Whiplash is a non-medical term commonly associated with motor vehicle accidents, when the vehicle has been hit in the back. Whiplash happens when an extremely rapid extension and flexion takes place, especially in relation to the neck.
Let us briefly discuss the four phases of a whiplash injury to understand what treatments are available are available.
It All Happens in Seconds
When a car has been hit from the back, in less than half a second of time your body goes through a very rapid forward acceleration and deceleration. During the first phase, your body is catapulted forward while your head is flung backward creating a shearing force in your neck; while during the second phase, your body has already reached maximum forward acceleration, but your head is still moving in the opposite direction, further exacerbating the shearing force on your neck.
Third and Fourth Phases
During the third phase, your body is now settling down in your seat but your head and neck are now moving forward, increasing the flexion injury on your neck. And lastly, during the most damaging of the four phases, your body’s forward movement is now arrested by your seat belt but your head is still moving forward.
You may suffer an external concussion if your head hits the steering wheel or the windshield or even an internal brain injury when your brain hits the inside of your skull. As you can understand, the four phases of a whiplash do a lot of damage to the upper body.
Whiplash Treatments
About a fifth of the patients unfortunately continue to suffer from pain and some form of disability for possibly most of their lives after an accident that caused their whiplash. Chiropractic care, soft tissue rehabilitation, home care and medical intervention in severe cases are treatments that can lessen the symptoms after an accident. Proper exercises under expert supervision can help those patients with less serious symptoms of the whiplash injury. Chiropractic care such as that available at Business Name located just outside of Denver, can help considerably by manipulating muscle and bone into proper alignment and thus easing the results from the phases of a whiplash.
