Whiplash Injuries and Chronic Pain

The Cause of Whiplash

Injury to the body is caused when one part of the body moves too quickly in relation to another part of the body. In whiplash, the head and torso are moving in different directions, resulting in damage to the tissues of the neck.

When you think of the term "whiplash" picture a whip being snapped. The end of the whip follows the body of the whip backward and forward. It is the end of the whip that is the last to move. The same applies to your head and neck. Picture your body as the body of the whip and your neck and head as the end. When the weight of your head snaps backward and forward in a rear end auto collision, your neck takes the brunt of the force. There is a normal range of motion for your neck. In a whiplash injury, due to the rapid movement with the head following the body backward and then rebounding forward, the motion exceeds what is a normal range of movement for your neck muscles, bones and ligaments causing injury to these structures.


Symptoms of Whiplash

Because the neck is a very complex structure, and there are many important nerves and blood vessels travelling through the neck to other parts of the body, damage to these tissues can cause a complex set of symptoms that can be difficult to diagnose. Whiplash symptoms include:

• Neck Pain



• Headache



• Low Back Pain



• TMJ or Jaw Pain



• Arm or Shoulder Pain



• Dizziness or Vertigo



• Visual Symptoms
  

Neck injuries are a common problem seen in a chiropractor's office. Most of the time, a patient will have some temporary discomfort that will resolve within a few weeks after the injury. A significant percentage of patients – around 20 to 30% – will develop some kind of chronic pain or disability from their injury.

In my practice I often see patients who present with chronic pain in the neck, shoulders or with headaches and migraines. After taking a history, I will often find out that these patients suffered some sort of whiplash injury years before they presented in my office with their symptoms of chronic pain. Usually a patient may not realize that they had an injury significant enough to affect the structures of their neck. But the force of an accident or trauma does not need to be very hard to cause injury. Studies show that even slow speed rear end collisions can cause damage to the ligaments and muscles of the neck. Years later this damage may show up on xray as osteoarthritis of the cervical spine (joints in the neck) and may be the cause of chronic neck pain, shoulder pain, headaches and migraine headaches.

How Chiropractic Helps

Chiropractic adjustments can help patients who have suffered from a recent whiplash injury or even injuries from years earlier. The way a chiropractic adjustment helps repair the tissues of the neck is by: 1. Stretching ligaments which helps to break up scar tissue and grow new, healthier tissue; 2. Chiropractic care also helps to break up pain signals. It does this because pain signals come from the nervous system and a chiropractic adjustment to the neck area can reduce overstimulation of the nerves occuring in chronic pain. 3. The use of intersegmental traction, commonly referred to as non-surgical spinal decompression, futher helps heal the discs between the vertebrae of the neck which are often damaged as a result of trauma.

Chiropractic care is the only natural way to get lasting relief from the pain that occurs with neck trauma and whiplash injuries because it not only helps to relieve the pain, but it helps to correct the damaged spinal structures causing the pain.


If you would like to find out more about whiplash injuries and chiropractic care, please visit http://www.bretonchiropractic.com/. Chiropractor, Grand Rapids, MI.