Injuries sustained from an automobile accident are often underappreciated to their impact on the body or more so to the nervous system. The pain is naturally at the forefront and it is thought by many healthcare professionals that once the pain goes away all has returned back to a “normal” or pre-accident status. This thought could not be further from the truth.
The real impact to the body is the impact to the nervous system. When the head gets whipped forward and then back (whiplash) like in a hit-from-behind-accident ligaments and muscles are injured in the neck. The bones in the neck move and sit and stay in new positions. This creates less electricity getting from the brain down into the body. The injured ligaments and muscles create an inflammatory response. This causes pain, but also causes less electricity to get from the brain to the body. Between the inflammation and less electricity the function of the body starts to change for the worse. Function is what really is injured in an auto-accident or any type of accident. This change in function leads to a new “normal” for the body. And this is the problem.
The new normal can result in many types of different issues such as headaches, fatigue, digestion issues, knee pain, etc as the function continues to decrease. Some issues may appear immediately while others can take some time to show. The reason for some taking time to show is the function has to degrade to a point where the symptom rears its head. Once the symptom is there such as constipation or pain in shoulder know that the function has been degrading for some time prior if it was not present days after the accident. .
Function of the nervous system is what needs to be changed to restore any chance at health. The more time between the accident and care equates to more decreased function. And this can lead to a poorer quality of life in terms of health. We work to correct this function that has been changed due to the auto-accident thus restoring health. The longer one waits the more function will degrade.
Please contact us if you have any questions regarding whiplash or other injuries sustained from a car accident.