where the body remains fairly in place
but the head and neck are thrown forwards into hyperflexion.
In almost all whiplash type injuries
there is a certain amount of hyperflexion and hyperextension.
That is because the muscles react to the initial injury by pulling
or rebounding in the opposite direction. The rebound can and
often does cause injury. (Occasionally a whiplash injury can
result
from side to side motion of the neck also called left and right
lateral hyperflexion). There is more to whiplash than hyperflexion
and hyperextension. Usually the head is rotated a slight bit,
either to the right or left when an accident occurs and this
complicates the effects of the injury.
Degrees of Whiplash
All whiplash injuries are a little
different because there are so many things that change from accident
to accident: how the driver was facing, his/her age, amount of
warning or state of preparedness, the health of their bones,
muscles, ligaments and discs, the direction of the impact and
the speeds involved.
Unfortunately wearing a seat
belt has little effect on whiplash injury protection. Headrests,
however, which are fairly standard these days do offer some protection
in the hyperextension aspect of the injury.
A whiplash type injury doesn't
only occur in car accidents. Whiplash injuries may occur as a
result of sudden forces to the body as in contact sports like
football and falls, direct trauma to the skull or even a sudden
sneeze.
In Most Cases
In the vast majority of whiplash
injuries the damage is to the neck's ligaments, tendons, muscles
and vertebral alignment. When the vertebrae are misaligned, the
nerves that travel between them may be "trapped".
Whiplash Symptoms
Whiplash symptoms may start as
neck soreness or stiffness, perhaps accompanied by a headache
immediately or within a few hours of the accident. Along with
these symptoms there may be pain and/or numbness, tingling, or
a pins and needles feeling between the shoulder blades, arm and
hand. Some people may experience ear ringing, dizziness, or hearing
loss. Sometimes the eyes can be affected and there may be pain
behind the eyeballs, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, or
other visual symptoms. Occasionally, there may be tearing or
running of the nose.
Medical Care?
In some whiplash accidents, medical
care falls short. Too often many people who have experienced
a whiplash injury do little more than live on pain killers, muscle
relaxants and various therapies including surgery. They need
to know that in many cases a visit to the chiropractor may totally
eliminate the problem safely, quickly and without drugs or surgery.
Chiropractic Care for Whiplash
Victims
Any kind of accident or trauma
may (and usually does) cause spinal subluxations. In other words
the vertebrae are out of proper alignment and are "pinching"
or more accurately, "impinging" or interfering with
nerves. Often this is a painless condition but in whiplash type
injuries to the neck, the vertebral misalignments, because of
the neck anatomy, are often quite painful. No amount
of pain killers, muscle relaxants, sedatives or physical therapy
can realign the vertebrae and relieve the nervous system and
skeletal system from pressure. What is needed is the chiropractic
art: the spinal adjustment which realigns the spinal column safely
and easily.
Old Whiplash?
Some people may have had a whiplash
in the past but now feel pretty good, do they need to see a chiropractor?
Yes. The spine may still be structurally unsound. Many times
people develop arthritis and disc problems years after the accident
because they never got a chiropractor to check and adjust their
spine. Without structural integrity the spine will not heal properly.
It may become symptom free but will ultimately have problems. |
