November Newsletter: It's always a good idea to visit your chiropractor after an auto accident

Woman has her spine adjusted

It's Always a Good Idea to Visit Your Chiropractor After an Auto Accident

Are you dealing with a few aches and pains after a motor vehicle accident? It's not unusual to develop a few aches and pains after an accident. Luckily, a visit to your chiropractor can ease your pain and reduce your recovery time.

How Accidents Affect Your Body

Strong forces exerted on your body cause injuries during car accidents. When your car suddenly decelerates from 60 mph to 0 after hitting another car or a tree, you may be thrown against the side of the car or hit your head against the dashboard. Although your seatbelt helps protect you from serious injury, it doesn't keep your body completely still during an impact. Unfortunately, injuries occur at any speed and aren't limited to high-speed crashes.

The abrupt change in movement during a crash strains muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons and may even alter the alignment of the vertebrae in your neck and spine.

A car accident triggers your fight-or-flight response and floods your body with adrenaline, a hormone that gives you extra energy to deal with dangerous situations. Thanks to the effects of adrenaline coursing through your body, you may not feel any pain at first. A few hours or days later, you might begin to notice a nagging pain and stiffness in your neck or back.

Using Chiropractic to Combat Pain

Chiropractic treatment eases pain and stiffness and improves range of motion, mobility, and flexibility. Treatments are designed to:

  • Relieve Pain. Chiropractic treatments increase your body's output of hormones that reduce pain. Spinal manipulation, massage, and other therapies help your body release endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin, and other natural painkillers. Treatments also help reduce painful muscle spasms common after accidents.
  • Improve Spinal Alignment. Your chiropractor uses spinal manipulation to realign your spine after an accident. The treatment involves quick thrusts that move the vertebrae back into their natural position. Spinal manipulation improves circulation, relieves pain, helps your body heal, and eases pressure on joints, nerves, muscles, and soft tissues.
  • Reduce Inflammation. Inflammation helps your body repair itself after an injury, but can also lead to increased pain and stiffness if it continues for too long. Chiropractic treatments may decrease the production of cytokines, proteins that play an important role in inflammation.
  • Break Up Scar Tissue. Scars not only form from cuts in your skin, but also on tissues deep inside your body. Scar tissue can make your joints or muscles feel tight, cause pain, and limit your ability to move your body easily. Treatments like massage and soft-tissue mobilization break up scar tissue before it can make you miserable.

Whiplash and Chiropractic

Whiplash, a painful injury that affects the neck, is a common motor vehicle accident injury. During the collision, your neck whips back and forth or from side to side. The motion may cause misalignments in your vertebrae and damage tissues, muscles, and ligaments. In some cases, whiplash can injure the rubbery discs that cushion your vertebrae.

Massage, spinal manipulation, soft tissue mobilization, ultrasound, and other therapies help injured tissues heal after whiplash and relieve pain, numbness, tingling and headaches, while improving range of motion.

Although chiropractic treatment is most beneficial immediately after an accident, the therapies your doctor uses could help reduce your symptoms even it's been months or years since your accident.

A case report published in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine examined the benefits of chiropractic for a patient who had been injured in an accident three years prior. After treatment, she reported improvements in pain and quality of life and was finally able to stop taking opioids.

Have you been in a car accident? Make your appointment with the chiropractor today.

Sources:

Johns Hopkins Medicine: The Science of Addiction

Journal of Chiropractic Medicine: Chiropractic Management of a Patient With Chronic Pain in a Federally Qualified Health Center: A Case Report, 6/2018

Mayo Clinic: Whiplash

Spine Universe: Whiplash: 5 Things You Should Know

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Testimonials

  • "Dear Dr. Zabawa,
    I want to thank you for being my #1 healthcare provider.
    I have been under chiropractic care for 40 years and of the many chiropractors I have been treated by,
    you and your precise atlas adjustment are the best.
    It really is gentle and effective. I've had migraines, scoliosis, herniated L4-L5, and sciatica -
    and in the 11 yrs of being under your care I have had no problems or re-occurrence of any
    of my former symptoms.
    You are the best and I thank you."
    Judy B.
  • "Hi, I'll always remember the wonderful things you've done for me at Atlas Chiropractic of Sarasota.
    I thank Dr. Zabawa for getting me up and running!
    My last chiropractor said there was nothing else they could do for me, and I felt as if my life was over.
    (I couldn't even play video games without pain.)
    Now that I've been introduced to your atlas adjustments: I'm lifting weights again, working (making money),
    and yes - even playing video games. Wow!
    THANK YOU!!!!!"
    Lyle H.
  • "We've had 40 years of various types of chiropractic therapies (sometimes weekly),
    but have never felt truly aligned until now."
    Marsha & Alain M.
  • "I was diagnosed with scoliosis as a child, and through good habits & care have managed to avoid surgery.
    About 30 years ago my research into spinal maintenance led me to upper cervical chiropractic
    (specifically orthospinology) over general chiropractic.
    This is just phenomenal. When my atlas is adjusted and my spine is aligned, it is amazing how good I feel.
    It helps the nerves and muscles of the body function so well, and I believe it has been the key to slowing
    the spinal degeneration caused by my scoliosis.
    * And it's so non-invasive! *
    Now that I live in Sarasota, I am so glad to be under the care of Dr. Zabawa.
    It's no surprise that he came highly recommended. I have always been impressed with
    the professionalism and care I've received at Atlas Chiropractic of Sarasota.
    It compares to anywhere in the country."
    Kyle Ann M.
  • "Very thorough. Quick recovery after a car wreck!"
    Nathaniel B.
  • "For 3 years I had been having headaches every day.
    I even went to a neurologist for my headaches, but he said they were a condition of menopause :(
    A friend suggested going to Dr. Z because of the unique procedure he uses and the great results.
    Dr. Z took care of me and within about 3 months my daily headaches were gone.
    What a relief!
    I don't think I've had one since :)"
    Allaesia M.
  • "I lived in pain with an undiagnosed broken back for 23 years since a horse & buggy accident as a teenager.
    When I injured my back again as an adult, the x-rays showed that I had fractured a vertebra back then,
    as well as this time.
    I received some help from going to regular chiropractors in recent years, but still lived in pain.
    I am so thankful that I found Dr. Zabawa.
    After 35 years and lots of pain, within a month or so
    I was PAIN FREE!
    It is amazing how such small adjustments to the atlas vertebra in my neck have made such
    a big difference to my life.
    To this day, I come in periodically to maintain my new found health.
    Praise and glory to God."
    Mary T.