Every year, roughly 3 million Americans experience whiplash during slip and fall accidents according to a digital journal. Whiplash is a phenomenon when the neck suddenly moves back and forth due to a sudden jerk. It can also be identified by ‘crick’ noises heard at the neck or back during a car wreck.
Commonly, known as neck strain or sprain wherein the joints, muscles, and ligaments of the neck and the upper back are overstretched leading to severe pain. If you have experienced such chronic pain, rush to our chiropractor for back pain and for the neck too.
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If you feel muscle tightening, pain during movement of neck or back, dizziness, inflammation, shoulder pain, then it is advisable to attain chiropractic care within 48 hours of the accident. Are you confused and curious to know in detail? Hop down!
Whiplash: Not Just Any Common Neck Pain
A whiplash injury is not easily noticeable, but effects will be experienced later. If you don’t wish to invest money into the risky surgical processes and perpetual drug therapy, then visit our chiropractors who might help in relieving the pain through innovation pain-free techniques.
How to recognize a whiplash?
1. It can cause even with a slight pull or push
Chances of experiencing a whiplash increase during a rear-end or front-end collision. It is also common in sports like football, boxing, cricket or even while performing recreational activities like skiing, snowboarding or gymnastics.
2. Much force is not needed
Whiplash can occur at speeds as low as 10 mph. Thus, it should be mandatory to wear a seat belt while driving and follow road regulations.
3. Chances of whiplash increase with age
Older people suffer from many issues including neck pains. With age comes several complications wherein the body movement gets limited, muscles lose flexibility and strength and the ligament doesn’t get stretched easily.
4. Don’t ignore symptoms
You may experience pain after hours, weeks or even months. It’s better to address it at the earliest. Are you feeling constant headaches, fatigue, shoulder pains, dizziness, problem while sleeping or swallowing, then its time to visit your chiropractor! If you feel a shooting pain in the back (upper or lower), head straight to the chiropractor for back pain.
Also, get an X-ray done to make sure there are no dislocations and fractures.
5. Don’t rest
There is a common notion attached wherein people think that a few hours rest can help to ease the pain. But you are wrong. Resting after an accident can increase the pain in the shoulder, neck or back making it stiff and weak.
After consulting your doctor, start with your normal routine work or in severe cases the doctor may ask you to undergo physical therapy.
Symptoms of Whiplash Injury
It all starts with a common pain in the neck or the upper back and can widely differ from person to person. Any kind of discomfort should not be overlooked. Go through the below list of symptoms and look out for effective chiropractic care if needed.
- Muscle tightening at the neck or back
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Abnormal sensation like inflammation
- Chronic pain experienced with the movement of the neck
- Uneasiness during chewing or swallowing food
- Shoulder pain
- Upper back pain
In case of serious accidents, injury can be caused to the invertebral joints, discs, cervical muscles and can also damage the nerves of the neck or back. In such cases, our Wilmington chiropractors might help.
Diagnose whiplash injury for quick treatment
Car accident survivors should undergo an X-ray and even an MRI or CT scan if the doctor persists to identify any soft tissue injury. A fracture can easily be seen in an X-ray except for tissue tear which may turn fatal that might need surgery.
How to treat it?
We have a list of simple conservative methods that can help in most cases. But do consider this after you have visited your chiropractor.
1. Do as the doctor say! If your pain is not severe, then start with your routine regime, it might be painful at the first but this won’t make the muscles stiff.
2. To immobilize the movement of the neck, you can also use a soft cervical collar that may help in quick healing. But don’t use it for a prolonged period.
3. To control pain use heat, ice or pain balms.
4. Daily intake of medications can aid in faster healing. Don’t forget your medicines, please!
5. Physical therapy can help to restore the normal position of muscles and joints. If your doctor advises you to do so, a short duration of physical therapy can do wonders.
6. Spinal manipulation including massage, exercise aids in improving blood circulation, restore range of motion to enhance the healing process.
How does the chiropractor work?
The main aim of chiropractic care is to ensure the overall health and alignment of the spine. Whiplash mainly affects the neck and back, the chiropractor works on correcting the misalignments and bringing back the vertebrae at its normal position. This enables in relieving nerve pressure and improves circulation.
Chiropractic care is the most effective and safe option to overcome the damage to the musculoskeletal system. The chiropractor for back pain uses excellent chiropractic manipulative care using non-invasive techniques for better results.
This method of treatment focuses on the origin of the pain and provides non-surgical and non-drug solutions.
Ways to prevent whiplash injuries
There are two simple ways that are known to each one but hardly anyone follows. Hope this doesn’t go unnoticed!
1. While on the road, wear a safety belt. This doesn’t assure complete protection but precaution is better than cure. A seat belt and a helmet have been successful in saving lives and may be helpful in reducing or cutting your medication bills.
You can use headrests in the car to protect the neck from sudden car jerks. Follow traffic sentinels for a safe journey.
2. Sportsmen should facilitate themselves with appropriate equipment and good techniques to avoid neck or back injury. Activities like rafting, skateboard, snowboard, horse riding, etc. should be done with proper suits and under supervision.
5 simple ways to relieve from normal neck and back pain
Back pains are an issue in every household. People spend a huge amount on clinics or ayurvedic medicines. A small dose of exercise and a slight change in your lifestyle can help you to relieve from the body pain. Don’t stress yourselves but rather the below 5 ways can help to strengthen your muscles and joints.
1. Try an anti-inflammatory diet
Reducing trans fat, processed food and sugar can help to decrease the intake of inflammatory substances in the body. Pro-inflammatory food products can cause pressure and pain in the neck and back. Introducing anti-inflammatory foods like turmeric and ginger in your meal may help to reduce inflammation.
2. Don’t Smoke
According to a study published in ‘Human Brain Mapping’, it is found that the drug interferes with brain pathways that lead to chronic pain. Also, smokers are more vulnerable to chronic pain as compared to non-smokers.
3. Sit upright!
We have heard this a lot during our childhood where our teachers and parents asked us to sit upright. Sadly, with time fewer people follow this. If your back is inclined with your chair at an angle of 90 degrees, then back pains would be a thing of the past. Start sitting right.
4. Exercising regularly
This is a long-term solution to neck and back pains. It benefits by strengthening the muscles around the neck and back and allows healthy movement patterns of the joints. Just a 30-minute exercise can make a difference.
5. Yoga a day can keep chronic pains away!
We all know about this very well but are very lazy to practice it. Yoga has many benefits that can fight stress and depression too. Stress can cause misalignment and nerve irritation making you inefficient with chronic pains, especially in the back.
A 15-minute yoga every day can help you in getting relieved from back pain. Yoga can make you flexible and is known to have multiple benefits for a healthy life.
Avoiding chiropractic cure can be painful
Adjusting to the pain can only increase it and sometimes lead to painful results. Undergoing chiropractic adjustments realigns your muscles, makes your nervous system flexible which gives less pain to your body.
Choose pain-free, drug-free and surgery-free methods to overcome acute and chronic pain by visiting Wilmington chiropractor at Kennedy Health Pain Relief and Wellness, U.S.A.
The wellness center is indulged in all types of stem cell treatment along with providing advanced treatments for chronic pains. With effective chiropractic manipulative care techniques, body pains are treated easily.
Chiropractic care is a safe and effective treatment method that reduces pain, inflammation, and damage to the musculoskeletal system. Patients can benefit from chiropractic care because it is non-invasive, non-surgical, and a drug-free option.
Schedule an appointment now!