The third and final video of this 3 part series is the most important exercise to restore a normal curve to a neck that has been damaged by a car crash.
It is an exercise that has not only been proven over many years to restore normal curvature, but many patients enjoy the relief they feel after doing this home therapy.
Auto accident neck injuries and neck exercises
Dr Barry L Marks, Chiropractor Orange County, CA
This is the second of three videos for neck stabilization and correction following a car accident whiplash injury. If you’ve been in an accident and have suffered a reduced neck curve as a result, then you must do these exercises to correct your neck curvature to prevent serious problems years down the road.
Video number 2 depicts Neck Extensions which are vital for restoring neck muscle strength and stamina.
For more information on car accident injury treatment, including a free online video seminar and free report, go to: http://www.orange-car-accident.com
1. Roll up a bath towel into a 4” roll, or you may use a hard foam roll, and place it on the end of your bed.
2. Lie on your back with your neck over the roll while your head hangs down over the edge of the bed.
3. Hold for 5 min/day for week one, then 10 min/day in week two, increasing to 20 min each day.
For more information on car accident injuries including a Shocking Free Report and an Online Video Whiplash Seminar, go to http://www.orange-car-accident.com
1. Lie face down on your bed or the floor.
2. Keeping your chest and shoulders down, lift your head up and attempt to look at the ceiling.
3. Hold position for 10-20 seconds depending on your strength.
4. Lower your head, then repeat 10 times.
For more information on car accident injuries including a Shocking Free Report and an Online Video Whiplash Seminar, go to http://www.orange-car-accident.com
We will assume for the sake of simplicity that you have concluded your Initial Relief Care treatment. This treatment has probably taken you anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks. Your pain should now be about 70% better than when you were first injured. It is now time for the second phase of care, which is called Spinal Rehabilitation care.
The two parts to Spinal Rehabilitation Care are:
1. In office visits at roughly twice each week for approximately 4-12 weeks
2. At home care daily, 7 days a week until curve returns to normal
Your in office visits will consist of:
·Various forms of cervical (neck) traction that depends on how severe your loss of curve is to mold your neck into the proper curvature.
·Isoelectronic muscle rehabilitation also known as Russian Stimulation, to increase muscle strength in the back or your neck and shoulders.
·Myofascial release (stretching, deep muscle massage, etc) to remove muscle tension
·Chiropractic spinal adjustments to maintain proper joint alignment and freedom of movement to allow your neck to be curved.
Your “homework” will include:
·General stretching of the neck and upper back that you were assigned in Initial Relief Care to loosen the muscles followed by…
·Head translation exercise to improve upper neck motion and stability
·Neck extension exercise to strengthen the neck
·Gravity traction to stretch the muscles in the front of the neck and mold the neck into the proper curvature.
·Ice pack to relieve inflammation caused by exercise
There are 3 exercises I recommend for the neck if there is a reduced curve on x-ray following an auto accident.
Exercise 1: Head Translation
Stand or sit in a comfortable position. See figure 1.
Imagine your chin being pushed backward, while your neck stays stationary. You should feel increased tension in the upper neck region as your head slides backwards. See figure 2. Hold position for 20 seconds
Return to normal position, figure 1.
Now stick chin outward while neck remains still and hold for 20 seconds. See figure 3.
Repeat movement from position 2 to position 3, 10 times.
At the moment of impact in a typical rear-end collision, your head remains momentarily still while your body is forced forward. This instantaneous separation of the movement of your torso and head causes the neck shape to be deformed injuring muscles, ligaments, tendons, discs, joint surfaces, nerves and even your brain.
This all occurs before you are even conscious of the collision. By the time you realized you were hit, your spine as already been damaged!
The degree of spine damage depends on many factors including your age, gender, body type, vehicle type, seat and head restraint type, your position at impact, previous accidents, and more. Interestingly, vehicle damage has been repeatedly shown NOT to be a good predictor of bodily injury.
One of the most reliable factors of injury are your symptoms and how soon after the collision they show up and your x-ray findings. Much research has gone into determining the long-term outlook of crash victims and how to predict whether you will recover from your injuries or not.
The presence of an abnormal neck curve on x-rays after a collision is a key factor in your prognosis. Medical researchers have found that if your neck is damaged it will change it’s shape which is readily measurable on x-ray examination. How far from normal your neck curve has deviated determines how badly you are injured and how difficult it may be to return your neck to normal.
Consider the pictures below…on the left is a normal curve that resembles a backwards “C.” On the right is an “S” shaped curve due to whiplash.
A normal “C” shaped neck curve measures between 30 and 40 degrees. There is some debate about whether or not the higher number, 40 is a steadfast norm. I believe, if you are between those numbers that is a good place to be.
Let’s compare a normal neck, Figure 1 and an abnormal neck in Figure 2:
You may have noticed that the patient is facing to the left instead of to the right as in the pictures previously, but you should also note that Fig. 1 has a nice deep curve, while Fig. 2 is very straight. This is a classic example of what is called a “hypolordosis” or decreased curve of the neck.
