Nobody is spared any trauma during an auto accident. Every passenger…your significant other, your children, your relatives…all are impacted in basically the same ways by the same directional forces that affect the driver of the vehicle.

Today’s automobiles travel at significantly higher speeds and tend to be safer for the occupants inside. However, automobile accidents continue to injure the occupants inside these “safer” cars. The speed and direction of the impact is what’s important. Consider the following scenarios:

-At just 30 mph, the human head and neck is subjected to over 2,000 pounds of shear force… over-stretching and damaging the muscles of the head, neck, and jaw!

At higher speeds:

-If you hit a big tree at 60mph, that’s ~4,000 pounds of shear force directed into the bodies of the occupants of that vehicle.

At slower speeds:

-If two cars hit one another head-on, each traveling at only 15 mph, the impact is still 30 mph with 2,000 pounds of shear force.

Unless you’re Superman or Superwoman, you will be injured. You just may not know it yet.

Whiplash is the term given to describe the effects of trauma, most often to the head and neck, and primarily during an auto accident. They can often mimic the symptoms of a concussion. Whiplash can also occur from impacts about the head and neck that may occur during a sporting event or from physical abuse.

Symptoms of whiplash can take up to a year (or longer) to manifest themselves. Some of the primary symptoms are neck pain and

stiffness with loss of range of motion, headaches, shoulder or arm pain and/or tingling or numbness, tinnitus, blurry vision…and more.

Did you also know that hypothyroidism, TMJ problems, and/or changes in vision have been linked to automobile whiplash?

Walking away from an automobile accident is a common occurrence. Many people do it. But, walking away and being uninjured are extremely rare events. Most people are injured in nearly all auto accidents and don’t even know it. Think about it…was metal bent in the accident? And, if so, are you stronger than the metal of your car? Was the frame bent? Are you stronger than the frame of your car?

Many patients suffer, unknowingly, from the effects of an auto accident that occurred…sometimes decades ago. Don’t you be one of them! Automobile accidents and their subsequent injuries are one of my specialties as an Applied Kinesiologist. Please call Vickers AK Chiropractic at (616) 738-1200 and schedule an appointment with me, Dr. Joel Vickers, and I will use the AK diagnostic techniques and therapies I’ve mastered to help your body make the repairs necessary to help it function the way it did…before the automobile accident.