Whiplash

Almost thirty five years ago, I was riding in my friend’s truck as a passenger, when a child entered the street in a 25 mph zone of a remote section of the Big Island of Hawaii, where I was living at the time. My friend slowed down to about 5 miles an hour and then: “boom!”.  A car, estimated to be going 65 mph, had used our truck to suddenly stop.

I was going to massage school at the time, and ironically, we happened to be studying treatment for whiplash. I received almost a year’s worth of very consistent massage, chiropractic, and physical therapy, for treatment of my severe accident. Unfortunately, my upper back and neck continued to stay in a constant high level of pain. Things were better, but not all the way, even a year past the accident.

I finally got relief when receiving several cupping sessions at acupuncture school, many years later. Walking cups are a specific cupping modality that moves old blood stuck in the muscle tissue, up to the surface, so that the muscle can receive new blood and thereby heal. With trauma, the blood is flooded into the muscle tissue, and if severe enough, the blood then becomes stuck due to the tightness of the muscle, creating a vicious cycle of sorts.

More recently, I was in a fender bender, and immediately booked an acupuncture treatment. After 3 treatments I was back to normal. These kind of results are not unusual if acupuncture is utilized right away: within 24 hours is ideal. This is because acupuncture greatly reduces the body’s strategy to flood the area with too much blood.  With the correct amount of blood, the body thereby does not need to go into a huge inflammatory response and then very dramatic and quick results can be achieved for healing. (See my blog article on sprained ankle).

Acupuncture has the most profound results with any condition that is acute. Until I experienced this first hand, I really had no idea how quickly things could resolve. I hope those reading this blog article can utilize acupuncture right away after receiving any kind of injury. It really is nothing short of miraculous.

Yours in Health and Vitality,
Leslie Shanai

Related article:
The sprain that quickly ended in no pain