Can a Chiropractor Do Whiplash Treatment?
Can a chiropractor treat whiplash? As a trusted Cambridge, Ontario chiropractic clinic with over 30 years of experience, we can tell you that whiplash is an incredibly common cause for someone to seek chiropractic care for the first time. Honestly, hundreds of clients have come to our practice over the years spurred by whiplash from a car accident. And the short answer is yes: in many, many cases chiropractic is a very effective treatment for whiplash.
In some ways, whiplash is a very dramatic, but easy to understand, example of exactly the type of situation that chiropractic is perfect for. The science of chiropractic care is based on helping restore the body to good working order so it can heal and maintain itself as it is intended to do (and does so well, when the ups and downs of life don’t get in the way!)
Specifically, we do this through helping restore the spine to proper alignment. The spine is the main line of communication between your brain and body, so when it is ‘out of whack,’ that communication is disrupted. And in the case of an accident that leads to whiplash, this is usually a pretty intense misalignment. The impact of the accident (usually from a car crash, sports impact, or a fall) sends the spine moving in multiple directions at once, forcefully (and very quickly) jolting the spine into an unnatural position.
When the spine is misaligned, the communication between brain and body doesn’t flow properly. This manifests as all kinds of pain and discomfort, as well as headaches, numbing, tingling, and other unpleasant symptoms.
Chiropractic treatment is aimed at restoring the alignment, thus restoring the communication, thus easing and eliminating symptoms. So if you seek chiropractic care to help with your whiplash, we will essentially be working to undo the shifting that was caused by the impact or accident during which the whiplash occured.
However, it’s not always just the whiplash itself that causes whiplash symptoms. Let us explain. Many, many things can contribute to misalignment and disruptions in the spine. Accidents are the most overt, but many smaller experiences (some of which don’t even register as problems) shape the spine over time. A few examples are things like repetitive physical tasks (from heavy lifting to simple movements that use the body unevenly), poor posture, the wrong pillow, or sitting for hours at a time. In short: modern life. Over time, these activities exert force on the spine and shift it in many, many small ways.
If these tweaks have not been adjusted, they are present when the whiplash occurs. So by the time someone comes into our chiropractic office in Cambridge after having experienced an accident, it’s not just the misalignment from the whiplash that we are treating — we’re treating the cumulative impact of years of stress and strain.
The good news is, chiropractic treatment for whiplash (and any underlying issues that may be further exacerbating the whiplash) can be extremely effective. The pain and symptoms you feel are not something you need to just accept. With a personalized treatment plan designed around the specific nuances of your body and physical experiences, paired with your personal wellness and lifestyle goals, we treat your body holistically so it can do what it was designed to do: heal and thrive.