After posting the message about the SCM yesterday, I received an email from someone who had whiplash. My customer support manager put the posting on my forum, but I also wanted to put some information here for the readers of this blog.
When you have whiplash your head is jerked around violently and suddenly. In fact, there is a medical phenomenon called “the kiss syndrome” because lipstick has been found on the chest area of women who have been in serious car accidents. It proved how much the woman’s neck stretched during the accident that her lips hit her chest!
Depending on the severity of the whiplash, your head was like a bowling ball on a spring, spinning around and getting totally knotted up, seriously impinging nerves, and pushing your cervical bones way out of alignment.
While the bones definitely need to be reset, your muscles need to be released before you adjust the bones.
The reason for this is simple, as your head bounced around, and your neck stretched, your muscles also stretched and flung back into multiple knots that are putting a strain on each of the bones. Think about taking a length of cord that is attached to a bone at both ends, and then tying the cord into multiple knots.
You can clearly see that the bones at both ends will have moved closer together as the cord shortened. However, if you didn’t untie the knots, but forcefully shoved the bones back where they belong, the strain on the bones would be intensified, and the knots would get tighter. However, if you untied the knots first, you would be able to move the bones easily, and they wouldn’t pull out of alignment again.
In the case of whiplash, all of the muscles that attach your head to your neck, shoulders, and spine need to be treated, especially:
*Levator Scapulae
*Sternocleidomastoid (SCM)
*Splenius Capitis
*Splenius Cervicis
*Scalenes
*Trapezius
You can see each of these muscles by doing an internet search using the muscle names.
The scalenes are especially involved and require a bit of caution while working on the muscle because you will be working in the area of your carotid artery. Also, for the same reason, care needs to be taken when you are working with your SCM.
The good news is that you can work successfully on the muscles that cause whiplash, release the tension, and in some cases the bones will move back into alignment by themselves, and in most other cases you’ll be able to go to a chiropractor and s/he will be able to easily move the bones without straining the muscles even further.
It may take you a few sessions, but since you are doing this to yourself you can work on the muscles every day, even several times every day, so you can move this healing to occur much faster than if you were dependent on going to someone else to treat the muscles.
Wishing you well,
Julie