Which treatment is best for whiplash?
Whiplash hits more than 6,000 Danes every year. Most occur after traffic accidents, while others are harmed at work or at home.
It has become a common disorder as the brakes of the cars keep getting better.
Fortunately, the pain goes away for 97% in a year, but for the last 3% there was not much help in the past. However, new Danish acupuncture treatment shows surprisingly good results in both trials and practice.
Symptoms of whiplash
If you sprain a finger, it can be painful, but in a short time you are usually fine again. Unfortunately, this does not happen to the thousands of Danes who sprain their necks or get a whiplash every year, as they call it.
The symptoms of whiplash are eerie. They usually come within the first 24 hours, typically in the neck. Ca. 75% have headaches that start from the neck and many have difficulty turning their heads. Ca. 50% have shoulder and arm pain. Feel disturbances in the arms and face, like tingling or stinging sensations.
Some have heaviness in the arms, and others have a lump in their throats, ie pain when they sink. Some get the hang of what may be affecting the balance. One can become hypersensitive to noise. Difficult to remember or concentrate and other psychic phenomena.
Some with whiplash have severe lower back pain, radiating to the legs – just like sciatica.
Danish physician Carsten Shell, who lives in Sweden, has done a lot of research on whiplash. He has added many new moments to the diagnosis, for example that the vision and balance problem is considerably higher than the 20% that you normally expect. Right up to 80%.
Unfortunately, medical science can do very little for whiplash people. Except for pain medication and physiotherapy, which does not cure the disease, but sometimes has a short-term effect.
Many whiplash victims struggle hard to convince the outside world that their damage is real. Fortunately, the pain and discomfort of app. 97% in one year – but for the last 3% there is unfortunately no possibility of healing of medical science. Their condition remains unchanged if they do not seek other options.
Acupuncture against whiplash
The literature describes that in certain cases, acupuncture has been able to help whiplash sufferers.
Unfortunately, Chinese acupuncture does not work for all people. For approx. 10% works extremely well, and in others approx. 10% doesn’t work at all. Some acupuncture systems only work for approx. 60%, while others work at about 80%.
The preliminary experience suggests that the percentage of AcuNova acupuncture against whiplash is significantly higher.
Whiplash study
Therefore, six acupuncturists decided to conduct a study (pilot project) to document which acupuncture method was best for whiplash.
The six acupuncturists each treated 10 patients with whiplash. Each patient received 14 treatments over a month and the acupuncturists used different methods.
Method | No effect | Little improvement | Good improvement | Healed |
Sri Lanka Acupuncture | 40% | 20% | 20% | 20% |
Chinese Acupuncture (TCM) | 40% | 10% | 10% | 40% |
ECIWO Acupuncture | 30% | 30% | 20% | 20% |
Chinese Ear Acupuncture | 30% | 40% | 10% | 20% |
NPSO (German system) | 20% | 20% | 10% | 50% |
AcuNova (Acupuncture2000) | 10% | 10% | 20% | 60% |
Test method – click here
As can be seen, the results of the different acupuncture methods differ dramatically. Some of the difference can be attributed to the acupuncturist’s skill, but it cannot explain the large difference in the different techniques shown by the study.
Below, Karina, one of Boel Acupuncture’s whiplash patients, explains how treatment with modern AcuNova acupuncture has helped her. She had suffered from whiplash for 3 years and before she came to Boel Acupuncture had been treated with both physical therapy and chiropractic. But despite the treatments and large amounts of pain medication, her whiplash was no better. Eventually, her doctor recommended that she try acupuncture. After our treatment, she is painless and no longer uses medication.
Research in pain management?
Now it is tempting to conclude that the big difference between the results of the different methods also applies to other pain patients.
However, you cannot do that immediately!
To do comparative research, you only have to use two methods against each other – and at the same time have a similar group that does not receive treatment.
Here in the house we have talked about doing research in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the neck with modern AcuNova acupuncture.
Is there a colleague who is interested in participating with another acupuncture method?
How does a treatment for whiplash take place?
Before the first treatment, you should have an interview / interview with your acupuncturist asking him about your whiplash symptoms.
Then you are taken into the treatment room and as you prepare for the treatment, the acupuncturist makes a plan for what acupuncture points he will use for your particular situation.
A typical treatment contains 2 parts, with 20 minutes first. on the back with 2 needles in each hand and lastly 10-20 min. on the stomach with small needles in the neck. However, it may vary from patient to patient depending on the individual situation. In some, the needles are put in other places and others cannot keep on the stomach.
You need to go through 5 treatments quickly in succession. On the fifth day, have another conversation with your acupuncturist asking him how he is doing. If you are perfectly fine at that point, the process is stopped. In cases where it is not better at all, wait a few days to achieve the maximum effect of the treatments. If there is still no improvement in the symptoms after 1 week of waiting, we stop the course as the chance of improvement then becomes too small. In cases where there is an improvement after the 5 times, but it is not yet good, we would like to treat more.
When we treat people with whiplash, we aim to enable them to live the life they themselves want, not dictated by the whiplash. We try to make people pain-free and to make the neck strong – by strong I mean that you do not get relapse from running over a bump in the road or get pain from being physically active.
Testimonials from patients
Review written on Google:
“In 2013, I was involved in a traffic accident where I suffered a severe whiplash and several discusprolapses. I have been struggling with headaches, chronic neck pain, seizures and sleeping arms and feet ever since. It has affected my ability to concentrate, my night’s sleep has been miserable and my quality of life has been severely impaired.
I have been through the whole mill of specialist doctors etc. I finally got the condescending message that unfortunately it was not possible to cure or lessen my suffering.
I heard through family that Boel acupuncture could do anything out of the ordinary.
And I that is just right.
After just 5 treatments, I am painless, able to sleep at night and actually feel I have regained my life.
It is like experiencing a miracle, and I am eternally grateful, and very happy to have received treatment at Boel Acupuncture.
Thank you a thousand times”
Many grateful greetings from
Birgitte Jung Storgaard
Review on Facebook:
“Since January 2018, I have been suffering from daily neck pain and severe headaches following a whiplash in connection with a car accident. I have been going to both physiotherapists and chiropractors ever since the accident without the great lasting effect. The pain was so bad that at one point I ended up being hospitalized because I had symptoms of a blood clot in my brain, but it was my whiplash that could give me similar symptoms.
After my chiropractor told me that she probably couldn’t do more for me and that unfortunately I should live with this and have lasting memories in the form of daily neck pain and a headache that drove me mad, I called Boel Acupuncture in panic, as it was my last hope for the better. I got some time the day after and have now received 5 treatments.
I’m almost completely painless in my neck and no longer have the heavy headaches every day! I can’t describe how much Boel Acupuncture has saved my everyday life – for the first time in a whole year I am smiling again!
I was skeptical at first but hold on now where I have been pleasantly surprised at what so small needles can do!
Boel Acupuncture gets my warmest recommendations!”
Christina Rosenkilde Petersen