the treatment of whiplash with acupuncture
Many people don't realize that acupuncture is a good way of dealing with muscle aches and pain caused by motor vehicle accidents (MVA). The most common complaints are neck and shoulder pain or whiplash. Majority of the time, in healthy individuals, you will see results in just one acupuncture session. The muscles will relax, start to heal and the pain will be gone. If you have an acupuncture treatment a day or two after the accident your chances of healing quickly(1-2 treatments) are very high, if you wait for more then 2 weeks you are looking at 4-10 treatments.
Why does acupuncture work so well after a MVA? Because muscle pain from a MVA is at a superficial level, it hasn't had a chance to move to a deeper level in the body therefore acupuncture can get the blockage(causing the pain) out of the muscle tissue quickly and easily. If the pain moves to a deeper level then the blockage becomes very stubborn. In that case you need to have alot more sessions in conjunction with massage and/or physiotherapy.
So to keep healing simple and less time consuming try acupuncture either the day of or 1-3 days after the accident. You will be happy with the results.
Submitted by:
Bobbi Hayashi, Registered Acupuncturist