Common Myths About Whiplash

Xray of neck If you have been affected by a whiplash injury you may have already read alot about the various causes and symptoms. Whiplash mainly occurs as a result car accident in which you were hit in the front or rear end of your car. We help thousands of people each year make successful whiplash injury claims against the person who caused their accident. In that time, we have heard quite a few myths and untruths about the cause of whiplash injury. Here are just a few:

Myth: Men are more vulnerable to whiplash injury because of their greater neck muscle mass

Fact: Nothing could be further from the truth. Infact whiplash injury patients are several times more likely to be women than men. Women also take longer to recover from whiplash injury than men and that they are more likely to suffer from chronic whiplash residuals.

A bull-neck man (football player, boxer or weight lifter) is likely to be more whiplash injury-proof than a woman with a swan-like neck, who is at much greater risk of injury because her neck is longer and slimmer. The most common neck size in men's dress shirts is 16 to 16 and a half.

Myth: Your neck can't be injured inless there is a direct impact on your neck

Fact: A direct blow does not need to take place for a whiplash injury to occur. The impact of a collision in a car accident can force the neck backward and forward, (or sideways in the case of an angle collision) far beyond its normal range of motion. This occurs so fast that neck muscles and ligaments are actually over stretched twice with no time in between to recover. The neck muscles and ligaments that are injured are the very same muscles and ligaments that bend the head sideways, backward, forward or turn the head around.

These muscles and ligaments must work sixteen hours a day to hold the head up. This explains why most people who suffer a whiplash injury, complain of extreme fatigue toward the end of the day.

A whiplash injury is quite different from a strain or a sprain in another part of the body, like the ankle for instance. First, it is different because it takes place so close to the cervical cord and the brain and these two form a single unit. Second, the involved anatomy creates a domino effect (neck muscles, ligaments, vertebrae, nerves, blood vessels and the cervical cord are all very close together).

So, if the shock is brutal enough, it could trigger a chain reaction along the cervical spine and upward inside the skull , disturbing the hindbrain. Cervical vertebrae will be slightly displaced, the soft brain (which has the consistency of jelly) will bounce against the hard skull (which no longer acts as a protective shell) and nerves and blood vessels will even get bruised. Why is the neck so vulnerable?

First the neck is very flexible to accommodate our senses of sight, hearing and smell; second, it is very light (the 7 cervical vertebrae only weigh a few ounces); and third, it is positioned between the heavy head (weighing ten to fourteen pounds) and the trunk. Hence it bears the brunt of the impact.

Occasionally people will complain of symptoms quite similar to those of a whiplash injury (such as having a sore neck, being in a daze), after going on roller coaster rides. This is why amusement parks now post warnings next to their roller coasters.

Myth: If the x-ray looks fine, you can't have a whiplash injury

Fact: X-rays can only show bone fracture or vertebral displacement; they will not show any soft tissue damage. Soft tissue includes neck muscles, ligaments, nerves and blood vessels. Whiplash injury is a soft tissue injury. The new imaging technology is required for a better understanding of what is often dismissed as a soft tissue injury.

Myth: All those complaints about whiplash injury are psychosomatic!

Fact: In this instance, "psychosomatic" is a put-down, meaning that psychological factors are the real cause of the physical symptoms. What the word psychosomatic actually means is that there is a complex interaction between the body (soma) and the mind (psyche). This close interrelationship works both ways. It is totally arbitrary to define it as a one way interaction. Whiplash injuries are the perfect illustration of this interdependence of mind and body. When a person suffering from a whiplash injury acts anxious or irritable, or tearful, it may be that the vibration from the force of the impact bruised the brain, thereby interfering with neurotransmitter and nerve connections.

Myth: Rest, time plus some muscle relaxants will take care of a whiplash patient's distress

Fact: Rest can help whiplash patients. However, without adequate physical therapy whiplash injury patients run the risk of having a chronic problem with a sore, stiff neck. Physical therapy can help people with a whiplash injury to regain some degree of pain-free mobility and will prepare them for the exercises that they will have to do later on. The value of muscle relaxants is more than offset by their side effects.

Sports medicine has now refined a regimen of cold and hot packs, ultrasound, massage, traction, manipulation and guided exercise that is available from a team made up of orthopedic specialists, osteopaths, chiropractors and massage therapists. Injured athletes are not dismissed with a prescription for tranquilizers and home rest. Whiplash injury patients are entitled to the same level of care.

Myth: Whiplash victims are guilty of malingering for monetary gain.

Fact: The complaints that whiplash injury sufferers are suspected of being tainted with an ulterior motive. There are no valid statistical studies to support those suspicions. Military personnel, even though they have no legal recourse against the government and nothing to gain financially, can also suffer from whiplash injuries. Rear-end or angle collisions are not the one and only cause of whiplash trauma. Lately, pediatricians have cautioned parents not to shake their infants. Children can be very seriously injured when shaken by an adult. This Whiplash Shake Syndrome" is now recognised by pediatricians as a form of child abuse. If a 165-pound adult can do that much harm to a child, is it any wonder that a 3,000-pound car can also severely injure the occupants of the car it has struck?

Myth: If people wore their seat belts, they would not suffer whiplash injuries

Fact: Seat belts have a great protective feature: in the event of a collision, they can prevent you from being thrown out of the car. There is no denying that seat belts have saved many lives.Unfortunately, seat belts do not prevent whiplash injuries at all. They are even now suspected of compounding some whiplash injuries.

At the present time, the best way to minimise the injury is to have a well-designed, well-positioned head restraint and a sturdy seatback, the kind that is recommended by The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In order to act as a dependable head stop, a head restraint must be positioned high enough above the ears, and very close to the back of the head. It should also be made of the same material as the seat and should need no prior adjustment. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety regularly rates head restraints of new automobiles on their web site:

www.iihs.org

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