meportlandchiropractor

4 Reasons to Visit a Chiropractor After a Being in a Car Accident

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 21:25:45 GMT

Those who have been in a car accident, may immediately do a quick body scan to see if they have sustained any life-threatening injuries, and then probably move on to dealing with the scene itself. The police may be called, information is to be exchanged with the other driver, evidence should be gathered, and car insurance companies must be contacted. Victims of car accidents may believe they feel fine in the moment after a crash and simply got lucky. However, in the days that follow symptoms may start to appear and medical attention is needed. Seeing a chiropractor after a crash can have more physical and legal benefits than most people realize.

#1 Whiplash is Treated Sooner

Even the smallest of car collisions can cause some degree of whiplash. The sooner that mild to severe cases of whiplash are treated, the less of an issue it may be in the future. If a person ignores their whiplash symptoms and hopes it heals on its own, may make it harder to treat down the line once the pain has become intolerable. While a conventional doctor may prescribe painkillers and send a patient on his or her way for a whiplash injury, a chiropractor can address the true issue behind the damage.

#2 Other Injuries Can Be Identified

Chiropractors can perform a full-body evaluation to determine whether other injuries were sustained other than superficial cuts and bruises. Sometimes these external abrasions can be an indicator that something more serious occurred under the surface. It isn’t uncommon for victims of car accidents to suffer from muscle and ligament tears, which can go undetected in an x-ray. Chiropractic treatments can help decrease pain associated with a wide range of injuries due to car crashes.

#3 You Have a Stronger Legal Claim

If the other driver was at-fault for the accident, their insurance company may be responsible for paying your medical care bills. If your claim is still open, visit a chiropractor as a way to treat your injuries and strengthen your claim. A chiropractor can provide an assessment of your condition to emphasize the extent of your injuries. A reputable car accident lawyer can also help you with your legal claims.

#4 Adjustments Can Prevent Chronic Conditions

Injuries from the accident which go untreated, may only get much worse in the long-term. What could have been treated and gotten better right away, may develop into a chronic condition without proper medical attention. Chiropractics is a safe and non-invasive way to treat injuries of the nervous and musculoskeletal system. During a chiropractic treatment, areas that became misaligned due to the impact of the collision, can be placed back into correct positioning using applied and direct, yet gentle force. A chiropractor may use two hands or a specialized tool as a way to adjust the spinal column, knees, wrists, pelvis, shoulders, neck, or other injured areas. Victims of car accidents are encouraged to visit a reputable chiropractor in their town for an exam, diagnosis, and treatment plan.

Thanks to Cohen & Cohen, P.C. , for their information on car accidents.

Car Accidents and Neck Pain - Part 2.

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 02:40:41 GMT

What Should Be Done After an Accident?

The period after an accident can be very unclear. There is often some degree of shock, disorientation and confusion, the degree depending on the situation. There is a lot to think about, and these don't necessarily come together in a logical order. The vehicle might or might not be able to be driven. Traffic might be having to go around the accident so there is concern about another accident happening. People are asking for information, description of what happened and asking about injuries. Often, if the injuries are not grossly visible as in cuts or broken bones, they are not assessed, particularly by those involved in the accident, as thoroughly as might be needed. Also, because many symptoms don't show-up for between 12 and 72 hours, the initial assessment by the person is not truly reflective of what injuries have been incurred.

One of the decisions that needs to be made fairly quickly is whether or not the person needs to go to an emergency room by ambulance, go under their own steam or even go at all. The emergency medical responders will help determine if there are indications of a potentially serious condition that needs evaluation at the ER, particularly if that needs to by ambulance. In less obvious situations they would recommend going to the ER for an evaluation, giving the option of going by ambulance or otherwise. Some people are advised to go to the ER later if symptoms show up, or to see their PCP for a check-up. With minor accidents most often, the ER and ambulance options are not necessary at the time of the accident.

As was mentioned in Part 1 of this series, the initial response from many people in the minor category accidents, is that they are okay. Between the disorientation, lack of screaming symptoms and dealing with everything else going on, they are not ready to accurately assess what the situation really is in their bodies. It is often many hours later, when they stop dealing with everything and the adrenaline has settled back down to normal levels that they are able to start assessing what the impact caused in their body.