What you need to understand is that after your initial treatment that is designed to reduce pain by quelling inflammation and spasm, it is highly probable that your neck will still be misshaped like this. Unfortunately, doctors who do not know about or do not understand the importance of fully rehabilitating a neck after an accident, treat many crash victims. So once your pain is reduced, these doctors will unceremoniously release you from care without taking a second set of x-rays to measure your curve. You will be released with less pain, but your neck is still damaged inside and will eventually become painful again. Worse, is that later you will suffer deterioration of your neck joints and have early osteoarthritis. Medical research indicates a 600% increase in risk for early arthritis in victims with persistently reduced neck curve after a crash.As you can see, it is very important for your long-term health to correct your neck as much as possible.
In the next post, we will cover the specific neck exercises you MUST do if you have suffered an auto accident.
For more information on car accident injuries including a Free Report
and a Free Online Video
Orange County Car Accident Information
Dr Barry L Marks, Chiropractor Orange, CA
Auto Accident Injury Treatment Expert
Scientific and medical studies have shown that upwards of 40% of car accident victims suffer long-term pain and impairment. Therefore, contrary to what insurance companies may want you to believe, whiplash is not a self limited problem that will just go away. Car accident injuries are serious.
Researchers point to 3 distinct structures that become injured in a car accident that account for the vast majority of chronic whiplash sufferers.
Facet joint injury
because the damage. Namely, neck damage is The number one cause of chronic neck pain form am motor vehicle collision is a damaged facet joint. The facet joints technically known as zygapohyseal joints, are the joints on the back of the spine that connect two spinal bones or vertebrae together. These joints are designed to allow your spine to move. When the neck is subjected to the extreme forces of a motor vehicle collision, the joints become damaged. These injuries are nearly impossible to detect since symptoms of a damaged facet joint are the same as a whiplash strain type injury without facet joint damage. Pain and stiffness that radiates into the shoulder blade on certain head and neck movements is the hallmark of this injury. Facet joint injury is suspected in cases of whiplash that fail to respond fully in a reasonable amount of time and a pain pattern that is reproducible. When the head is angled backward and to the side at the same time and then slightly compressed, the characteristic shoulder blade pain will appear.
Intervertebral disc injury
contact nerves The next most common cause of chronic whiplash pain is a damaged disc. The larger part of the spinal bones are separated by a disc. The disc is a shock absorber and a spacer to allow room for nerves to exit between the vertebrae. Car accidents cause shearing forces across the disc and cause the fibers to tear. Small tears in the outer disc fibers will cause pain in the centerline of the spine . Tears may eventually worsen until the disc begins to bulge outward which causes radiating pain into the arms, hands or fingers. Often times the disc bulge or herniation occurs weeks, months even years after the initial injury.
Upper cervical ligament damage
The third most common cause of chronic whiplash pain, particularly headaches is damage to the ligaments that hold your head and upper neck in alignment. These “accessory” ligaments as they are commonly called, are damaged by teh spine being forced into an “S” configuration milliseconds after impact. The result is looseness in the joints between the skull and the top 2 spinal bones the “atlas” and “axis.” The looseness is often hidden early on by muscle spasm, but once spasm abates a noticeable “clunk” or “crack” will be heard and felt by the victim on turning or tilting the head. The looseness leads to misalignment of the upper cervical vertebrae which cause head pain.
You may now realize that whiplash injuries from car accidents are in fact serious. Up to 40% of car accident victims will suffer chronic pain and impairment because they have suffered injury to their facet joints, disc or accessory ligaments.
Learn more about injuries and treatment after a car accident by attending a Free Car Accident Injury Webinar. This is an in depth 10 part video series that explains in easy to understand language what whiplash is, what effects it has on your health and what can be done about it. There is even a session on how to avoid whiplash injuries. The information is suitable for the public but is also fully referenced with leading scientific references so that doctors and lawyers handling these cases can better help their patients and clients.
Car Accident in Orange County, CA
Dr Barry L Marks, Chiropractor, Orange, CA 92868
Car Accident Recently?
If you’ve suffered an auto accident recently you probably have many questions. Who will fix my car? Am I really injured? How will I pay for medical treatment? Do I have to sue someone?
Assuming you have already obtained the personal and auto insurance information from the person that hit you, your next step is quite logical.
You need to determine whether or not you are injured.
A personal injury case is predicated on medical damages. If you have not suffered any medically verified injuries, there is nothing to discuss other than a simple transaction of repairing your vehicle.
But how do you know if you are truly injured?
If you’ve been to the emergency room or have already visited your family or HMO doctor, you may have had a cursory exam and been told you have a neck or back strain. Often you will not have had x-rays and often even if you do, you will be told they are “essentially normal.” The first thing to know about car accident injuries or whiplash is that they are often underestimated by most medical physicians.
What you need is to be evaluated by a true car accident injury specialist. Your spine may be injured more than you realize and you may not even feel that much pain nor have suffered much vehicle damage. A true expert will uncover any hidden or subtle injuries that exist.
Once you have been found to be injured, these injuries must be properly documented. By proper, I mean the precise diagnosis codes must be used. The correct number and very specific codes and time frames must be used. Most generalist doctors and even many “experts” do not know how to do this correctly. That could cost you later.
