A car accident can cause countless health challenges. Even a mild “fender bender” can alter your body’s structure so much that the way you live your life may have to change. For instance, being rear-ended can shift the neck forward, and this may interrupt nerve channels and cause chronic pain.
Why is Chiropractic Care Pivotal to a Full Recovery?
The relationship between your spinal column, nervous system, and organ function must be understood to see why chiropractic care is so important.
The nervous system begins at the brain, and nerves carry signals between the brain’s control center to every organ and system in the body, from your coronary and respiratory systems to your digestion and elimination systems. The brain tells the systems of the body what to do, and the nerve channels are its communication network.
Your skeleton does two very important actions for your body which are affected by an accident: (1) It provides the physical, rigid-but-mobile, structure of the body, and (2) It protects and carries the nerves throughout the body so signals may be sent and received by the brain.
During an accident, the physical structure gets moved out of place (called, in chiropractic, a “subluxation”). If you’ve ever seen a car which has been in an accident, things just don’t line up as they should. The door or trunk may not close properly, etc. The same is true for your body. Your joints are out of position, and so they don’t function quite as they should. This can reduce the range of motion and strength, as well as cause pain and discomfort.
As for the nerves, think of them sending electrical signals, similar to a hose sending water. When the nerves are constricted, the quality of the signals is reduced, which can result in numbness or “pins and needles” sensations.
Think of making a cell phone call when there is interference on the line; the person on the other end may not be able to understand what you’re saying. In the body, if that brain message is not understood or received, the body won’t heal right and may struggle to put its components back together.
As a result, a car accident can take months to recover from, while you struggle to manage your day to day tasks, family life, and transportation demands, amid impaired movement and chronic pain. Painkillers don’t begin to address the issue, because they don’t fix the structural misalignment and can require continual use, which may lead to addiction. Ice and heat therapy may loosen the muscles and temporarily provide relief, but again, this is no match for the structural damage due to a car accident.
Rehabilitative therapy can be somewhat helpful but does not address the misalignment of the bones, which is always caused when such an impact is received.
How is Chiropractic the solution?
There is only one real treatment for such a misalignment, and that is chiropractic care. In chiropractic, the template of the skeletal system is adjusted back to its standard form. This reinforces your body’s structure and opens the communication channels of the nerves.
To learn more about chiropractic care after a car accident injury, contact our office today.
