Injury Care | Rook Torres

Jun 23 0

Personal Injury Auto Accident – The Help You Need

Posted by Rook Torres

If you’re suffering from a personal injury auto accident, you might be surprised to learn that chiropractic care can provide a drug-free way to relieve your pain. For instance, if you have back pain or neck pain after being involved in a car accident, this could mean you have a spinal or whiplash injury. If you do not receive proper care, these types of injuries can have a serious, negative impact on your health. They can lead to months, or possibly even years, of chronic pain.

Your HealthSource team is experienced in treating patients who have been injured in automobile accidents. And they know the best methods for managing whiplash and or spinal injuries–without resorting to medication or surgery.

What can happen as the result of an auto accident personal injury is that the musculoskeletal system is knocked out of proper alignment because of the force of the accident; back and neck pain can occur as a result. A whiplash injury can happen from the force of a rear-impact accident that cause the abrupt movement of the cervical spin backward and forward, or whipped (hence the name of the condition). This will knock the spine out of its alignment and strain the neck muscles, which causes pain, soreness, and stiffness.

Whereas traditional medicine generally relies on medication to cover up pain symptoms, chiropractic treatment addresses the underlying injury, whether it is spinal or whiplash. Painkillers provide immediate relief to the patients, but they do not offer a long-term solution when it comes to managing the pain. In addition, medication does not do much in terms of helping patients regain lost mobility after spine or whiplash injury. Chiropractic adjustments not only can relieve pressure on the muscles and nerves, but it also brings alignment back to the spine. Additional therapies, such as corrective exercise, can help bring back the body’s full range of motion.

If you’re suffering from an auto accident injury–regardless of whether it was a “fender bender” or a major crash–don’t wait to deal with your pain. Prompt chiropractic care will help support your body’s natural healing process and help you avoid a lifetime of chronic pain or other health problems.

We even work with your attorney, or can help you find one, to help with the difficult professional negotiations required to get your bills paid and take risk off of your already stressful situation.

Mar 22 0

8 Reasons Why Chiropractic is the Best Boise Treatment for Auto Injuries

Posted by Rook Torres

You can see from my recent posts that this is already true, however, here is some great information I found from national whiplash expert Michael Melton that furthers the point. You can get these great benefits from chiropractic care right here in Boise.

1. Chiropractic Reduces Inflammation

During a car accident, the ligaments and muscles in your spine can experience micro-tears. X-rays or MRI scans usually aren’t sophisticated enough to diagnose these kinds of injuries, but this tissue damage causes the area to become inflamed. Many times, people don’t feel much discomfort immediately after a crash, but they wake up the next morning to a stiff and painful neck. This is caused by the body’s inflammation response to these micro-lesions.

A 2010 study found that chiropractic adjustments actually helps the body release anti-inflammatory Interleukin 6 (IL-6), an important substance created by your body that’s used to help heal acute injuries.

2. Chiropractic Restores Motion

Another problem with inflammation is that the tissues become immobile, which can slow healing to the area. Ligaments of the spine don’t get many nutrients or blood supply normally, and this becomes even more difficult when inflamed and injured.

During a chiropractic adjustment, the joints of your spine are mobilized, which helps increase blood flow and healing nutrients to the area.

3. Chiropractic Reduces Scar Tissue

Your body heals injuries by creating scar tissue. Scar tissue in an injured area is made up of the same kind of cells as the original tissue, but it’s laid down rapidly and randomly as a temporary “patch” on top of the damaged area.

If you get scar tissue in a large muscle, it can be uncomfortable for a while until you stretch it out, but it most likely won’t cause any long-term problems. Scar tissue in the ligaments of your neck or back, however, can be much more debilitating, since we can’t stretch it out ourselves. Your chiropractor focuses the adjustments on these specific vertebral joints that are fixated, effectively stretching them and breaking up the scar tissue in the joint.

4. Chiropractic Relieves Localized Pain

Over the last 20 years, countless studies have demonstrated that chiropractic adjustments are a safe and effective way to reduce pain. In fact, a 2013 study found that 94% of patients experienced neck pain relief with manipulation!

5. Chiropractic Reduces Pain in Your Whole Body

Many auto injury patients develop more widespread pain after a crash, especially if the original injury wasn’t treated promptly. A 2014 study reported that people who received a chiropractic adjustment had increased levels of pain-reducing hormones in their bloodstream.

6. Chiropractic Relieves Stress

A car crash is a very stressful life event, especially if you’re in pain. When your body is exposed to trauma, it goes into a flight or fight response, which can result in anxiety, depression, and stress. A 2011 study used PET scans to look at the brains of people who received chiropractic adjustments for neck pain. They found that those patients had reduced brain activity in the parts of the brain responsible for pain processing and stress reactions. They also had significantly lower levels of cortisol, indicating reduced stress. Participants also reported lower pain scores and a better quality of life after treatment. Reducing your overall level of stress is important, because, left untreated, stress can also slow recovery time and increase your risk of developing chronic pain.