Next you need to begin care and follow your expert doctor’s advice. Proper healing will only occur if you follow his or her treatment protocol. That brings up another point. Your doctor must know the proper treatment to provide. He or she should provide, in a certain sequence, the correct therapies that have been proven to heal whiplash injuries and are acceptable to insurance companies. An auto accident case is no place for a “guru” doctor to provide unusual or controversial care. It must be scientifically sound and legally defensible.
Depending on the scope of your injuries, you may be advised to seek legal counsel right away and/or to possibly see another medical specialist for additional evaluation and/or treatment. This will be apparent within the first weeks of care with your car accident medical expert.
Dr Barry Marks is a chiropractor, author and lecturer in Orange, CA. He is a former Associate Clinical Professor at a leading Chiropractic College and has specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of auto accident injuries since 1986. As an Advanced Graduate of the Spine Research Institutes’s Whiplash Traumatology and Brain Injury Program he is one of Orange County’s most experienced whiplash experts. Visit Dr Marks at http://www.orange-car-accident.com
Car Accident injury information by whiplash expert Dr Barry Marks, DC Orange, CA
Auto accidents are a common occurrence in Orange County. Each year thousands of Orange residents are injured in collisions between vehicles in the county’s over stuffed freeways.
Here are some of the most commonly known factors or “injury intensifiers,” that can increase your risk for injury in an accident.
Rear impact: rear impact collisions cause more damage to the human spine than any other type of collision.
Head restraint position: a head restraint that is positioned incorrectly greatly increases your chance for injury
Head position: if you are looking to the side, down to your stereo or into your rear view mirror on impact, your injury potential is raised
Surprised: being surprised and therefore unable to brace for impact makes it 15x more likely that you will be injured
Female gender: females suffer injury more easily than males due to neck size and other anatomic factors
Pre-existing arthritis or disc disease: an already compromised neck even if it was asymptomatic previously, makes the neck less resilient to injury
To learm more about these risk factors and others and what you can do to minimize your chance of injury in an auto accident, join the Free online seminar at www.TruthAboutWhiplash.com. This free web based audio seminar with downloadable .pdf fact sheets will teach every accident victim what they need to know about their whiplash injury. Physicians and lawyers will also benefit from this free auto accident seminar by learning key facts about the truth behind motor vechicle collisions and their treatment.
Auto Accident and Car Accident facts by Orange County Car Accident Specialist, Dr Barry L Marks, DC, Orange, CA
Here are some interesting auto accident facts gleaned from our friends at Spine Research Institute of San Diego…with commentary
Approx 3 million whiplash injuries occur each year in US That’s a lot of injuries and when you consider other facts revealed below, you’ll realize just how common it is to become injured and suffer permanent pain and disability, despite the fact that insurance companies attempt to tell victims they are not injured or that auto accidents are not serious.
45% of chronic neck pain sufferers blame past MVC as the cause of their pain
Wow, almost half of all chronic neck pain sufferers attribute a car accident as their source of pain…does that sound like auto accidents are simple, uncomplicated injuries?
Females are twice as likely to suffer whiplash injury than males
The most commonly cited reason for this is neck size. Females, in general, have thinner, weaker necks than their male counterparts and therefore are not as resilient to whiplash forces.
Males and females are equally likely to suffer long term residual pain and/or impairment after a whiplash injury
Interestingly, even though females are more easily injured, once someone is injured it does not matter what their gender, they are just as likely to suffer long term impairment and pain from their car accident.
Approximately 35% of all victims of rear impact motor vehicle collisions become chronically painful
Here’s a powerful statistic that flies in the face of insurance adjusters who often claim whiplash injuries go away with our without treatment in a matter of weeks. Sourced from numerous top flight medical and scientific papers, this fact is very troublesome. When you consider that 3,000,000 injuries occur every year and 35% of them will suffer chronic pain, that means every single year there are 1,050,000 new chronic pain sufferers in the U.S.
These facts clearly point to the fact that whplash injuires are very common, are serious and often lead to long-term pain and impairment. For these reasons it is imperative to get checked by a auto accident medical specialist who understands these facts and can properly manage these complex injuires.
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Posted by Dr Barry L. Marks, DC 
Posted by Dr Barry L. Marks, DC 
Posted by Dr Barry L. Marks, DC 
Scientific and medical studies have shown that upwards of 40% of car accident victims suffer long-term pain and impairment. Therefore, contrary to what insurance companies may want you to believe, whiplash is not a self limited problem that will just go away. Car accident injuries are serious.
Dr Barry Marks is a chiropractor, author and lecturer in Orange, CA. He is a former Associate Clinical Professor at a leading Chiropractic College and has specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of auto accident injuries since 1986. As an Advanced Graduate of the Spine Research Institutes’s Whiplash Traumatology and Brain Injury Program he is one of Orange County’s most experienced whiplash experts. Visit Dr Marks at 
Here are some interesting auto accident facts gleaned from our friends at Spine Research Institute of San Diego…with commentary
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