The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been tracking holiday traffic accidents and deaths for a very long time, and almost yearly the deadliest holiday for traffic related deaths is the Fourth of July. As a matter of fact in 2010 there were 392 deaths nation wide and 39% were alcohol related. As you are getting ready to celebrate our country's independence please be safe on the roads, and DO NOT drink and drive. 

When I was 8 years old my Dad was given this little round piece of wood that had the word "TUIT" engraved on it by a salesman. The joke is that you no longer have the excuse of "I'll get around to it someday", because I just gave you "a round TUIT". Its a corney sales joke, but that little piece of wood really struck me as powerful. It made me think (as philosophical as an 8 year old can get) that excuses are, for the most part, just in our heads. If we really put our minds to it we can make just about anything happen.

This especially is the case if you have been in a car accident in Seattle or Bellevue. The excuse "I'll get around to it at some point" can potentially really harm your health. In essence, you can not afford, for any reason to wait for your "ROUND TUIT".  Time and again I have patients walk through my door dealing with terrible neck and back pain, and as we start talking it was revealed that they had been in a car accident at some point and never received any care. 

One of the largest studies ever done on whiplash injuries confirms this truth. It found that 55% of whiplash patients were still in the original pain from their accident 17 years later. My experience shows that the reason for these people still being in pain all those years later is that they either never took the time to take care of them selves or they received bad advise from someone who knows very little to nothing about whiplash injuries. 

If you have been in a car accident, please take the time to go and get checked. It may save you a lot of heart ache and pain down the road. Don't wait for your "round TOIT", give us a call at Bellevue Whiplash Center at Back in Action Chiropractic to receive a check up.

"Bellevue pedestrian killed in crash with car" was the headline on December 1st of last year. Once again, a completely avoidable tragedy from a car accident. A 77 year  old woman was struck and killed by a driver early on the morning of December 1st. The reason? "Icy car windows that were not defrosted and failing to look right for pedestrians contributed to the fatality". If the driver had taken a few more minutes to wait for their windows to clear, odds are they would have seen the pedestrian and this tragedy would have been avoided. 

Please, take your time in the mornings, see your surrounding and where you are going before leaving your drive way. For the full story: http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/bellevue-pedestrian-killed-crash-car/njJWp/

All too often the thing we think about first after an auto accident is our car, but the damage to your body may be far worse. 

Many of my patients are surprised to find themselves in pain days, weeks or even months after having had a car accident.. Obviously, if you have been in a major accident, go directly to the E.R. so you can be treated for cuts, organ damage, broken bones or other serious trauma's. After any life-threatening emergencies have been treated, it is a good idea to visit a chiropractor.

As a Chiropractor I am skilled in addressing the dysfunctions in the musculoskeletal system that so often happen after being involved in an car accident, especially any misaligned bones. The injury suffered in the neck following a crash can be quite bad, even resulting in postconcussion syndrome and what we call TBI's, or traumatic brain injury's, that may keep you from fully healing. An auto accident can pinch nerves and cause damage to your bones, tendons and ligaments supporting the spine.

The most common condition that I treat as a chiropractor following a car accident is what is called cervical acceleration/deceleration injury's, more commonly known as whiplash. Whiplash from being rear-ended can cause a great amount of chronic, ongoing pain. Though the introduction of seat belts has helped save lives, it can contribute to these types of whiplash injury's. When hit from behind, the seat belt keeps your body from being hurled forward, though, there is no such restraint on your head. What first happens is that your chest, while being supported by the back of your seat, jolts forward, but your unsupported head and neck snaps back. This can cause the neck to go too far back, well beyond its normal capacity, tearing the muscles and ligaments in the front of your neck. Then when your car stops moving your body is flung forward, restrained by your safety belt, but there is nothing to keep your head and neck from being sent forward, injuring the muscles and ligaments in the back of your neck and head. 

You may not feel much immediately after a car accident, but do not let that fool you that you have not been injured. This is most likely because your body's natural pain-killing endorphins, like adrenalin, are released when you are injured, masking any pain.  You may later experience neck pain, headaches, dizziness or pain radiating into the shoulder and down into your arms or hands.

Many of my patients have experienced relief and stability after an caraccident from headaches, lower back pain, neck pain and even jaw pain. A study in the Journal of Orthopedic Medicine found that 93% of people suffering from pain and symptoms of chronic whiplash experienced improvement under chiropractic care. Chiropractic has been shown to be extremely effective in helping with pain after a car accident and lowering the likelihood of it becoming a long term problem.

In our last blog post we talked about the first step to take if your are involved in a car accident in Bellevue, WA. In today's post we are going to walk through the second step you want to take.

