Often “Whiplash” injuries seem insignificant at the time. Many patients I’ve cared for have related that they didn’t get hurt or didn’t need care or since they walked away from the accident the injuries just weren’t bad.
I speak from experience here. I was involved in a head-on collision when I was only 18 years old. I didn’t walk away, I was taken by ambulance to the hospital where I was examined, got some 30+ stitches to my forehead, and released. Nobody told me to seek any further treatment. And, I didn’t until…
…more than a year later when I began to experience constant neck pain, stiffness, and spasm, headaches, low back pain, difficulty concentrating, and fatigue.
Fortunately, someone referred me to a chiropractor. At the time I had no idea what a chiropractor was or what they did. This doctor helped me figure out that everything that was happening with me started with that whiplash injury.
I’ve committed the last 35+ years of practice to help people avoid and recover from chronic pain. Don’t make the mistake I did and assume your whiplash injuries will heal on their own.
The “Experts” Don’t Understand Whiplash
Johns Hopkins is one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world. While they say that whiplash injuries are poorly understood and some experience persistent pain they only recommend contacting your healthcare provider if your symptoms have not improved.
This is one reason why so many people experience more severe and long lasting injuries from whiplash than they need to. Proper treatment of any injury is a critical component to the healing process.
Can you imagine breaking a bone and not putting the arm or leg in a cast? How well would you expect that bone to heal? The problem is that bone fractures are easy to see and diagnose. Whiplash injuries are often elusive. The proper diagnostic tests are often not done until it is too late to truly direct the healing process.
Here’s a short video illustration of a minor low speed rear end collision whiplash. You can see the sudden movement of the neck and entire spine. This is made worse if you have no idea it is coming. You can see how easily it is to injure muscles, joints, discs, and the brain.
What Are the 4 Ways Whiplash Injuries Last Forever?
Let’s change that to include not only the ways whiplash injuries last forever but perhaps more importantly the why whiplash injuries last forever. Use this information to motivate and guide you in your care.
As you will find out the sooner you receive appropriate care the better and the fewer permanent problems you will experience. But, it is never too late to benefit from treatment that addresses the problem.
Let’s first look at the long term symptoms that frequently result from whiplash and then we’ll take a look at the underlying why. I’m not going to artificially limit either of these lists to 4.
The highly esteemed Cleveland Clinic states that whiplash is often a minor concern but that it can cause long term and permanent symptoms and damage.
Here are some of the more common long term whiplash symptoms:
- Chronic permanent stiffness and pain
- Dizziness
- Tingling, pain, and weakness in the arms
- Back pain
- PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Headaches
The reasons WHY these symptoms persist explains the WAYS whiplash injuries cause them to last forever.
Disturbing Way #1:Improper Examination and Diagnostics: if any injury is not examined properly and the correct diagnostic tests performed it leaves the doctor not truly understanding what was injured. And, without an appreciation of what was injured you can’t possibly move forward in an intelligent manner.
For example x-rays are the gold standard first diagnostic test performed to rule out a possible fracture. Without the information from an x-ray how could you possibly put together an intelligent plan.
Disturbing Way #2: Improper or Insufficient Treatment: let’s go ahead with the example of a fracture or broken bone. If the break were unstable the proper treatment is to immobilize the fracture with a cast so it can heal. The same applies to every tissue.
Proper treatment is dependent on the function of the injured tissue, its healing time frame, and what supports that healing.
With many of the “soft tissues” that are injured in whiplash the function of those tissues is to provide full range stable movement. It follows that a core of the appropriate whiplash treatment is to restore and encourage movement during the healing process.
Disturbing Way #3: Delay in Proper Treatment: far too often the treatment given is inappropriate to the injuries or the timing is off. Unfortunately, most medical providers fail to appreciate the seriousness of whiplash injuries and advise patients to seek additional care only if the symptoms persist.
This often results in delaying care too far into the healing process. The persistence of symptoms is a sign that healing is possibly not proceeding well and waiting for that to happen is almost ensuring long term permanent injuries.
Disturbing Way #4: Not Treating Long Enough: if you look up the healing process of soft tissues you get a crazy range of answers. Some answers point to complete healing in 6 weeks. If you follow professional athletes you know that not to be the case. A significant knee injury will often keep an athlete sidelined for 6 to 12 months.
The accurate answer is that while the healing process of soft tissue injuries starts in the first weeks following the whiplash trauma, it continues for 12 months or longer depending on the tissue injured and the extent of the damage.
This means that some ongoing treatment both by a practitioner and on your own is necessary for up to a year or longer. The minimum treatment time for any significant injury is 3 to 4 months of regular care with less frequent care after that.
On a weekly basis I meet people in my office seeking help with chronic pain ranging from neck and shoulder pain, headaches, numbness and tingling, to lower back pain. Most have experienced these symptoms on and off for years. And, the majority of the time there is no recent accident or trauma.
But, when we dig a little deeper there is always a history of trauma. Frequently there are one or more car accidents that are often described as minor and resulting in no injury or treatment.
Yet, when we take x-rays of the neck more often than not what I find is degenerative arthritis far too advanced given the person’s age and other history. While it’s possible to help these people the best time to avoid these issues would have been immediately following the trauma.
Make sure to subscribe to my social media pages where I regularly post valuable information.
Facebook: Life Chiropractic Facebook
YouTube: Life Chiropractic YouTube
Instagram: Life Chiropractic Instagram
Blog: https://lifewithinchiropractic.com/blog/
Schedule your first visit here: Life Chiropractic