Posts Tagged &quot;best neck exercises for whiplash&quot;

The stretch you should not do for Neck and Shoulder pain

Whiplash Accidents-Your most important protection against them

Posted by mark in Neck Pain Essentials |

How do you protect yourself against whiplash?

Whiplash can occur at less than 10mph and the forces can be up to 15G. Whiplash can do major damage so the best thing you can do is to protect yourself against it.

The most important part of your car to protect your neck from whiplash is your head restraint. It’s often called a headrest which is probably why we don’t think of it as much more than just something to rest our heads against when we are tired and waiting for the lights to change. However, this little thing behind your head is vital in protecting your neck. The height is vital and also is the distance it is from the back of your head.

If you have the head restraint too far away from your head your percentages of getting a whiplash injury go up enormously. This is because if you are hit from behind the head restraint is far away it cannot do its job. Likewise, if your head restraint is too low your head will snap right over the top of it.

Before you drive in your car the next time make sure you check the position of your head restraint. If not, you could be very sorry. An easy way to check is that your head restraint should be no more than 4 finger widths from the back of your head.

The top of a head restraint should reach at least as high as the top of your ear.

Drive Safely.

Whiplash, Neck Pain and Soft Collars-should you use them?

Posted by mark in Neck Pain Causes |

Scenario: you have a car accident, you have whiplash, you have neck pain, you go to the doctor and he recommends pain killers and a soft collar to be worn for the next month. What is wrong with this picture? Everything.

It used to be common practice for doctors to prescribe the use of soft collars for a month, 2 months or more based on the premise that protecting the area will allow the area to heal and therefore make you better. Unfortunately, this thought process is wrong. The use of a soft collar should be minimal at most. If you leave your neck in a soft collar for an extended length of time your neck can get worse not better. The same applies to all of your joints. Any of you who have had perhaps a sprained ankle for example will know that a physiotherapist will ask you to start moving it as soon as possible in a pain free range of movement. If it is still too sore you will be asked to do isotonic exercises( putting load on the tendons and ligaments without the actual joint moving) to make the structures heal more quickly. You want to have a strong and flexible repair and that is exactly why you should start a stretching and strengthening program as soon as the inflammatory phase has finished.(normally within the first 2-3 days)

Your neck ladies and gentlemen is no different. If you leave your neck static, bound up in a collar, muscles and other soft tissues atrophy (waste away) and the joints stiffen. The same is with your sprained ankle, lock it up with tape for a month and you will come out of that tape MUCH WORSE than the person who got their joint and soft tissues moving almost straight after their injury.

In a nutshell, if you have neck pain you need to get it moving as soon as possible (as pain permits). Here are some related studies showing what the medical community now knows:

From netdoctor.co.uk on ‘What Causes Whiplash?’

“Research has shown that whiplash patients who rest for several weeks and wear a soft collar actually recover more slowly than those who try to follow a normal routine.”

And from patient.co.uk in ‘Whiplash Neck Strain’:

“In the past, some people have worn a neck collar for long periods after a whiplash sprain, and have been reluctant to move their neck. Studies have shown that you are more likely to make a quicker recovery if you do regular neck exercises, and keep your neck active rather than resting it for long periods in a collar.”

And from ‘The Enigma of Whiplash Injury’ by W.F Young:

“Mealy and associates, in a prospective randomized trial comparing use of a soft cervical collar and analgesic medications with a regimen of active therapy, found that the group treated actively had significant improvement in both neck pain and mobility compared with the group treated with a soft collar.”

The American Academy of Orthopedic surgeon’s reports:

“In the past, whiplash injuries were often treated with immobilization in a cervical collar. However, the current trend is to encourage early movement, rather than immobilization. The soft collar may be used for a short term and on an intermittent basis.”

“In a third prospective randomized study… Patients encouraged to remain at their normal level of activity had a better outcome than patients treated with immobilization and time off from work.”

Once again, it’s vitally important to get your joints(s) moving as soon as possible after the initial inflammatory phase to encourage proper scar tissue formation, decrease your healing time and have a strong and flexible joint to allow you to get back to your full range of activities and enjoy life to the fullest.

The stretch you should not do for Neck and Shoulder pain

Whiplash injuries-what you must do to help your neck pain

Posted by mark in Neck Pain Essentials |

Have you suffered from a Whiplash injury and still have neck pain? Here is some very good news. It could be simply because of one very simple thing that you are doing that is causing your pain. Over the Past twenty years I have seen hundreds of people who have had whiplash injuries and they had pretty much given up all hope of removing their neck pain and suffering. However, after I showed them how to reduce the strains on their necks which would allow their necks to heal completely their symptoms disappeared. That is, their neck pain that they had been suffering from for so long was no more. It is not a magic trick, as you will see; it’s just simple body mechanics.

I won’t bore you with the basic facts in regards to a whiplash injury because if you have it I am sure you have read volumes on the internet about ‘acceleration-decceleration’injuries. Of course, the most common reason people have whiplash injuries is from car accidents and the forces generated can be as much as 15 G forces through the neck. This amount of force can damage the capsules, ligaments and other soft tissues and even the vertebrae and discs. Then after time the neck should heal. However, many people put enormous forces on their necks all day every day which causes their neck pain. Remember, over 80% of neck pain is postural. I put that estimate at a very conservative level because many people with neck pain who have been diagnosed with pain from whiplash or arthritis can still have pain from their posture, not their arthritis!

