Auto Injuries and Chiropractic

Ellen Potthoff, DC, ND

I often see people for the first time after they have had an automobile accident.  It is unfortunate that they have been injured, but fortunate that they have come for chiropractic treatment of their injuries.  Nothing I have seen, except potentially acupuncture with massage, is as effective in alleviating pain and promoting healing.

In a typical car accident, one car is struck by another.  Unless the people riding in the car have very good head rests, and even with the headrests, they are liable to have a whiplash as a result.  The neck, a comparatively thin stalk, holds up the head, which weighs around 6-7 pounds.  When a sudden impact forces the head violently forward, it ricochets backward with the same velocity, striking the headrest, if it is there, or makes a full arc backward, if it is not.  Both actions cause a large amount of damage to the soft tissues both in the front of the neck (on the way backward) and the back of the neck (on the way forward).  This is what is commonly called a cervical whiplash injury.  Standard medical treatment is painkillers, muscle relaxants, rest and potentially ice.   Later, physical therapy is sometimes employed.  Chiropractors, on the other hand, will generally adjust someone right away, even after a fairly severe whiplash.  This is done to promote mobility in the neck thus decreasing the body’s natural “splinting” reaction.  Splinting would otherwise contract the already injured front and back neck muscles making them more spasmed and painful. 

When I see a person right after an auto accident (which is by the way, almost always covered by medical payments through automobile insurance), I first do an exam appropriate to the kinds of complaints the person is having.  This may involve the neck alone, the thoracic spine (sometimes) and the low back (more frequently).  Most often the neck is the most involved and the whiplash situation is the most painful.  Occasionally, the seat belt, or striking the dashboard with some other appendage, causes more painful injuries.  Treatment proceeds according to the exam findings.

When treating someone who has recently had an automobile accident, most frequently I will adjust their neck to maintain mobility and break up splinting, do soft tissue work on affected soft tissue areas and also I will use a procedure called ‘somatics’.  This is a wonderful process I learned by way of Dr. Hana, a friend of Moshe Feldenkreis, who developed the Feldenkreis method.  It involves taking a muscle to its tightest contraction, applying pressure against the contraction, having the person slowly release the contraction several times and then having them smoothly move the muscle from its most, to its least, contracted states.  This technique enlists the nervous system to relax the muscles, and is very effective.  I fully expect people to be practically pain free by the time they leave the office the first time.  I then schedule appointments often enough to try to keep them pretty much pain free from then on, until they are healed.  This might involve initially seeing them 2-3 times a week, dwindling down to weekly, then biweekly then monthly.  This is the frequency I suggest everyone (this is preventive like dental hygiene) be adjusted, unless they have some other problem that needs to be addressed.    

Often people who have just had an auto accident find they have trouble sleeping.  I have found many useful herbs to relax the muscles and the nervous system so that people can sleep.  Sometimes I will also use a proteolytic enzyme like bromelain to decrease inflammatory pain, so that people are more comfortable.  I also use homeopathic medicines, for trauma, to decrease swelling and soft tissue injury.  There are homeopathic medicines that are useful for emotional changes after head trauma as well.  I once treated a woman who had sustained severe head trauma after her boyfriend repeatedly slammed her head into the sidewalk.  I gave her two different homeopathic medicines to treat her headaches and her depression and irritability after head trauma.  Both were extremely useful for her, although her injury had been 3-4 years before I saw her.        

There are also some wonderful stretching exercises that can be easily learned to help rehabilitate the soft tissues of the neck after a whiplash injury.  I often teach them to people to help speed their healing process.  I have found that all the components of the program I have developed over time, are useful to keep people pain free and speed the healing process that their body already knows how to do.  I treated, for instance, a woman involved in an auto accident in Oregon.  Another practitioner in Oregon treated her friend involved in the same auto accident.  My patient was better and released from care in few months, while her friend actually got worse over time.

If you or anyone you know has been unfortunate enough to be involved in an auto accident, please consider chiropractic treatment.  It can prevent a lot of unnecessary pain and discomfort.  It can also prevent the degenerative process that results in arthritic conditions in the future. 

Ellen Potthoff, D.C., N.D. is available to treat you for any musculoskeletal problems including those related to auto injuries.  Please call her at (925) 603-7300, or e-mail her at Natdoc@jps.net.