Auto Injuries and Ongoing Chronic Pain

It is estimated that 15-40% of those who are injured in a motor vehicle collision will suffer from ongoing chronic pain.

Whiplash injuries increase the incidence of chronic neck and shoulder pain as well as significantly increasing the incidence of other systemic ill health effects due to the fact that the spine controls the central nervous system. In other words, whiplash injuries cause more than neck pain and headaches; they hurt the health of the entire body.

Essentially 100% of those who are suffering from chronic pain caused by whiplash injuries will have an abnormal psychological profile with standard assessments, and studies show that the only way to resolve the abnormal profile is to successfully treat the chronic spinal pain.

In the longest study ever performed on whiplash-injured patients (a study looking at the health status 17 years after injury), 55% of the patients still suffered from pain caused by the original trauma.

1 in every 100 people on our planet suffers from chronic neck pain caused by auto-accidents.

Statistically, every American can expect to be in a motor vehicle collision once every ten years.

In the last ten years, about 360,000 Americans have died in motor vehicle crashes.
Since the start of the American Revolution in 1775, about 1 million Americans have died in our wars. Since Henry Ford introduced the mass-produced motorcar in 1913 (138 years later), more than 2.5 million Americans have met their deaths on the road.

To understand auto & whiplash injuries and treatment, it is most important to know the answers to these three questions:

1. What tissues are injured in a motor vehicle collision?
2. What tissues are the primary sources for chronic spinal pain?
3. What tissues are primarily affected by the chiropractic adjustment?

Astonishingly, the answer to all three questions is the same: the tissues in and around the spine, including but not limited to the facet joints and the tissues of the disc joints. Consequently, it is inevitable that some whiplash-injured patients will develop chronic pain and that chiropractic is often the best management choice for these patients.