The force of a car collision can and does leave thousands of people with a disc herniation injury to their spine. This type of personal injury is often devastating to the quality of a person’s life. It’s difficult to walk, lift anything, move your arms up to your head to shampoo your hair, laugh, sit in a chair, drive, go grocery shopping or perform your normal activities at work.
Here are three tips to ease the discomfort of a personal injury that is a disc herniation:
1. The key to lessening the pain is getting the disc to go from the position of outside the spinal canal to inside the canal. With an advanced chiropractic treatment called non-surgical spinal decompression, the spine is stretched out in a way that results in displacing the disc to inside the canal.
Once the disc is where it should be, the pain symptoms subside. When you have a personal injury from a work incident or car accident that involves a disc herniation, always obtain a consultation with Dr. Sweeney to see if non-surgical cervical or lumbar decompression will help your condition.
2. Keep moving even though you have pain. After suffering a personal injury, the only thing you may want to do is rest. When you move, there’s pain. When you rest, there’s still pain, but it feels as if the pain is less.
Resting is good initially, but in studies, those who rested for long periods of time (days and weeks) extended the length of time it took to heal. This is likely due to muscle atrophy and the buildup of scar tissue that further inhibits your range of motion.
3. A personal injury always needs a higher amount of nutrients to heal. If you injure your skin, your body has to rev up production of new skin to heal the old. This involves a greater amount of nutrients to get the job done.
It’s the same thing with your personal injury. Whether you have a personal injury affecting your muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones or nerves, you need a greater than normal amount of nutrients to cover all the added requirements.
Speak to Dr. Sweeney about what type of diet you can eat that will maximize your nutrient consumption from real foods, and ask about what you’ll need to heal totally from your personal injury. He’ll be happy to share what he knows about nutrition and create a wellness program for you.
So if you're suffering from a personal injury in the Nashville area — don't just suffer as you wait for it to get better on its own, because often times, it won't. Call a personal injury chiropractor like Dr. Sweeney who can expedite your healing. Make an appointment in our Nashville office today!
