Whiplash Injury: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment & More!
A simple neck strain is called a whiplash injury, the major cause of this kind of injury is car accidents or a sudden jerk on your neck in any direction. Neck strains are also very popular amongst athletes, as their necks are very prone to get damaged while exercising or training. Many people think that whiplash is a deadly disease, but it is not a disease at all, it is just an injury. However, several people also get confused between neck strain and neck sprain, in easy words, they both are a bit different from each other. Neck strains are caused due to damage to muscles or tendons whilst neck sprains are caused by the impairment of ligaments. Although you have a neck sprain or a neck strain, the symptoms and causes are mostly the same, so let’s have a look:
Symptoms
Whiplash pain is very tormenting, and it is unbearable too. Your neck might feel hard or tight in the beginning, and the pain will increase day-by-day. If you feel the pain, then to assure yourself, you should do some neck exercises, such as look on to your shoulder for two to three seconds and then change the shoulder after that and do it repeatedly and you can also look sideways, if in both the cases you feel tightness and tenderness on your neck, then you need to rush to a doctor immediately as it is a whiplash injury. You are also going to face headaches, which will also cause fever and your body will become weak too. Some other symptoms include dizziness, excessive sleeping, incautiousness, nauseous and concussions.
Treatments
Whiplash injuries are treated homeopathically and as well as allopathically. The specialists mostly prescribe certain drugs or painkillers to reduce pain and swelling, these medications can contain several side effects too so always ask your doctor which type of medication he or she is giving you, so that if you have a medical problem then they could find some other alternative. Massages and ultrasounds are also very helpful while the treatment of whiplash injury. Homeopathically whiplash is treated by icing your neck, all you need to do is wrap the ice in a towel and apply it on the affected side for 10 to 15 minutes after every 3 to 4 hours. After the swelling has gone due to continuous treatment, you can also apply moist heat on the neck to make the healing process faster. Many doctors also prescribe neck braces for just a period, they tend to support your neck, do not overuse it or it can weaken the muscle in your neck. Treating whiplash injury is a very sensitive task, so try to take care of it at your greatest.
The Recovery Time
Many patients are very curious to know about the recovery time, and they continuously beg their doctors to narrate them. So the easiest answer to this question is that the more you care, the less time it will take for you to heal. However, the recovery time also depends on person to person, and it also depends on how serious is your injury. In the beginning, the pain will go very slowly, but after you perform all the treatments regularly and effectively, gradually swelling will disappear, then the healing process will get faster, and your neck will start to do its initial movements after the injury. Once the swelling has gone, then you can start gentle neck exercises after consulting your doctor. Even though you start feeling better, and the pain has also faded away, that does not mean that you are completely fine and you can perform physical activities and play sports, only after you have consulted a specialized doctor, then only you can start with your daily life routines. Being hasty will make you go nowhere, if you start to exercise even before your neck is not even healed, then it can lead to chronic neck pain and at its worst, to permanent injury.
Prevention from Whiplash
As said earlier, whiplash injuries are mostly caused due to car accidents or sports injuries, as both of the causes are sudden and natural, so we could not prevent it. However, we can drive carefully or slowly and play carefully too, which is quite a difficult thing for a sporty. There are also a few things which you should perform in your daily life so that you can improve the odds. Strengthening exercises should be part of your daily routine, and if you have faced a whiplash injury before, then you have no chance of skipping it, it helps you to keep your neck muscles strong. Office workers should also perform neck exercises or stretching, as they sit in the same position for a whole day, this can cause severe damage to their spinal cord as well as to their neck. Even if you face a whiplash injury, if you have performed these exercises regularly then your pain and your injury will get better in a very short period of time.
This was a complete process of whiplash injury from the symptoms to the recovery time. Though the recovery process involves attention and the utmost care, it also involves the strength, the stronger you will be, the less pain you will feel while the recovery process. There are many types of pain, examples include headaches, leg pain, arm pains, back pain, knee pains, and what so not. Even if one tiny orgasm of our body stops working or starts working ineffectively, the whole body has to bear the consequences, sometimes the pain is unbearable, whilst in certain cases the pain is controllable too, but we tend to solve the problem and consult with doctors and specialists. We always want our body to function smoothly and there should not be even a single defect in us, but in no time we face a one. Be strong, take care of yourself and your loved ones and be grateful every time!