AN A-Z OF HEAD, NECK AND ARM PAIN: WHIPLASH INJURY
The fastest developing causes of structural strain today are whiplash injuries. Car accidents are happening more frequently and, while seat belts do save lives, they can also be the cause of many spinal torsion injuries.
Most particularly minor car accidents, when people get up and walk away, can often be the start of these ignored neck injuries. Just because there is no fracture to record, soft tissue injury can make its mark a few weeks, months or even years later. Like a decaying tooth, the condition is asymptomatic initially.
Often people suffer several of these apparently minor mishaps. The strains accumulate and uncorrected neck injuries start to cause pain in the neck and arms, headaches, tiredness and frequent head colds.
A small intervertebral artery runs down through each side of the neck bones. Any stretching or pinching of these delicate tissues can cause interruption of the blood flow to or from the head causing dizzy spells and light-headedness.
This is why chiropractors are specially trained to test for this occurrence before any adjustment is carried out. Several tests are performed as it is just as important for the practitioner to know of any contra-indication as it is for the patient.
Sometimes the adjustment is performed with the patient sitting up as the headache can pound when lying down. Some whiplash injuries do much damage by tearing ligaments around the spinal joints in the neck and between the shoulder blades. In these cases the ligaments must be healed before the adjustments can be given. They also cause soft tissue damage in the supporting muscles. Untreated, these tissues become fibrotic because the muscle fibres form adhesions as they try to heal. But the twisted and knotted fibres cause pain when the head is turned.
If this type of injury is left unadjusted it heals out of alignment, and this is the beginning of so much pain in the short term, and neck arthritis in the long term.
Because these injuries involve the small bones in the neck, the nerve supply to the head, face, shoulders and arms can be impaired. Conditions such as sinusitis, facial neuralgia, earache, weakened eyesight and more can develop over time.
In addition, the sprained joints of the neck do not allow the lymphatic system to drain freely. Soon glandular troubles can be added to the feeling that you always have a head cold. Your head sinuses block up and you start a desperate round of antibiotics for infection.
The practitioner has the task of reversing this situation. All that is needed is a neck adjustment. Done with expertise, as soon as possible, adjustments (which don’t hurt in the right hands) will correct these problems. Leave it till later, as many do, and you will have to undergo a series of corrective treatments.
No-one wants this, but the therapist cannot go faster than the time your own body allows itself to heal. We wish we could correct in one treatment, but it is not always possible. If the injury has happened fairly recently to a strong, healthy and young body, chances of a rapid readjustment are much better.
I had experienced a whiplash injury in a car accident in Ireland. We were driving around a curve when a passing car with a boat trailer side-swiped us. I had been looking out of the window and hit my head on the side of the car window. The reaction was immediate . . . it was as if I was getting a cold. My head became stuffed up and my neck was sore. A headache began and I became miserable.
We called in to a local osteopath. The neck adjustment stopped all symptoms immediately as I knew it would. I wasn’t going to suffer the next day or have a cold for my holiday. The practitioner was a charming man with a fascinating brogue.
It mustn’t be forgotten that muscle damage from whiplash also extends down into the rib area, between the shoulder blades. This part of the injury can’t be ignored or chest pain and breathing difficulties will certainly chase you for years.
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