No one asks for a whiplash injury-they are nearly always a surprise and rarely the fault of the victim. But they are very common. In fact, over 1 million rear-end collisions occur every year in the U.S. Most cases of whiplash are minor and heal within a few weeks with the proper care. Unfortunately, a small number of patients, about 20-30% with whiplash cases, becomes chronic and lead to long-term discomfort. Whiplash consists of some classic symptoms. Sometimes these symptoms occur immediately after the crash and other times they may take weeks or even months to appear. Common symptoms are the following:
- A headache
- Neck Pain
- Dizziness
- Shoulder Pain
- Jaw Pain
- Arm Pain
Many people might think that they only had a minor car accident that was with speed of only 5-10 mph.
Dr. Cailliet stated:
“Simulated impacts have been studied extensively and essentially confirm that a low-speed impact with minimal or no damage to the impacted vehicle can and does cause significant musculoskeletal injury to the drivers or occupant’s head and neck.”
Dr. Macnab reported in his article, “Acceleration Extension Injuries of the Cervical Spine,” said:
“Acceleration depends on the force applied and the inertia of the vehicle that has been struck. The force is dependent upon the weight and speed of the striking vehicle so that a streetcar traveling at 3 mph can apply as much force and initiate the same degree of acceleration as a compact car traveling at 40 mph.”
The key to recovering quickly from your whiplash injury is to understand how this happened. It is hard to sort out the truth from the myth about whiplash. This guide is to help you understand how you were injured and how to get well again.
Your Spine: How it is built
Your spine supports your body weight, aids in movement, and serves as a passageway for your spinal cord and nervous system. The spine is made up of 24-26 vertebrae, that are individually designed for specific roles. Each vertebra is separated by a tough disc that cushions the bones and allows flexibility and movement. The spine as a whole, with many bones and disc, is capable of very large motions. But each individual joint by itself allows only a few degrees of movement.
Neck Movements
The neck is the most flexible part of the spine. It allows your head to move in practically any direction. But, its flexibility also makes it the area of the spine that is most vulnerable to injury.
In addition to the disc for flexibility and movement of the cervical spine (neck region) also has what is the known as the facet joint. The facet joint is the part of each neck vertebrae, and it allows the bones to glide smoothly over each other. All of these neck facet joints moving together making it possible for the head to nod forward or backward. In a typical segment of the neck region, the spine has 4 facet joints and two-disc joints.
How Collisions can hurt your body:
The bottom line on whiplash is this: your body was not designed for the abnormal motions that occur during a collision. Normally when your head moves forward and backward, all of the vertebrae participate equally and safely in the motion. Whiplash, however, is not normal motion. During a collision, which takes place in a split second, your head is thrown backward so forcibly and quickly that your body does not even have a chance to respond. As we mentioned earlier, the facet joints allow smooth, controlled forward and backward movement motion of the head and neck. And each joint moves equally to aid this motion.
Different Phases of Whiplash Motion:
Watching each spinal segment in a live human being during a whiplash type collision is not an easy task. What these scientists did was to subject a volunteer to a simulated rear-end collision, while videotaping the spinal motion with x-ray video camera at very high speeds (about 500 frames per second). Whiplash injuries occur in about a tenth of a second so that the entire occupant motion would take up just three frames with a regular video camera with a rate of 30 frames per second.
These researchers found that the smooth motions that they saw when looking at the overall motion during whiplash were much more complex when they examined and analyzed the motions of individual segments.
The Whiplash motion looks like the following:
Phase 1: Upright spine before collision
Phase 2: Immediately after the impact, the car seat pushes the torso forward while the head remains stationary. At the same time, the torso “ramps” up the seat, compressing the cervical spine.
Phase 3: Torso is accelerated by the vehicle seat and may start to ramp up the seat. The lower neck is then pulled forward by the accelerated torso/seat. The head rotates and extends rapidly rearward hyper-extending the neck. The vehicle seat begins to spring forward, and torso continues to accelerate forward.
Phase 4: The spine forms an S-shaped curve before the musculature of the neck has a chance to react. This S-shape curve results in bending and damaging ligaments in several of the spinal segments.
Head and torso are accelerated forward. The neck is “whipped” forward rotating and hyper-flexing the neck forward. The head accelerates due to neck motion and moves ahead of the seat back.
The latest study on this issue shows that the joint capsule and disc undergoes excessive stress in just a few segments of the spine. So much stress that the joint capsules and disc can be torn or the cartilage of the joint itself can be “pinched,” resulting in tissue damage and pain.
Why your body is in pain?
All of the most common symptoms of whiplash can be traced either directly or indirectly to the trauma in your neck that you experience the auto injury. There are 5 major types of injury that whiplash can cause, these are muscle, ligament/tendons, nerve, facet joint injury, and fractures.
1. Muscle Injury:
o Most whiplash pain involves muscle tissue since it is the easiest to damage in a collision. During the impact, the muscles in your neck are stretched beyond what they normally experience. Muscle damage is accompanied by swelling and tenderness of the muscles in the neck and shoulders. Fortunately, muscle injuries heal quickly and usually don’t require extensive lengthy treatment.
