Auto Injuries

At Pure Life Clinic we focus on auto injury rehabilitation. Our goal is to offer you the most effective treatment possible to ensure the best opportunity for your body to heal quickly and correctly.

Everyone involved in a motor vehicle accident in Oregon is entitled to Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy and Physiotherapy. Oregon Personal Injury Protection (PIP) covers those services no matter who was at fault. Each person involved in an Oregon motor vehicle accident can receive up to $15,000.00 worth of natural health care at no cost. Washington has similar laws to protect you.

Not only does PIP cover the cost of your Chiropractic treatment, but should you require the support of a cervical pillow, need an in home traction unit, lumbar support belts or rehabilitation equipment, these devices are also provided through us at no cost to you.

We highly recommend that you visit us as soon as possible after an Oregon or Washington motor vehicle accident. We can determine the best type of care for you. Your care may also include Massage, Acupuncture, Physiotherapy and Medical intervention when necessary.

What happens in a Motor Vehicle Collision?

When a vehicle is struck, the force from the striking vehicle is transmitted into the struck vehicle. This force either damages the struck vehicle, makes the vehicle move, or both.

If the struck vehicle moves forward, the person inside the vehicle moves as well. That is, what is connected to the moving vehicle moves, and what isn't connected to the vehicle doesn't; at least for a brief period of time. What is usually connected to the vehicle is the torso of the victim contacting the seat. What is usually not connected to the vehicle is the neck and head of the victim. The seat moves forward until you literally run out of neck, at which time the head is snapped back like the snap of a whip, thus the name whiplash.

As the struck vehicle is moved forward, the seat of that vehicle slams into the upper torso of the victim. The movement of the seat and the weight of the victim cause the moving seat to bend. If the seat does not break, it will recoil at some point in time, sending the victim forward at an accelerated rate of 2 times the accelerated rate of the striking vehicle.

If the vehicle's headrest is further than one inch from the back of the victim's head, which is very likely, and the victim is unaware of the impending collision, which is also very likely, the lower part of the victim's neck is moved beyond its normal range of motion. This abnormal movement results in tearing and stretching of muscles and ligaments in the area.

What happened when my vehicle was struck from behind (Rear End Collision)?

When your car was struck from behind, the force of the collision pushed your car forward. What was connected to your car, namely your legs and upper torso as you sat in your seat, went forward with your car. What wasn't directly connected to the car, your head, and for a while, stayed still. Finally, your neck, that portion of your body that connected your moving torso with your non-moving head, came into play. When this happened, the strain on your neck and your head was catapulted forward, resulted in the stretching and tearing of soft tissue in your neck.

When your vehicle came to a sudden stop, your moving body was caught by your car's seatbelts, and or steering wheel, while your neck and head kept moving forward. Again, when your head ran out of neck, your neck stopped the forward progress of your head; again stretching and tearing soft tissue in your neck.

What happened when my vehicle was struck from the side (Side Collision)?

When your car was struck from the side, it was literally moved out from underneath you. That part of you that was attached to the car by restraints moved with the car. This results in stretching and tearing the soft tissue in your neck, that portion of your body that connected your moving torso with your non moving head.

If your head was facing straight ahead at the time of impact, the movement of your head toward your shoulder could pinch nerves on that side of your neck while soft-tissue on the other side of your neck would be stretched and torn. This process would be reversed when your head rebounded to the opposite side.

What happened when my vehicle was struck from the front (Head on Collision)?

When your car came to a sudden stop, you kept going forward. However, your steering wheel and/or the seatbelt stopped some parts of your body. If there was no air bag deployment, then your head kept going forward. What did stop your head was your neck. When this happened, the soft-tissue in your neck was injured.

How did your accident stretch and tears your soft-tissue in your neck?

The reason why soft tissue stretches and tears is because it is soft. Examples of soft tissue are muscles and ligaments. To stretch is "to draw out to greater size." Logic tells us that if this is done in excess, the tissue will tear. To tear is "to pull apart... into pieces by force, or the disruption of something." Thus, if tissue is moved beyond its limits, limits imposed by the strength of the connecting forces of that tissue, tearing will result. If movement doesn't go beyond molecular limitations, tissue cannot tear.