7. Chiropractic Works!

In 2015, an Ontario, Canada government group agreed that spinal manipulation, combined with staying active and continuing to work, are the most important factors in recovering quickly from car crash injuries.

8. Early Chiropractic Care Prevents Chronic Pain

Research from 2000 and 2003 found that auto injury patients who got early treatment focused on mobilizing the injured area recovered faster and had fewer residual symptoms from the crash. Chiropractic does this: a chiropractic adjustment gets the joints in your spine moving the way they’re supposed to, helping to prevent chronic pain.

If you’ve been injured in a car crash, you don’t have to suffer from chronic pain. Chiropractic is a great way to help your body heal from all kinds of injuries.

Jun 22 0

Car Accident Injury (Part III of III): Long-Term Health Affects of Whiplash

Posted by Rook Torres

Perhaps the most scary thing about a common car accident injury, whiplash, is that it can cause serious negative long-term health affects. A study recently published out of Canada looked at data correlating a history of neck injury from motor vehicle crashes with chronic neck pain. This list of health problems is terrifying and should absolutely change your actions when it comes to treating yourself and those you love after a car accident.

The study is entitled Long-Term Consequences of Whiplash: Allergy; Breathing, Digestive and Cardiovascular Disorders; Hypertension and Low Back Pain. Just the title alone nearly says it all. The authors inquired about neck pain, headache, and depression as well.

One of the most important aspects of this study was the association of various health problems with history of neck injury from car accidents. The authors looked at allergies, breathing disorders, hypertension, cardiovascular disorders, digestive disorders, and low back pain. They found higher incidence in all categories except hypertension; in many cases, the reported complaints were close to twice that seen in those with no history of neck injury.

Unfortunately, the authors did not inquire about thyroid or other endocrine disorders. In previous studies there has been found a possible link between thyroid disease and neck injury, as documented in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. In that study, a possible link between hypothyroidism and exposure to whiplash trauma was made.

The bottom line here is if you have had neck trauma, and don’t seek proper neurological and spinal care for recovery and healing, your chances of many undesirable health problems can increase by 200 percent! That’s a risk I’m nobody needs to take when there’s expert care that’s so easy to access.

Remember, there are tons of car accidents so they’re widely studied and highly scrutinized. People are followed and the health affects widely studied.

You don’t need a referral to see a chiropractor. So scheduling an appointment at my office is easy and fast! The chiropractic care I provide is detailed, and as safe as any other treatment in healthcare (as proven by nearly the lowest malpractice insurance rates in all of healthcare among professionals).

When you come to my Boise office you get a detailed spinal motion and neurological exam designed to find the affects of whiplash.

Did you know that X-ray is the standard diagnostic test for car accident injury across all of healthcare? We have on site X-ray, so your results are fast and you save tons of time not having to go elsewhere to have proper diagnostic testing.

After a detailed exam and diagnostic tests you get to see your own X-rays and get an explanation of exactly what the problem is and what it will take to help you heal. I even give you an accurate estimate of how long it will take to recover and what the process will look and feel like. Costs usually aren’t a problem because insurance can cover most or all of the expense. If not, we’ll work with you. Due to my extensive experience and intricate analysis system that tells me exactly what treatment you need at that moment visits in my office are extremely thorough and fast, really fast! So you don’t have to interrupt your day and worry about how you can fit it all in.

Give my office a call or email right now! Now that you know how much your future health depends on it, and how easy it is, there’s no reason not to.

Feb 10 0

Car Accident Injuries (Part II of III): Low Impact Accidents and Children

Posted by Rook Torres

Can you be injured, seriously or otherwise, in an accident where speeds are under 10 miles per hour? For some perspective, people can run 10 mph with ease, with a top speed of around 25 mph for elite sprinters. So, can a 10 mph car accident really injure you? From 1994 to 1999 the Florida Dept. of Highway Safety recorded over 333,000 low-speed crashes (under 10 mph not involving bicycles or pedestrians reported by law enforcement agencies), and over 280,000 injuries. If that doesn’t surprise you then this will shock you: In all of those crashes the FDHS also recorded 1910 fatalities in those accidents. Those numbers apply directly to Boise people!

What’s really scary is how long pain can last after a seemingly gentle accident. One study found that 60% of the people had neck pain lasting longer than 3 months after injury. Another study performed by Folksam Research in Stockholm, Sweden found that velocity and long-term neck injury consequences do not correlate. This was confirmed by the Spine Research Institute of San Diego and the Center for Research into Automotive Safety and Health, Spring Valley, California.

