A healthy body helps a human being to play his role in life effectively and easily. As a famous saying by Buddha goes, ‘To keep the body in good health is a duty….otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” In today’s world, it is essential for all human beings to understand anatomy and physiology so that they are able to try to lead a healthy and balanced life.
When talking about good health, avoiding injuries becomes a must. In this post, we would like to bring in the notice as to what is a whiplash injury, how it is caused, what whiplash injury treatments can help ease it and how can one simply avoid to go through such crucial pain in life. A whiplash injury is a damage caused to the soft neck muscles by a rapid movement forward, backward or sideways because of the extended stretching. Such injuries can happen anywhere, anytime so it is important for us to know about it beforehand if God forbid our near or loved ones experience any such injury in their precious lives.
Causes:
Around 3 million cases of whiplash occur globally every year states a chiro care center in Florida. The basic requirement is to identify what actions can cause such an injury:
- The stats show that one in a hundred people around the world suffer whiplash injuries due to vehicle accidents.
- A sudden fall resulting in head damage may end up causing a whiplash injury.
- Sports like boxing, rugby, and football where unexpected head wounds can occur are likely to result in whiplash injuries.
- A hard collision or crash with a heavy object can also injure a person causing a whiplash neck pain.
Symptoms:
If a person experiences the following symptoms, they should refer to a medic immediately:
- Generally, a person suffering from a whiplash injury experiences acute neck pain, stiffness in the neck, mild or harsh headaches.
- Headaches and dizziness that doesn’t wear off for days
- Shoulder and back neck pain
- Loss of neck movement or movement causing extreme pain
- In some rare cases, people may also experience memory loss, diverted attention and nervousness
- Fatigue and loss of concentration with unusual sensations
- Sleep troubles and anxiety can also be felt at times
Necessary treatment:
The foremost thing is to realize the extent of pain a person is suffering from and then it is essential to refer to a medic immediately if any of the above-mentioned symptoms start to occur or prevail after an accident or a sports incident takes place.
- The doctor may ask for an X-ray or a scan to determine and check for any other major harms including bone fractures or muscle and tissue damages to go for a prompt diagnosis.
- Medications include painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, antidepressants, and muscle relaxants.
- Physiotherapy is also recommended by doctors to help a person get at ease with neck movements.
- Neck and bone support collars have also been prescribed by the doctors.
- Other heat applying supplements are also referred to as release muscle tension.
- In case of an emergency where reaching out for the doctor takes time, icing the injured area may help in relieving the immediate pain.
Why immediate whiplash injury treatment is necessary?
Whiplash injury pains and symptoms either occur immediately or takes time to show up. Sometimes, they are likely to get worse with time passing by as many people have also complained about delayed pains.
- For many people, it only takes a few weeks for the pain of a whiplash injury to completely go away. But in some cases, people may continue to feel the pain for months or even years. According to a recent study by Chiro care center, Florida, around 75% of patients’ symptoms took six months or even longer to heal.
- Furthermore, 50% of people suffering from a whiplash injury needed long term medical assistance for as long as 10-20 years. Unfortunately, these are rare cases where patients are haunted by these symptoms for the rest of their lives. This results due to the old age factor because they tend to recover slowly from such serious injuries.
Preventing whiplash injuries:
Although injuries are unexpected and we cannot avoid them 100 %, but as the saying goes,” Prevention is better than cure”.
We are aware of the fact that most whiplash injuries are caused by vehicle accidents. This can be supported by the statistics that state that more than three million Americans happen to have a bad experience of car accidents each year. A Japanese Automobile Insurance Rating Association shows a 50% rate of neck injury from which 10% can fall into the hands of permanent disability. A person believing in safe road travel, avoiding accidents tends to follow the safety rules religiously.
- Wearing seatbelts every single time in every ride is a must for that.
- To ensure the maximum level of safety, make sure that the car’s headrest is not set too low. It should be adjusted so and so that your head can’t move too far from it.
- When buying a new vehicle, check for proper seatbelt and headrest adjustments thoroughly.
- Apart from car accidents, sports came next for whiplash injuries. To prevent head injuries while playing, a sportsperson should wear required headgear and protective equipment.
We really hope that nobody’s near and dear ones have to experience such casualties in life ever but with the fast pace of the growing world, it is also necessary to be alert and have some know-how about the serious life situations that one may come across at any time or any place in life. We believe our post was able to bring some insight regarding whiplash injuries and their long-lasting effects in a person’s life so that they can be prevented and treated well all lifelong.