2. Make sure everyone in your car is OK, then make sure the other driver is OK, then call the police.

Car accidents, especially on the busy streets and highways of Bellevue, can be VERY dangerous things. Head injury's, broken bones, cuts, and a whole host of other injury's can occur during a car accident. Because of this you want to make sure that everyone is OK and does not need any special attention for their injury's. Make sure that no one passed out, or hit their heads and that no one is bleeding. Once you have secured your own car, go and check on the other drivers involved, and ask them the same questions. If someone is seriously hurt make sure to call 911 and stay with them until help arrives. 

If everyone is OK, the next thing you need to do is get all cars off to the side of the road as to avoid another collision and call the police. Most experts will agree that if there is any damage or any injury's that an officer needs to take account for what happened and file a report. As a physician I get to hear a lot of story's about different kinds of accidents and recently I have seen a ton of drunk driver accidents and in each situation the drunk driver has asked my patient to not call the police. Another reason that a driver may ask you to not call the police is that they say that they will pay you out of pocket to fix your car or your injury's. Even if you are approached and asked to not call the police it is very important that you still do. 

You never know how things will turn out or what story's may be told in the future and for this reason a police report is vital. Also if there are any injuries that need to be dealt with or an unsafe accident scene that could harm your safety a policeman or highway patrol can help manage the accident scene.

If you are involved in a Bellevue car accident please make sure everyone is OK, then call the police. In our next blog post we will be discussing step 3 to take following an accident which is to contact your insurance company.

Driving here on the Eastside can sometimes be a dangerous activity. No one WANTS to get into an accident, but with the amount of traffic, distracted drivers, and irresponsible drivers (drunk drivers, aggressive drivers, road rage, etc...) they do happen. Here is the first step to follow if you are in an car accident here in Bellevue.

1. Make sure to be prepared.

Being prepared for an accident before an accident ever happens is one of if not the most important step to take. It is my experience working with auto injury patients for the last 12 years that the people who are well prepared before they ever get into an accident have a far less traumatic experience. The best example I have of this is if you have ever been pulled over by a police officer. The times that I have put all of my relevant information, licence, title, etc... into one envelope that I hand the police officer, my experience has been very low stress. Its the time that my tittle is buried in the glove compartment and I cant find anything that I am the most stressed. So what does it mean to be prepared?

First off, preparation starts when you are buying your auto insurance policy. Know exactly what you are buying and that you have enough insurance to protect for the worst case scenario. Do your research and make sure you are protecting your health, your family and your car.

Secondly, it means having all of the tangible things you need following an accident at arms length. Have all of your insurance information available, company, policy number, and any phone numbers in your glove compartment and in your wallet in case the glove compartment is damaged. Also, if your cell phone does not have a good camera it is good practice to have a disposable camera to take pictures of the scene and your cars. And lastly, a pen and paper to take down all of the other drivers information.

If you are in a car accident in Bellevue, make sure you are prepared for the worst. In our next blog post we will continue this series on the steps to take following a motor vehicle accident.

Every Chiropractor is very different in their approach to treating car accident injuries. This is a good thing because not every injury is exactly same and every ones body differs in how they respond to care. The following are things that I tell my friends, family, and out of state patients to look for when looking for a chiropractor out of state and what you should be looking for following a car accident.

1. Do they have a technique (how they treat you) that is best for your body and your specific injuries? Again, remember what I stated above. Not all chiropractors do things the same way and not all ways will work for your individual body or your individual injuries. So how do you know? First off if you are queasy AT ALL about the "snap, crackle, pop" that comes from a hands on treatment, then that is not right for you, and you need a more gentle treatment like the Proadjuster or the activator. Next, if you have ever received a "deep tissue" massage and been worse afterwards then a heavier chiropractic treatment is not for you.

2. Do they have a way of analyzing your ENTIRE body and all of the injuries that you had while in your car accident? Yes, from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. It is important to assess you as a whole, because we are one big connected chain. Something that I see quite often when I am examining a patient who has been in a car accident is that the foot that they had on the brake pedal was affected. Its important that this is found and addressed. Something in your shoulders because of the seat belt could give you head aches. So, ask if they have a way to assess your feet such as digital scans of the foot, do they have ways to look at your arms and shoulders? Now it may not be necessary to do all of these tests on every person, but it is important that they have the ability to.

3. Does the chiropractor continue his education above and beyond the "required" hours to renew their license? The health care field is changing on a daily basis. New research is coming out all the time, and if every chiropractor does not stay up to date on what is new in the field of automobile injuries then they are not giving their patients the best care available. Every chiropractor in the United States has to have a certain number of continuing education each year. What I have found is that this amount is far less than what is necessary to keep up to date.

4. Do they do rehabilitation or prescribe exercises? This is a vital component to getting better following a car accident. I tell my patients all the time "I can put you back together all day long, but until your muscles can hold you there you are going to have ongoing problems". This does not have to be complex, but it does have to be a part of getting you better.
Make sure that when you are searching for a physician following your car accident that you ask these questions.


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