HEADACHES

It’s not uncommon for car wreck victims to suffer from headaches due to whiplash or a back injury. When whiplash occurs, an injury victim’s head is suddenly snapped forward (or to the side) due to the force of impact. As a consequence, the muscles in the neck or back are stretched and strained beyond their normal functioning, resulting in injury to ligaments, vertebrae, ganglia, and facet joints.

When this happens, inflammation compresses nerves that run along the spinal column and up through the neck to the base of the brain. Compressed nerves are unable to carry important signals to and from the brain, resulting in a number of symptoms that can effect mobility and overall health.

When inflammation occurs as a result of whiplash, headaches can result. In order to understand why, it’s important to first understand what causes a headache. Contrary to what many people may think, a headache is not caused by the brain itself. In fact, the brain does not have any nerve fibers itself that can give rise to the sensation of pain.
What gives rise to headache pain, then, are the tissues and structures surrounding the brain – specifically, muscles surrounding the skull, the membrane covering the brain and spinal cord (meninges), sinuses, arteries, and eyes. Inflammation of torn muscles and ligaments after whiplash can affect all of these structures, resulting in throbbing, aching head pain.

The onset of headaches after a car crash is an indicator that an underlying condition should be diagnosed and treated. Depending on the severity of your injuries, chiropractic care can be extremely effective in reducing or eliminating headache pain. When the strain on muscles and vertebrae that go along with whiplash occur, the result can be a misalignment of your spine. Here, realigning your vertebrae through chiropractic adjustments can relieve pinched nerves and reduce pain. Coupled with message and physiotherapy, chiropractic treatment can help – if not eliminate – headaches that often accompany whiplash injuries.

If you’ve been injured in a car, motorcycle, bicycle, or truck crash, contact Accident & Injury Chiropractic today to schedule an appointment and learn how we can help you. We have multiple Dallas-area locations so your pain relief is never far away.