How to Treat Whiplash

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Dr. Kim Makoi. I'm a holistic chiropractor in San Francisco, and this is how to treat whiplash. Whiplash is actually a ligament injury, usually caused in car accidents, or sports injuries, where there is a sudden acceleration, and deceleration, in the head and neck region, and in the normal healthy neck, you have a nice C shaped curve, going backwards like this, and then after the whiplash injury,when the head moves forward, all these little ligaments that hold, stabilize the back of the spine, get overstretched. It's kind of like picking out cans out of a six pack, how that plastic overstretches, and then it doesn't snap back into place, so once you have that destabilization here, you have a tendency, the neck has a tendency to go the other way, so when you're treating that, you want to encourage it to go back to the healthy backwards C shaped curve, so of course, it's helpful to see a chiropractor, because the chiropractor can help realign those vertebrae and make sure that you're healing in the proper alignment, but at home, it's also helpful for you to roll up a towel, into a little towel log, and place it behind your neck. Lay down before you go to sleep at night, 15-20 minutes, just resting, allowing the neck to curve, in that natural back C shape, helps to retrain it to go backwards. It's also helpful sometimes to do, what's called isometric exercises, where you place your hand in the back of your neck, and you just push your head into your hand, and even if your head doesn't go anywhere, you're still activating the extensor muscles, that again, will help to retrain that curve to go back, and that is how you treat whiplash."