Your body is both sturdy and terribly fragile, especially when it comes to excessive force. Your bones and nerves are meant to handle a lot, but there’s a limit to everything.
Extreme care should always be taken to avoid any excessive force on your body, especially to your head and neck. However, accidents do happen, and sometimes those accidents result in whiplash.
Whiplash is a serious issue that effects more that 3 million new patients every year. It leaves plenty of people suffering from pain, sleeping issues, and more. Many are left to treat whiplash with heavy drugs, but what is it? And how can our Fort Lauderdale chiropractor help treat whiplash?
What Is Whiplash?
Whiplash is categorized as a neck injury that is due to forceful, rapid, back-and-forth movements of the neck, much like cracking a whip.
What Causes Whiplash?
Whiplash is most commonly caused by car accidents, especially rear-ended car accidents. However, whiplash can also occur in sports injuries, physical abuse, and other types of traumas such as a fall.
Whiplash may also be called a neck sprain or strain, even though these terms also include other types of neck injuries.
What Does Whiplash Effect?
There are four basic types of whiplash damage, and each is just as catastrophic and painful as the last. Keep in mind that your whiplash may present all four, or only one or two of these. No two cases of whiplash may be exact. These general four forms of injury are the most commonly seen forms of injury. These four include:
Muscle
Muscle injuries due to whiplash are often excessively painful, and even can result in muscle tears. When you face muscle injuries due to whiplash, you’re likely going to need a form of physical therapy to regain normal function. Chiropractic care is also exceptionally useful for muscle injuries, even when the injury is small, such as microscopic muscle fiber tears.
Nerve
Nerve complications due to whiplash are severe and can affect your daily quality of life. When your nerves are damaged or experiencing troubles, you’ll find that basic daily life tasks become more difficult. You may struggle to walk, talk, sit, wash yourself, sleep, and even eat. Nerves run throughout our bodies, and when one of them is damaged in some way, the pain is often debilitating. Chiropractic care is a great method of treatment that doesn’t involve dangerous drugs or invasive treatments.
Joint
Your body wouldn’t be able to properly move without your joints. However, when they’re damaged, you may find that your movements become nearly impossible in the effected area. Chiropractic care has the ability to help ease and treat joint damage and complications, allowing your joints to heal and regain strength much more smoothly than they would have otherwise. Your joints are important, and most medications do very little to treat issues with your joints.
Disc
Disc injuries are common with whiplash, and can have a huge impact on the quality of your health and your life. Your spine consists of discs, and these discs allow your spine to not only protect itself, but also to move correctly. Sometimes, when excessive force occurs, a disc may splinter or even slip, causing pain, poor posture, trouble sleeping, and even trouble breathing. Chiropractic care is great for setting your spine properly, and also does wonders for those suffering from disc injuries.
The Symptoms of Whiplash
You are probably here looking for the answer to how do I know I have whiplash? There are many different symptoms of whiplash, and not every person will experience all of the symptoms, or the same symptoms as the next person. In fact, symptoms of whiplash can start to appear weeks after an auto accident.
If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, visit your doctor or chiropractor for a diagnosis, which is the first step to treatment.
Are you suffering from whiplash or something else?
The most common signs of whiplash are:
- Neck pain
- Neck stiffness
- Loss of range of motion for the neck
- Headaches, usually at the base of the skull
- Tenderness and/or pain in the shoulder, upper back, and/or arms
- Tingling or numbness
- Fatigue
- Dizziness and/or blurred vision
- Sleep troubles
- Breathing troubles
- Pain when bending or standing
- Memory problems and difficulty concentrating
And much more.
Whiplash has the ability to affect nearly every aspect of your body. This is largely due to the importance of your spinal column. When something is askew with your neck and spine, your entire body is likely to suffer, even in ways you’ve never imagined were possible.
How Long Does Whiplash Last
Most people who have experienced whiplash will feel better within a few weeks, however some do have long lasting symptoms and issues. Chiropractors are able to accurately diagnose and treat whiplash and its systems. This treatment is non-invasive and utilizes a variety of chiropractic methods to help the spinal column heal.
How A Chiropractor Can Treat Whiplash
Like most chiropractors, our chiropractor in Fort Lauderdale has an arsenal of useful methods and tools for whiplash injury treatment and its complications. Your chiropractor will work with you and your doctor to formulate a treatment plan that works best for you and your lifestyle.
Some common methods of treatment for whiplash include:
Spinal Manipulation
This is also known as a chiropractic adjustment, and entails identifying the neck joints that are misaligned and then positioning them back into their proper place. This is done by gently moving the affected joint into the place it is constrained. In some cases, your chiropractor may apply swift yet gentle thrusts to the desired direction, and other times will use a slow mobilizing movement.
Sometimes, the flexion-distraction technique is also used, which is hands-on and gentle spinal manipulation that eases herniated discs.
Muscle Stimulation
This is the primary treatment used by chiropractors for whiplash or muscle dysfunction. It’s muscle stimulation and relaxation. This includes gentle stretching to the muscles that are experiencing excessive tension and repeated contractions. If the muscles are too tight, then the chiropractor will apply a more vigorous stretch, including gentle finger pressure techniques.
Trigger Point Therapy
Your chiropractor will be able to identify spinal joints, those that are limited or show abnormal motion. This is commonly referred to as subluxation. They will then help restore the motion with a thrusting technique. This helps to stretch body tissues and stimulate the nervous system, reinstating normal spine motion.
There are many types of therapy that your chiropractor may use to help treat whiplash, including interferential electrical stimulation, McKenzie Exercises, soft tissue therapies, instrument-assisted therapy, and so much more. Your chiropractor will work with you to plan a treatment schedule and course that is effective yet pain-free.
One of the most popular questions surrounding whiplash is: Can Whiplash Cause a Concussion?
The simple answer is, Yes. A concussion is caused when your brain is bounced around in the skull from a quick blow or bump on the head. In a whiplash scenario the sudden reversing of the direction your head is going in will cause the brain to experience some trauma.
What To Do If You Think You Have Whiplash
Whiplash is a serious and debilitating injury, and it often makes living unbearable. Most doctors will try and press heavy drugs, and even steroids on people to help treat whiplash. These come with heavy side effects that no patient would want. These drugs are also highly addictive and could even be fatal.
Chiropractic care is just as, if not more effective at treating whiplash than medications are. This type of care is also generally safe for most of the population, including those who are pregnant.
Whiplash is hard to deal with, but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re looking for a safe, effective, and drug-free method of treating whiplash, contact your chiropractor today for hands-on, involved, and non-invasive treatment options that are sure to have to go back to normal in hardly any time at all. Whiplash is painful, but it doesn’t have to be that way forever.
Contact us today if you live in the Fort Lauderdale Florida area, the only thing you have left to lose is pain, and who wants that?
