Friday Fun: Headache!

It has been a busy few days, in fact a pressured month. Finally, it is Friday and a long weekend.

You and the family pack hastily and take off for a delightful three days in the Blue Hills. Hiking, swimming in crystal-clear streams, bird-watching ... relax, smell the roses.

"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."

- Herbert Spencer

AN IRRITATING MOBILE CALL

You're on that long stretch of road in the middle of Kansas, and the mobile phone rings. You ponder. You make the right decision. Turn the damn thing off. Firstly, it's illegal, immoral and probably fattening to answer, and secondly it will probably mean the end of your hard-earned weekend away. You turn it off.

WHIPLASH on the way

But five kilometres away, a track hoe weighing 22 tons is on top of a lowboy trailer and heading east on Interstate 70 near Hays, Kansas. The driver is on his mobile ... boy, is he going to have a headache in about three minutes time! Had YOU left home 30 seconds earlier ... keep scrolling.

An interesting case

Mrs S, a 38 year old opera singer left home a few seconds too soon late last year, and was rammed side on at an intersection. X-rays taken were negative, and after an examination she was told at the emergency rooms that she had had a minor whiplash, and the pain would soon pass over.

Headache

But, within a few weeks she started getting terrible headaches. Worse still, she was losing control of her voice and could no longer reach the top notes.

Yes!, Mrs S informed me yesterday that her headaches and neck pain are all but over. More important still for her, she reached an E flat last Saturday at a concert for the first time since the accident. Whiplash affects the nervous system, and it's nerves that control muscles including those of the larynx, throat, neck and diaphragm, and a host of other organs.

But, back to Interstate 70 which you are about to cross. Suddenly in front of you ...

Managing to stop just in the nick of time, you leap out and peer over the side of the bridge ...

NECK PAIN

In a whiplash, it's not only bones that can be fractured. In fact that only occasionally happens. More often, ligaments are torn, muscles ripped, the spinal cord stretched, joints subluxated ...

That's an interesting whiplash that the truck driver would have had. First that he knew of a problem would be discovering his head travelling towards the windscreen at something approaching the speed of light, well that's an exaggeration of course, whilst his brain connected with the back of his cranium. Then, realising that he was about to lose his head, the neck extensor muscles would have very abruptly contracted, whipping his head backwards, and his brain would crash against the front of his cranium.

More about whiplash.

INSURANCE

I wonder if the insurance paid out? See where the cab smacked the underside of the bridge? After all, the cause of the accident was speaking on the mobile ... we wouldn't be ever be so distracted on the mobile as to do something as dumb as that would we! Or would we ...?

MOBILES

Mobile phones are wonderful tools when travelling, but it's strictly illegal to answer whilst driving, and for good reason.

Migraines

Migraines headaches have diverse causes: whiplash, subluxations in the neck, food allergies, poor posture, hormonal changes, the jaw joint ... and many others. One of the symptoms is dizziness.

Read more about Vertigo

Tip

If you have any questions, we try to answer them at this link:

Your questions answered.

Below is the cover of Bats in my Belfry that you can order by clicking on the picture. A great book to take away for the weekend.

Enjoy your weekend

You've earned it!

If you want to see a truly astonishing performance of an important orthopaedic test done on every patient who has whiplash ... oh, lovely ...

Mushrooms

Eat sensibly on holiday too. There are so many simple, healthy foods to prepare and enjoy. So easy. Sauteed Mushrooms.

SMOKING

I don't write much about smoking. We all know what it does to the bod. Whilst going on holiday, a completely new environment, away from Pavlovian signs that make us light up, is a great time to quit. It can be done.

I don't shirk my responsibility as a doctor. I tell every patient - once. And lose some patients as a result. Two men thanked me this week, though. They have both quit for about a month, adding ten years to their lives. Ten good years. The end is always S-H-one-T for smokers.

Until our more serious newsletter for May then. Promise not to fill your Inbox with information overload.

Should you have found this email helpful, feel free to forward to family and friends. We have a readership of 150 now, but for the considerable work put in, I would prefer it to be 5 000!

Yours in greater well-being.

Chiropractic-Help.com

Back to Back Issues Page