Let me explain. If you have arthritis or a whiplash injury that is now chronic and you continue to sit with poor posture, namely the ‘forward head posture’ how will you ever know if your whiplash or arthritis pain is coming from your whiplash or arthritis? If over 80% of people have neck pain from their posture( look around your office or workplace, bus stops, your home and nearly everyone who uses a computer and you will see people who are slouching with their heads in a forward head posture.) it is endemic in our society and is getting worse! Now with teenagers sending text messages all day and when they are not doing that they tend to be slumped over their laptops for hours on end the problem in the next ten years will escalate enormously. A year ago in December in the United States, Americans sent 48 billion text messages- in the month of December alone! Last December, it increased to 110 billion. That means a lot of happy telecom companies, physical therapists, massage therapists etc and a lot of unhappy people with neck pain.

The mayo clinic state that the forward head posture leads to long term muscle strain, disc herniations and pinched nerves. So here you are with an already injured neck and injuring it further, or at the very least- not allowing it to heal- because you are constantly straining the soft and hard tissues.

A forward head posture is what produces over 80% of neck pain. It is THE cause. Don’t believe me? Go back to Google and check out the major cause if neck pain and you will see that it is postural. What does postural mean? A forward head posture. So, if you spend most of your day sitting and standing like this, how will you ever know if your pain is simply coming from your posture? You won’t until you fix it. You must fix the cause to remove the symptom-pain.

This is how I have helped hundreds of people who felt that they had to live with their pain forever. People with arthritis who were simply sitting poorly and compressing their joint capsules and facet joints became pain free almost instantly. People with whiplash injuries who addressed their posture day in and day out saw their pain subside and leave them permanently.

As I said, this is not a magic trick or some ‘new fabulous wonder technique’. It is basic mechanics. This is the exact reason why millions of people suffer from neck pain daily. This is the exact reason why the mayo clinic state that it leads to ‘long term muscle strains, disc herniations and pinched nerves’ and the exact reason why you too can become pain free.

The stretch you should not do for Neck and Shoulder pain

whiplash-how to decrease your risk by 40%

Posted by mark in Neck Pain Causes |

WHIPLASH

What you need to know about it

As more and more people drive cars these days we also inevitably are seeing an increase in car accidents. Whiplash is a common injury and females are 2 times more at risk than males and they are also more likely to develop long term symptoms. It is not well known why this is the case but it is thought that males have stronger neck muscles than females which may help and also because women tend to sit slightly more forward in their seat. When sitting further forward the head travels further before it hits the headrest. Another interesting fact is that drivers tend to have more serious neck injuries than the passengers. This is thought to be because the passengers tend to sit back in more of a reclined position with their heads against the headrests.

Now I have mentioned the head rests a couple or times in regards to whiplash injury but lets take a closer look at these things that we tend to think of as luxury items. I guess it’s because of their names which make us think of them as nothing more than something to rest our heads against. However, they are so much more than that.

How to decrease your risk of whiplash by 40%

When a rear collision occurs the head is thrust backward and into extension of forces up to 12G. A head rest or better termed, head restraint is designed to reduce that rearward motion of the head greatly decreasing your chances of a whiplash injury. With rear end collisions being so common it’s perhaps one of the most important safety features you have in your car.

It should be at head height that means your center of your head should meet the center of the head restraint. You should check yours the next time you decide to go for a drive and spend the time to position it correctly. It’s too late after a crash occurs. A head restraint that is too low allows the head to propel back and OVER it. You also don’t want your head too far forward. It should be no more than 4 finger widths from the head restraint. If you can’t do this comfortably you may want to invest in a car head support for better protection against neck injuries. Research has shown you will decrease your chance of neck injury by 40% with a correctly positioned headrest.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told automakers the head restraints in their passenger vehicles will have to extend higher and fit closer to the backs of people’s heads. For the first time, the new standard addresses the back set. Head restraints will have to be within about 2 inches behind the head.

Also, if you know your going to get hit try to decrease your risk of injury. If you have your head or body turned during a collision it can greatly increase your chances of a significant injury. Keep your eyes on the road and your head straight. If you know you’re going to get hit, then reduce the distance between your head and the head restraint by moving your head back. The car neck pillow reduces the headrest distance and increases your level of safety.

What to do if you know a car is going to hit you from behind

Crashes involving whiplash neck injuries happen at lightning-fast speeds, but if you have time to prepare: Put your head and your neck all the way back so that you’re in contact with the seat back and the properly adjusted head restraint. Straight-arm the steering wheel and get a good grip. If you are stopped, put your foot on the brake as hard as you can. Look straight ahead, not in the rearview mirror – don’t have your head turned at all. Put your neck back slightly so your eyes are looking level up at about the top of the windshield. Scrunch your shoulders up toward your ears and then brace.

I hope you never have to be involved in a car collision but at the very least I hope this will help you if something does happen. Happy motoring!

The stretch you should not do for Neck and Shoulder pain