Crash tests indicate a change of vehicle velocity of 2.5 mph may produce occupant symptoms. Vehicle damage may not occur until 8.7 mph. Occupant soft tissue and joint injuries resulting from low speed vehicle collisions respond positively to joint stimulation and alignment. That’s exactly what chiropractic care does!

What does this mean for you? If you’re in a car accident, no matter how gentle it seems to be or how injured you think you are, get checked out to see if you’ll benefit from some treatment. Left untreated these minor sprains, whiplash, and spinal joint injuries become huge problems! I’ve treated thousands of car accident victims over the last 15 years, many of them decades after the crash who are now experiencing sever pain, arthritis and degeneration which could all have been prevented by getting care immediately after the accident.

This is no different for children. Even more important to get them checked out and treated if necessary. They have years of development ahead of them that can, and will, be negatively affected by untreated damage from a car accident. If it takes a few days to get over the soreness from an accident for a child or an adult then you’ve got to get proper care to ensure your long-term health and developmental health of a child.

Why chiropractic vs. any other form of treatment? It’s simple. Chiropractic care is the only form of spinal treatment that focuses on what really matters: health and safety of the spinal cord and nerves, and healthy spinal movement (biomechanincs). Other forms of treatment may manipulate the joints or work on the muscles only which chiropractic care often includes. Only chiropractic uses specific analysis to determine if there is nerve pressure and then adjusts the spine to improve nerve function. This is the core difference between a chiropractic adjustment and any manipulation.

I use specific and high tech analysis, like x-ray, nerve reflex testing, digital range of motion, etc., to determine how much damage the accident caused, where the damage is and exactly the course of care you’ll need to feel better and prevent long term suffering years down the road. Don’t wait, it’s never too late to slow or stop damage from progressing!

Feb 10 0

Car Accident Injury in Boise (Part I of III): Neck Injury and Whiplash

Posted by Rook Torres

When is the last time you were in a car accident in Boise or anywhere? The fear, the rush, the relief…and OH, the stress!!! The stress that goes on for weeks or months after. What a huge inconvenience! After all that, that’s the good news! Ultimately what matters is that everyone is safe. If you were injured, you know exactly what I mean.

What you may not know is that car accident injuries are studied extensively by medical and insurance industries. Injuries related to car accidents have very specific protocols and rehabilitation needs. This is very important for you to understand and why I’m putting together this 3 part series on car accident injuries for you.

Part I will teach you about neck injury and whiplash and what to expect and watch out for. Part II will discuss, low impact collisions and children. Finally, Part III will long term damage and disease. For your benefit, all the parts will discuss the importance of proper care, my clinical experience, and the best ways you can avoid serious long-term health problems related to the injuries.

Neck Injury and Whiplash

The neck injury commonly known as whiplash has been studied extensively due to the nature of how severe and diverse the long-term affects can be. Whiplash is actually a series of multiple ligament sprains and muscle strains in the neck. These tissues are actually designed to stretch and tear under extreme conditions to save the spinal cord from damage. If they’re damaged that means they did their job and saved you from a life threatening spinal cord injury!

Ligament sprains, or whiplash, in the spine follow the same American Medical Association healing guidelines as any other joint ligament. Healing time is typically 6-12 weeks if unimpeded and stressed. Healing can take longer due to the moving parts of the spine and isn’t easily braced to limit motion. Spinal alignment and motion, or biomechanics, is critical to protecting the spinal cord and preserving the life of the spinal bones. Bad biomechanics in the spine leads to arthritis, bone spurs, disc decay and eventually joint fusion, any of which could require surgery and years of suffering. These conditions develop slowly over decades.

When the joints heal and ligaments tighten back up, think how critical it is that the alignment and biomechanics are as perfect as possible! This is where chiropractic care becomes critical. No other specialty helps ensure proper spinal biomechanics, nerve protection, reduce pain and speed healing time like chiropractic. An experienced chiropractor will follow established protocols, perform expert diagnostic testing and create a care plan that gets you back to pre injury status as soon as possible.

After 15 years I’ve taken care of thousands of people with whiplash in Boise. I specialize in care of the neck to ensure fast, complete healing, and perform a very thorough intake, including functional testing, neurological diagnostics and x-ray. Matter of fact I regularly receive requests from other doctors to help with difficult neck cases. I deliver gentle care you can trust with the best technology. I even have attorney’s and surgeons who refer patients to me for this very reason.

If you’ve been in a car accident call my office right away. I have had literally thousands of patients who never got proper treatment after an accident come to me for care decades later with horrible decay, disc degeneration and bone fusions that could have all been easily prevented by proper care immediately after the accident.

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