Signs You Need a Chiropractor After a Car Accident
Car crashes are life-altering events. You see everything in slow motion. You see it coming but you can’t do anything about it. You just watch. Then there’s the time during the accident when everything is happening so fast that you can’t figure out what’s going on. All the motion is mixed with the cacophony of jarring sounds, confusing the hell out of you. Then there’s the after-accident part. You have to think about your health, your life, your family, your possessions and everything else.
In all this commotion, a lot of people just forget to take care of themselves properly. The insurance claims take more of their time than healing.
You need to make sure that your body and mind are on their way back to perfect health.
HOW TO KNOW IF YOU NEED A CHIROPRACTOR
Here’s how you can easily find out if you need a chiropractor or not.
A LOT OF PAIN
A lot of people think that unusual pain and discomfort when sitting or lying down is normal after an accident — that’s where they are wrong. You need to visit a chiropractor. Yes, they can be minor pains and might go away with time, but do you really want to take that risk? It could be a muscle pain, joint pain, or it could just as easily be a soft tissue injury.
REDUCTION IN RANGE OF MOTION
This is a temporary problem, but if it is not addressed properly, it might return. When you wake up in the morning and feel stiffness and the fact that you can’t move your head fully in either direction — it is important to go to a chiropractor and ask for help. Everyone who feels the pain or stiffness does one thing — they try their best not to repeat the action that caused the pain. The same is the case with a stiff or sore neck. The issue with this is that it causes the muscles and ligaments to tighten more and more. It can also lead to a decrease in your neck’s flexibility and strength.
SPINAL MISALIGNMENT
If the car accident is severe, the force of the trauma can actually displace your spinal joints. That can cause misalignment and instability. The symptoms may include fatigue, sudden loss of energy, stiffness in the neck or back, numbness, tingling sensations and joint pain.
It doesn’t matter where you are. It doesn’t matter if you reside there or are just visiting. Go to a good chiropractor immediately. Whether you are in Arizona, Texas, Nevada, or any state.
For example, if you are visiting your cousins in Charlotte, go see a Charlotte chiropractor as soon as you can.
WHIPLASH
Almost every car accident results in whiplash — especially for people in the car who were rear-ended. Whiplash is when your head moves forward and backward really fast. The pain related to whiplash depends on the severity of the accident. It could be a slight pain or a full-blown, hard to ignore pain that is accompanied by dizziness, nausea, decreased range of motion in the neck or stiffness. If you see these signs, then it is definitely whiplash.
What does this mean? It means you need to make an appointment NOW.
CONCUSSION
Another common diagnosis for victims of a car crash is concussion. It is accompanied by dizziness, concentration, sleeping disorders and you might find yourself struggling to remember the most common things. You might not even know how you reached to the place you are in presently.
HEADACHES
Now you might be thinking that it is common to get headaches. Why are we including them here? Well the reason is that headaches can be caused by a wide variety of reasons. You never know why you are having that headache. If you have a headache after you’ve been through an accident, go to your chiropractor.
A chiropractor can really help you relieve your symptoms of headaches and help improve the blood flow. Once the blood flow is better, more oxygen will travel to the brain and your headache will subside.
BUSY LIFESTYLE
We are all busy people with hectic lifestyles. When we go through an accident, the only thing on our minds is to get back to our lives as quickly as we can. But what happens is that, in our haste to get back, we ignore a lot of the above symptoms. This does get us back in the game, but it costs you. You live with these symptoms and it decreases your quality of life. You can’t enjoy your life as fully as you could have been if you had just visited a chiropractor.
First of all, take care on the road — prevention is always better than cure. If you do get in an accident, make sure to book an appointment with your chiropractor as soon as you can. It is imperative if you want to get the quality of your life back.