2. Ligament/Tendon Injury:
o Now a new study has looked more closely at what happens to the neck, but this time by studying the anterior ligaments of the spine. Previous studies have shown that some patients experience injuries to the anterior longitudinal ligament (ALL) after whiplash. This new report by leading whiplash researchers used a sophisticated mathematical analysis (based upon experimental anatomical and crash data) to see what happens to the ALL during a crash.The ALL runs along the front of the human neck, providing stability for the vertebrae of the spine. The added hypermobility may lead to spinal disorders such as early degeneration of the connected intervertebral disc or vertebrae. In addition, segmental hypermobility can lead to long-term instability. Catastrophic failure of the ALL in a whiplash injury will almost inevitably result in simultaneous injury to the intervertebral disc requiring Chiropractic intervention with specific and scientific analysis to prevent further damage and degeneration.
3. Nerve Injury:
o Just as muscles, ligaments/tendons are stretched during rapid motion of whiplash, so our nerves. Most nerves are able to handle such motion. But if your head is turned, head restraint wasn’t adjusted properly, having neck instability, to begin with, a nerve can be damaged and stretched too far or pinched. Nerve injuries can be slightly more difficult to heal than muscle and ligament damage. Nerves that are trapped by misalignment of the vertebra require chiropractic adjustments to restore normal functional capacity.
4. Facet Joint Injury:
o Facet joint injury can show itself in a variety of ways. Pain in the area of the joint is the most common symptom. Facet damage can also result in pain that is felt elsewhere in the body. Shoulder and arm pain are common whiplash complaints that may be related to facet joint injury.
Healing of joint damage can be more difficult for many reasons. First, the joint itself does not have a good supply of blood, which makes it hard for the tissues to heal. Secondly, the constant motion of the joint and swelling can irritate the injury. Thirdly, misalignment of the vertebra called subluxation is the culprit cause of this problem causing loss of motion in a damaged vertebra in the lower neck area and creating too much instability in the upper neck.
5. Fractures:
Fractures in the neck may also occur during motor vehicle accidents when the head is violently jerked either backward or forwards. The most common type of spine fracture is a vertebral body compression fracture. Sudden downward force shatters and collapses the body of the vertebrae. If the force is great enough, it may send bone fragments into the spinal canal, called a burst fracture. Abnormal slipping and rubbing motions can cause pain and damage the spinal nerves or spinal cord. Stable fractures can usually be treated with bracing and rest. Unstable fractures usually require surgery to realign the bones and prevent spinal cord or nerve injury.when more pressure is put on a bone than it can stand, it will break. People affected by osteoporosis, tumors, and certain forms of cancer that weaken bone are prone to vertebral compression fractures (VCF). The fracture appears as a wedge-shaped collapse of the vertebra.
Effective Healing Methods:
The goal of healing and stability is to help the damaged tissues from the injury. This may take time, depending upon the extent of the damage.
First, it’s very important that you stay active and continue to keep your daily activities. Don’t take excessive time off work or recreation, as this can make it harder for you to get back into the daily lifestyle. The more you make an effort to stay active, the easier it will be for you if you have a legal case later on.
Chiropractic with Whiplash:
Chiropractors work to correct the biomechanical problem causing the symptoms related to whiplash. An approach that will only emphasize on pain or other symptoms will not correct the problem. One report examined 10,382 articles on a neck injury and found traditional techniques for whiplash (collars, injections, ultrasound, medication) were largely ineffective. Several studies point to the success of chiropractic for whiplash sufferers. One found 26% were completely pain-free after chiropractic intervention and the other 74% were significantly improved. Another found 93% improvement.
Patients who undergo chiropractic care are found to have the natural curve of their necks restored, whereas patients who do not undergo chiropractic care tend to be left with a straightened or even reverse curve in their neck. Through research from the Cervical Spine Research Society conducted by Dr. Hohl, he has been shown that after an average of 7 years post-auto accident, an acceleration of degenerative disc disease following whiplash injuries occurred. By that amount of time, auto insurance will not cover the damage of auto injury.
Dr. Gonstead’s Experience with Whiplash
According to Dr. Gonstead, whiplash usually causes a lower neck problem, but the major problem is often the upper neck problem. He often found damage in the front of the neck bone in the case where a lower neck problem is involved. When there is a very bad whiplash case, he often saw atrophy of the thumb muscles and they couldn’t bring the thumb and index finger together. Dr. Gonstead always wanted to adjust the whiplash as early as possible after the accident. Dr. Gonstead used soft collars for TV and driving purposes if they couldn’t hold up their neck and also make sure that after the Chiropractic adjustment the neck will heal in the best posture as possible. Dr. Gonstead stated that traction for whiplash is to be avoided along with cervical collar. Ice will help reduce the sensation of pain but heat will make the muscle inflammation worse and increase the pain. Typically whiplash damages start to degenerate after 6 months of stagnant lack of care to the spine.
In the Future:
When the whiplash injury is cared for with Chiropractic adjustments, the whiplash will stabilize and heal properly with a series of Chiropractic adjustments. There will be no fear of reoccurring symptoms, a progression of degeneration, and less medical bills to pay for in the future. Not just any Chiropractic adjustment will do. The Chiropractor has to be specific, objective, and creating a future plan of how to keep their spine strong and stable. Dr. Gonstead had the most experience with all kinds of whiplash injuries and his Chiropractic system has been tested throughout time. There are all kinds of whiplash injuries that involve the muscles, ligaments, nerves, and bones so finding a good Chiropractor is very important and if they perform Chiropractic adjustment like Dr. Gonstead.contact our Edina chiropractor today.