What is it?
Whiplash is a neck injury caused by the sudden and forceful back-and-forth movement of the neck – like cracking a whip. In some cases whiplash go hand-in-hand with concussion.
Symptoms:
Common symptoms include neck stiffness and pain that often worsens with movement, reduced range of motion in the neck, headaches, dizziness and tenderness or pain in the upper back, shoulders and arms. In some cases it could even cause ringing of the ears, blurred vision, memory problems and irritability.
Common Causes:
Most often caused by a sudden hit from behind, such as a rear-end car accident, whiplash can also happen during a fall or sports accidents such as getting tackled in rugby or hit in boxing.
How to treat it?
Although whiplash often heals by itself after a few weeks, it has the potential to develop into chronic neck pain. After consulting a physician and ruling out bone injuries (broken bones) and other structural damage, correction of any muscular imbalance caused by the injury will help greatly in reducing the healing time.
