Accidents and Injuries

It's a rare life that hasn't been punctuated
by a traumatic brush (or collision) with reality.

Most accidents are minor.

And although accidents may be unavoidable, much of the physical damage and suffering resulting from them may, in many cases, be avoided or mitigated with chiropractic care.

In those cases chiropractic care should be sought out as quickly as possible.

Too often severe health problems first begin as a little fall, whiplash, bump or shake-up that may have caused some pain initially but was later forgotten.

In the case of serious accidents, chiropractic care is absolutely helpful. But in such situations it is necessary to first attend to any life-threatening emergency such as bleeding or hemorrhage, stoppage of breath, loss of fluid electrolytes, internal organ damage, broken bones, serious contusions or abrasions, shock and the like.

This is the specialty of the medical profession.

It must be emphasized that chiropractic is not against necessary medical care.
In emergencies all must be done to save life and limb.

Long-term damage to the spine and head is especially common in auto accidents.

Doctors of chiropractic have for years recognized that most victims of automobile injuries do not fully recover under medical care, they may continue to have problems for years after the accident because their structure it often ignored.

This is especially the case of those who have whiplash and concussion injuries as well as other accident victims.

New medical terms acknowledging the incomplete
healing of auto accident victims have recently arisen:

Post concussion Syndrome (PCS)
Whiplash Syndrome (WS)
Mild- traumatic Brain Injuries (MTBI)
Mild Head Injury  (MHI).

"Pinched" Nerves:

"Pinched" nerves could happen any where in your spine; can affect nerves that go to your arms, fingers, wrist, neck, back, shoulders, head, legs, muscles and internal organs and can affect your general health, posture, energy level, resistance to disease. Even your emotional health.

"Pinched" nerves can make your life miserable. "Pinched" is an inaccurate term.

Many Chiropractors feel that "vertebral subluxation complex," "nerve impingement," "nerve irritation," "foramina compression," "chronic proprioceptive sensory-bed disturbance," "nerve-meningeal tension"and "spinal stress" are more accurate and should be used instead.

But people like the word pinched because it is so descriptive. If the vertebrae in your back misalign slightly they cause the nerves to be irritated, compressed or stretched along with blood vessels, discs, ligaments, joints, muscles, fascia tendons, meninges, lymphatics and fat tissue. It can really feel like something is being pinched in there, but a majority of people with "pinched" nerves, are not in pain.

The people with painful "pinched" nerves might be considered the lucky ones; they know they have a problem and know to get it checked by a chiropractor.

Only doctors of chiropractic are able to analyze the spinal column for "pinched" nerves or vertebral subluxations.

Using the art of chiropractic spinal adjustment, the doctor of Chiropractic then begins a process of correcting the spinal damage.

"Pinched" nerves will not go away themselves and drugs like painkillers and muscle relaxants only treat the symptoms, not the cause.

Anyone suffering from "pinched"nerves needs muscle relaxants a proper chiropractic spinal analysis and spinal adjustment to muscle relaxants relieve their body of vertebral subluxations - nothing else will do.

Disc Problems and Back Surgery

    

The intervertebral discs lie between the spinal bones and act like shock absorbers, preventing the bones from painfully rubbing together.

They are made up of a tough fibrous outer ring (annular fibrosis) and a gel-like center (nucleus pulposus).

Your 23 spinal discs help give your spine its sideways curves and also join the vertebrae together.

Discs contribute to your height -- in the morning you are about 1/4" to 1/2" taller than your were the night before because your discs thin a little during the day and expand a little while you sleep.

As you age, the disc may lose fluid and small cracks (lesions) form in the outer walls.

This aging may be accelerated by the vertebral subluxation complex.

If the nucleus pulposus begins to push the annular fibrosis a little out of shape, its called a herniation.

If the herniation causes the disc to bulge a little, its called a protrusion.

If the disc bulge goes into the spinal cord or puts extreme pressure in the lumbar nerves, it is a disc prolapse.

A "slipped disc" is a misnomer -- the disc cannot slip since it is knitted into the vertebrae from both above and below.

Rather, a "slipped disc" would more accurately be called a slipped vertebrae.

Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, M.D. states that "Nobody in America should be allowed to have back surgery unless they have seen a Chiropractor first."

While back surgery can be highly effective in some patients who suffer from sciatica or low back pain, Dr. Mendelsohn and many other medical doctors remarks underline the fact that many patients who decide to pursue a non-operative approach towards disc herniation may not need surgery.

Back surgery has a high failure rate and there is much controversy in this area.

Many people who have had spinal surgery claim that withinone year after surgery their symptoms are no different then before they had the surgery.

A proper alignment between the disc, the vertebrae and other structures in the spine is essential for healthy discs and that is why chiropractic has such an excellent record with disc sufferers, often saving them from the bleak prospect of surgery.

Chiropractors have claimed reduction of lumbar disc protrusion as a result of spinal care.

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