If you're reading this, maybe you have been involved in a car accident and are looking for answers you didn't get elsewhere. Headaches are a common symptom after being involved in a car accident. Oftentimes, people who are in a car accident go to the hospital for evaluation. The evaluation may consist of x-rays, CT Scans, MRI. Fortunately these tests frequently show up negative for life-threatening injuries. You are then left with the ER giving you a muscle relaxant and since the opioid crisis occurred, the ER doctors are reluctant to give pain relief medication. They usually tell you to take over the counter medication for pain. While this may give some relief, after treating auto accident patients for over 25 years, I know that the medication is just a cover-up to what really goes after an accident.
The natural reaction to getting hit in a car suddenly is to tighten up the muscles to protect the spine. This is natural, and a good reaction to have. The combination of the muscles tightening up, the seatbelt engaging to hold you back in your seat and the sudden stopping of a (possibly) moving vehicle causes damage to many structures in the neck. The muscles are attached to the vertebrae in the spine. The the neck region (cervical spine) there are 7 vertebrae. The muscles attach to several of them, at certain points on the bone. When the muscles tighten to protect the spine, and there is a sudden stop of movement, we use the term whiplash. Whiplash is also called a cervical acceleration/deceleration. When this movement happens it will tear muscle fibers from their attachment to the bone, inflammation will occur, pain will result and there will be an increase in pain with movement of your head and neck. To make matters worse, if you have underlying neck issues like arthritis, even a low impact, low damage incident to your vehicle can cause major damage to your body. When the muscles spasm, they pull the vertebrae out of their normal alignment. Improper alignment of vertebrae will put stress on other areas of the spine like the discs, facet joints and bone. It takes only 6 months before degenerative changes (arthritis) will appear on x-ray.
So the muscle relaxant and the pain reliever that you are taking from the ER or your primary physician will only mask the problem. Remember, back pain is self limiting-if you do nothing, your back will heal. IT WILL HEAL INCORRECTLY, BUT IT WILL HEAL. This causes muscle tissue to scar up, causing muscle fibers to shorten, when muscle fibers shorten, this puts stress on the discs, bone and joints in the spine leading to premature degeneration. So by only taking a muscle relaxant and pain relief medication, you are not dealing with the problem correctly. Just because you feel better with these does not indicate that you are out of trouble yet. It is important for you to find a trauma trained chiropractor such as myself. You can see my credentials here: US Chiropractic Directory - US Chiropractic Directory (uschirodirectory.com) If they are not trauma trained, I know you were not properly treated.
If you have been in a car accident and are experiencing headaches, dizziness, nausea, ringing in the ears, blurred vision, numbness in the hands or feet, neck pain, mid-back pain, shoulder pain, chest pain and you live in the Chicagoland area like: Chicago, Elmhurst, Villa Park, Lombard, Oak Brook, Berkeley, Bellwood, Westchester, Stone Park, Northlake, Melrose Park, Hillside or Bensenville then you need to call Auto Accident Pain Relief Center of Illinois 24/7 to schedule your appointment today.
