Whiplash is a term to describe a type of injury. This is when the head will accelerate and decelerate in very quick motions. This can cause injuries to the head, neck, upper back, and sometimes shoulder. The hardest part about this injury is that some people do not feel symptoms right away but instead feel symptoms months later and sometimes a year later. Below I am going to detail what whiplash really is, what the best treatment for whiplash is, and how Dr. Mike Weiner at Optimal Spine and Body, a chiropractic office in Alpharetta, GA specializes in treatment for this condition.

How does someone get whiplash?

The most common ways for people to get whiplash is in a motor vehicle crash. Even fender benders up to 7 miles per hour have been shown to cause whiplash injuries. You can also get whiplash injuries from playing sports, falling on the ground with head being pulled backwards, concussion like injuries, and other injuries that make the head rapidly go back and forth.

What is whiplash?

Whiplash is the rapid movement of the head forward and backward. The neck, upper back, and sometimes shoulder can be impacted in this injury. What is not talked about is how damaging this type of injury is to the joints, discs, ligaments, and muscles of your spine. Whiplash can also change your spinal alignment in an instant because of the amount of force that goes into your spine. Your neck should have a curve from the side called lordosis. Whiplash injuries have been shown to cause a reverse curve in the neck called kyphosis. This injury can cause snap through buckling, individual bones to shift, instability of your spine, angular kyphosis, and global kyphosis. All of this happens because of injuries, such as whiplash.

What is the best treatment for whiplash injuries?

People that have whiplash injuries should not be treated purely on symptoms. This is because each tissue that is damaged can show symptoms at different times with different intensities. Also, if your muscles tighten up before the trauma, then you will have more symptoms right away. If you did not expect the injury to occur, such as not seeing the care hitting your car, then this will impact more of your ligaments and not cause pain right away. A lot of people that get in car crashes and whiplash traumas do not feel symptoms right away. Instead, it may take months to feel them. Sometimes these injuries can cause numbness and tingling down the hands along with pain down to the shoulders, arms, and hands. This is because the nerves in the neck control your arms and injury from your neck will cause these symptoms – even if it was months later.

So, what is the best treatment? A treatment that is going to analyze for the structural integrity of your neck. What does that mean? This means that you should go to a doctor that is going to do a thorough exam, neurological exam to assess for your nerves, X-ray analysis, take X-rays of your neck in motion to assess for instabilities and damage to your ligaments, and set up a plan to strengthen your neck, improve the alignment of your neck, and aim to treat the cause of your injuries and not just treat your symptoms.

It is the author’s opinion, based on countless case studies and research articles, that the best method for the treatment of whiplash injuries is through a chiropractor trained in Chiropractic Biophysics. This is the most evidence based spinal corrective chiropractic technique in the profession. This technique focuses on the analysis of every single structure of the spine and aims to correct the biomechanical problem causing symptoms and the body to not heal properly.

If a house is starting to collapse and wear down, the quick fix would be to patch up the work. This will temporarily work until more wear and tear shows again and you have to patch it up again. Wouldn’t the better solution be to find out why the building is wearing down in certain areas and fix the structural issue so that the building does not need patch work constantly? It is the same thing for your spine.

Bottom line advice:

If you get in a car crash, experience whiplash like trauma, see a chiropractor no matter if you have symptoms or not – especially one that is trained in Chiropractic Biophysics. This can change your life.

Dr. Mike Weiner is a chiropractor in Alpharetta, GA at Optimal Spine and Body. He is certified in Chiropractic Biophysics and combines all different approaches that best suits the patient achieve optimal health. The practice is located near Avalon, Roswell, Main Street Alpharetta, Milton, Cumming, and Johns Creek. Dr. Mike Weiner was also in a car crash in December 2019. He was experiencing little symptoms initially but immediately got treated by chiropractors that practice Chiropractic Biophysics. Because of that treatment and regular chiropractic, he cannot feel any effects of his car crash. This is what motivated him to write this blog to hopefully help at least one more person reading this get the help they need.