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Neck
Pain & Whiplash Injuries
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Car
accidents, blows to the back in sports, and on-the-job injuries
can easily leave you with a whiplash injury. While symptoms are
often felt immediately, pain may be delayed for days, months,
or, in rare cases, even years. In fact, many people wake up with
neck pain without being aware of ever having a head or neck injury.
The most common symptom of whiplash (affecting 62% to 92% of those
injured) is neck pain, and it usually begins between two hours
and two days after the accident. This is often the result of tightened
muscles that react to either muscle tears or excessive movement
of joints from ligament damage. The muscles tighten in an effort
to splint up and support the head, limiting the excessive movement.
While muscle relaxants and pain killers can relieve some of the
discomfort of these muscle spasms, these medications will only
cover up symptoms, failing to address the cause of the problem.
An
estimated 66% to 70% of those suffering from whiplash complain
of headaches.The pain may be on one side or both, on- again/-off
again or constant, in one location or more diffuse. These headaches,
like neck pain, are often the result of tightened, tensed muscles
trying to keep the head stable and, like tension headaches, they
are often felt behind the eyes.
Shoulder
pain, often described as pain radiating down the back of the neck
into the shoulder blade area, also may be the result of tensed
muscles. Muscle tears often are described as burning, prickling
or tingling pain. More severe disc damage may cause sharp pain
with certain movements which are relieved by holding your hand
over your head.
If
you experience any of these symptoms, you may have a whiplash
injury that, if left untreated, can cause far more serious problems
months or years later.
The
Quebec Automobile Insurance Society recently released an exhaustive
study of more than 10,382 articles on neck injuries and concluded
most interventions for whiplash injury were proven, including
soft cervical collars and corticosteroid injections. Yet they
recommended spinal manipulation as being clearly effective. So
if you suspect you have a whiplash injury, and/or have been involved
in an automobile accident, or if you are having neck pain for
some other reason our office is ready to help you with all of
the paperwork, including helping you to get a claim number established
and billing the insurance carrier. We'll help guide you through
the red tape, so that you can focus on getting better.
Stephen
M. Foreman and Arthur C. Croft, Whiplash Injuries: The Cervical
Acceleration/Deceleration Syndrome, 1988 Williams and Wilkins,
Baltimore, Ibid, p. 287 Ibid, p. 289. Quebec Task Force Rewrites
Whiplash Protocols, June 5, 1995, Dynamic Chiropractic, Vol. 13,
No. 12, p. 28