Chiropractor Iowa City and Car Accident Effects
Written by on April 4, 2011 in Chiropractic, Chiropractic News, Chiropractic Tips, Health Tips, Natural Remedies
I was on my way home the other night when I saw a police car on the side of the road as the officer appeared to be investigating a fender bender. Both drivers were standing around, looking at the front of one car and the rear of the other. Both cars appeared to be no worse for the wear, and both drivers were up and about and they really weren’t traveling very fast when the collision happened… so everything must be ok right?
But wait just a minute! Did you know car companies and engineers have designed your car to absorb an impact of up to 10 miles per hour without showing any signs of damage to your vehicle?
That’s right, newer vehicles have been designed to be “stiff” so that these little collisions don’t cost you thousands at the body shop. Great idea, except for one little problem…Inertia. That’s right; physics teaches us that when one object strikes another, some of the energy from that object must be transferred to the other object. So if your car is very rigid and doesn’t crumple or give… where does that energy go?
Take a look at this impact diagram.
Notice that in a rear-end collision, the passenger undergoes a series of injuries to the neck which we
call a flexion-extension injury or “whiplash.” Consider the following:
- A recent study by GM found that 53% of reported whiplash injuries actually occurred in collisions where speeds were less than 8 mph.
- 27% of the 2.9 million persons who sustain a low-speed injury this year will still have neck pain 3 years from now.
- A New England Journal of Medicine editorial noted in 1994 that 20 to 40 percent of people with whiplash have symptoms that last for years, and some never recover.
- One study found that almost one in 10 whiplash victims in rear end collisions are permanently disabled.
The largest culprit noted for the statistics listed above was that the whiplash injury was diagnosed too late, or not at all, because the damage to the car was so little. Injuries sustained to the spine and surrounding soft tissues can lead to long term pain, decreased range of motion, and degeneration of the spinal column itself. I can’t tell you the number of times where I’ve taken an x-ray of a person and found significant levels of spinal decay as a result of a neck injury that has gone left undiagnosed until years later.
At Bowman Chiropractic, our doctors are specifically trained to look for damage that may have resulted from flexion–extension types of injuries or “whiplash” and are ready to help you recover correctly so that you don’t join the statistics listed here.
Remember, just because your car doesn’t need to go to the “body shop”, doesn’t mean that you don’t. Give us a call and find out how gentle, specific, Chiropractic care can restore your body and get you back on the road again!
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