How Can Acupuncture Help You Recover From a Car Accident?
Introduction
In my acupuncture practice, I see many patients who are recovering from a car accident. We are fortunate here in New York State that no-fault insurance covers acupuncture treatments for car accident injuries. A car accident can be a life-altering event — it’s one of the most common ways a person starts down the path of problematic long-term muscle spasms. It begins when trauma causes the muscles to become quickly overstretched when one is not prepared for the sudden impact of the crash. When this happens, the muscle fibers tear inside the muscle core. These torn fibers can cause involuntary spasms right away, or they can come and go in waves over time. If left untreated, chronic muscle spasms can develop.
How a car accident impacts your body and causes chronic pain
Before we talk about acupuncture, let’s look first at how a car accident affects your body. It is well understood that many people who are in car accidents do not experience pain immediately after the event, because their body is in shock. The adrenaline and endorphins that flood the body after a crash mask the pain of any injuries sustained. However, it is very common to wake up the next day, or a few days, later experiencing neck pain, back pain, chest pain, knee pain, or other pains in the body due to soft tissue injuries (damage to the muscles, ligaments or tendons) from the crash. It is very important to seek acupuncture treatment right away, as this pain is likely to turn into long term tissue damage and chronic pain if it is not addressed within a week or two of the auto accident.
How acupuncture helps you heal after a car accident
Acupuncture and its related modalities are uniquely effective treatments for the soft tissue injury that can follow an auto accident. Allopathic medicine (conventional treatment) has little to offer when it comes to healing soft tissue injuries other than prescribing pain medication. Pain medication relieves the symptoms but does not promote healing, and may actually cause longer term damage if the soft tissue does not heal properly. Even the common allopathic recommendation to apply ice after an injury is now coming into doubt. It is becoming more understood that restricting blood flow to the body in this way is damaging to the tissues. Acupuncturists hate ice!
Acupuncture, sometimes combined with tui-na massage, cupping or gua sha, has an immediate positive effect on healing soft tissue injury. Acupuncture measurably decreases inflammation, increases circulation, and causes the release of the body’s own pain-relieving enkephalins. Acupuncture increases blood flow to the injured area, helping the body to deliver all of the healing chemicals and nutrients in the blood. Bodies know how to get better - we observe this when getting a cut and watching it heal - and everything needed to heal is carried to the affected area by the blood.
In addition to these positive effects, I often use a trigger-point release technique to immediately rid the muscles of any knots that have formed as a result of the soft-tissue injury. Acupuncture needles, properly placed and manipulated by an experienced practitioner. dissolve knots/spams right away. It is an incredibly gratifying experience to feel the knots melt away as I needle them, and to hear the patient say, “That’s amazing!”
How to use no-fault insurance to get acupuncture treatment
Any Licensed Acupuncturist can choose to accept no-fault insurance. Many pain clinics include acupuncture as a modality, but patients should know they can choose any acupuncture practitioner they want to see who accepts no-fault insurance. It is important to call a few different acupuncturists or get recommendations of good practitioners from people you know. One can often get more attentive, personalized care at an acupuncture office like mine, where I individualize each treatment to the person I am working with, and take as much time as needed to fully address the issues they are having. Sometimes at pain clinics, acupuncturists are limited to only do a particular protocol for every patient. That can have more of an assembly line feel. This might be a fine approach for some people, but you are likely to get the most benefit from acupuncture if your treatment is tailored specifically to you. If you are in the unfortunate position of having been injured in a car accident, take advantage of what no-fault offers: get high-quality acupuncture from a Licensed Acupuncturist in private practice.