A Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD) is an acceleration/deceleration injury most often of the cervical spine but other areas of the body can be affected depending upon the height of the vehicles involved in the collision relative to eachother and the forces involved in the crash. Straight forward front to back impacts can cause characteristic and well documented injuries to the cervical spine, jaw or lumbar spine that are often only recongisable by examination through the attuned touch of a Chiropractor. Attuning touch for physical examination has been noted to take at least 5 years of experience to build up.

The physical part of a WAD is not visible on imaging such as x-rays or MRI and thus the insurance industry is concerned about being able to tell the difference between a real claim and a bogus claim for personal injury from a road traffic accident. Essentially if you have a history of anxiety or depression you may not be able to received the reimbursement you deserve from your insurance company. Luckily at Life Right we also deal with long term conditions that medicine is yet to find an answer to such as depression and anxiety. We also work along the guidelines for WAD that Sterling and her group have published on which includes factors such as anxiety, trauma and emotional disturbances. Once you have confirmed that you have nothing life threatening throughthe  accident and emergency department resolve your WAD with care here at Life Right. We are happy to provide reports to insurance companies, to accompany medical reports or standalone. What we aim to do is get you back to your pre-accident state in physical ability, emotional stability and confidence whilst driving. Whiplash is a term to describe a type of injury and is on its own not a diagnosis whereas utilising specific categories of WAD is a diagnosis.

At Life Right we realise the intracacies of the nervous system in motor control of the head, neck and jaw and can easily explain and understand why particular body motion can be restricted/painful and or why you have become a more hesitant driver. Medically unrecognised problems associated with whiplash can lead on to  postural and degenerative changes later in life e.g. we have uncovered co-ordination problems where neurological reflexes have been disturbed for decades after a car accident. Early after your accident is the most important time to get the treatment you need before any disturbed reflexes become normal. Disturbed reflexes in our experience are not always accompanied with pain. Disturbed reflexes change the way you move and thus can be the start of abnormal loading which can cause degeneration. That means a car accident decades ago that was not checked out could be why you have degeneration now. Our rule of thumb is get yourself checked even if you do not have any pain or discomfort following any and every road traffic accident you experience. We just know to look for the normally undiscovered problems and know how to resolve them in order to get you well and fully recovered. Pain in whiplash can be out of proportion with any injury which can cause a traumatisation of the person involved. When a person becomes traumatised they will carry their burden for the rest of their life unless it is dealt with.

Because of the unique way we work at Life Right we are able to address any emotional response, belay your cognitive fears, order diagnostic imaging and correct neurological reflexes that are just not looked into in A and E, by GPs or even consultants. We know this because we have over a decade of experience of dealing with WAD. Maybe you’ve been in the system a while and have all sorts of medically unexplained symptoms… Could some of your symptoms be due to a long forgotten car accident..? Once your life is no longer in danger your medical care is complete and the next step is to undergo functional rehabilitation.