While the ER and even the PCP's office might be appropriate places to go following an accident, one aspect of the follow-up that is too often ignored is the need for a chiropractic assessment. No-one else is focusedly trained and experienced to assess the biomechanics of the functional musculoskeletal system as the chiropractor. The chiropractor's training includes extensive education on the skeletal anatomy, the ligaments and muscles that connect and control the bone placement and movement, and the nerve system that extends from the brain through the spinal cord to every muscle, blood vessel and organ in every part of the body, as well as the general physiology of how everything works.

Many injuries incurred in an automobile accident are too subtle to show-up on x-ray or even MRI or CT scan, but they still cause significant pain and dysfunction. These are the areas where the chiropractic expertise can benefit the injured person to truly recover from the lingering problems after an accident.

CHOICES AND CONSEQUENCES: INFORMING OURSELVES

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 06:19:35 GMT

Part One

. EVERY DAY WE MAKE CHOICES. Life is full of choices and practically every second we make a choice. We choose to get up in the morning, to get dressed, to go to work, how we go to work, where we park, and on. Then through the day we choose when to check our e-mails or drink some coffee, whether to stay sitting at our computer or go out for a walk at lunch time, etc. These are the routine everyday choices. We also have the host of choices that we choose to be made by default, that is we didn't make a conscious decision to do something, but we let our unconscious mind go on autopilot for the things that we think we don't need to give our attention to.

We would be overwhelmed and paralyzed in indecision if we had to make a contemplated choice about every detail of our lives. But there are things that we should make choices about because the default choices made unconsciously, probably are not in our best interests.

For example, if we let our unconscious choose we would eat every cookie, candy, cake, ice-cream and probably every other snack food available in our home - without interruption. This would not be a good choice, so reasonably we don't do that, We might choose to eat a limited amount of those at any one time. Then we might look at the choices we made in the grocery store that brought all of those items into our home. I often say, "It is a lot easier to say 'No' once in the store than it is to say 'No' twelve times when we are faced with a bag of cookies calling to us from the coffee table as we watch TV in the evening." Don't the cookies always win?

Some of our choices are made out of habit, and making that choice relieves us of the burden of making a deliberate choice ... but the consequences are ours none-the less.

To be continued....

CAR ACCIDENTS AND NECK PAIN

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 05:06:54 GMT

Part 1: What happens to the neck during an accident?

When someone has been involved in a car accident, at least considering accidents causing less than catastrophic injuries, one of the parts of the body that is most vulnerable is the neck. Airbags, seat belts and head supports have been introduced and refined over the years and have helped reduce the more serious injuries, but do not stop all injuries. The impact of one vehicle into another involves significant forces, even at low speed. Those forces, even though muted in terms of the direct impact into the body, are still large and cause a lot of unexpected and therefor unprotected movement particularly of the head and neck.

Often right after an accident, the person might notice a little tightness in the neck muscles, and not think too much of it. When asked by Emergency Responders or Police, they quite often say something like, "I am okay." However, the next day or even 72 hours later they might be feeling a lot more soreness and tightness. It is common for the pain and tightness to increase typically between 24 to 72 hours after the accident. Some pain and soreness might start to resolve within 3 days, but sometimes the pains continue and can even get worse over the next days and even a lot longer.

The head is approximately the weight of a bowling ball and it sits on top of a relatively small neck structure. When that head weight gets jostled, it pulls on the ligaments and muscles of the neck. This can lead to soft tissue injury which is muscle and ligament damage. This can be strain from excessive movement, or sprain from more forceful movement that causes ligament, tendon or muscle tearing ranging from small partial tears to full tearing away from attachment points.

When the neck has been traumatized, there are different things that happen. First the muscles tighten-up and become stiff and sore. This is the body's attempt to splint and protect the area. Later there can be inflammation and swelling. If the jostling is strong enough, it can also disrupt the alignment of the bones in the neck, and this compounds the level of injury incurred. For the bones to get misaligned, the soft tissue has to be significantly traumatized and the ligaments, which should protect the bones from moving too much, get stretched and allow for more destabilizaion of the involved joints.

Part 2 in this series will look at what is needed for assessment and therefor treatment of neck injuries.