Movement alone cannot tear soft tissue or paper. For example, if the movement of paper was all that was necessary to tear paper, you would tear every page you turn. To tear paper and soft-tissue, movement necessary to separate the paper or soft-tissue is needed.
With the example of turning a page allows the entire page to move as one piece, tearing will probably not result. However, if something causes one part of the page to turn while another part of the page doesn't turn, tearing will result.

Perform the Following Experiment:
1. Hold a piece of paper in your right hand.
2. Wave this paper up and down. Did you tear the paper? No.
3. Hold the piece of paper with both hands.
4. Move your right forward and your left back. Did you tear the paper? Only if you moved your hands far enough apart to overcome the bonding force of the paper.

Shouldn't damage to my car be the yardstick in determining damage to me?

No. Damage to your body is only yardstick in determining damage. If there is no injury to you, the amount of damage to your car is irrelevant. On the other hand, if you are damaged in a collision, the amount of damage to your vehicle is always relevant. Remember, car movement is a necessary element for body movement. If your car doesn't move, you don't move. If you don't move, there is no separation between different parts of your body. If there is no separation of body parts, then there is no stretching and tearing of the soft tissue connecting those parts.
The amount of damage sustained by the car bears little relationship to the force applied. To take an extreme example: of the car was struck in concrete, the damage sustained might be very great but the occupants would not be injured because the car could not move forward, whereas, on ice, the damage to the car could be slight but the injuries sustained might be severe because of the rapid acceleration permitted.

Does the striking vehicle have to be traveling very fast to injure me?

It has been shown that when a 3,500 lb. car traveling at 10 mph strikes the rear of another car it may transmit to this car a force of 25 tons. The person's body (in the car that is struck) continues to move forward while, since it is hinged at the neck, it snaps backward. The average head weighs about 8 pounds, and the cervical vertebrae are very delicate; the force that is pushing the head backward is even greater than believed, since the base of the neck acts as a fulcrum and the leverage is applied near the top of the head. Therefore, the head snaps back with the equivalent of several tons of force. The muscle control of the neck is caught off guard' the end-result is no support for the neck. As you know, 10 mph is not fast. There are numerous articles that show soft tissue injury at speeds of 6 mph. Often when there is little or no damage to the vehicle, much of the force of a low-speed collision is absorbed by the body, causing injury.

What causes pain?

Pain receptors fire for three reasons. Two of those reasons are chemicals and swelling; both products of soft-tissue stretching and tearing.
When soft-tissue is damaged, stretch and/or torn, chemicals are released in the area of injury. When the quantity of these chemicals becomes sufficient to fire local pain receptors, pain impulses are transmitted to your spinal cord. Upon arriving at the spinal cord they will be sent to localized muscle in the area of injury causing muscle tightness or spasm. If the impulses are of sufficient frequency and/or strength they will be sent to the pain center in the brain.

The area of the spinal cord where these pain messages are sent is the same area where location and touch messages are sent. Thus, if the location and touch messages are of greater quantity than those messages of pain, they will block or close a gate preventing pain messages from reaching the pain center in the brain.

What causes the swelling and muscle spasm?

These chemicals cause the body to react in such a way as to create signs of swelling. Thus, swelling found during your examination is indicative of soft-tissue damage. There are pressure-sensitive pain receptors in soft-tissue, as well as chemical-sensitive pain receptors. When pressure produced by swelling fires pressure-sensitive pain receptors, pain is felt, that is if the pain message can get to the brain. Inflammatory chemicals can cause injury to local cells resulting in local muscle spasms.

It is known that pain stimuli can cause reflex spasm of local muscles, which presumably is the cause of much if not most of the muscle spasm observed in localized regions of the human body.

Guyton Textbook of Medical Physiology pg. 695

These muscle spasms in turn reduce blood flow in the area, resulting in a reduction of food and waste removal for local cells. The circulatory system of the body provides cells with a source of food, and a way to rid the area of toxins. Either a reduction of food or waste removal will result in cell death. The death of cells will produce chemicals that not only damage more cells, but cause more localized muscle spasms.

Why didn't I realize all my pain immediately after my accident?

Remember, to feel pain, the pain center in the brain has to be stimulated, and for this to happen, the pain messages have to get by the pain gate in the spinal cord. Also, the products of injury have to be of sufficient quantity to fire pain and pressure receptors in the area of damage. There are not as many pain receptors in deep soft-tissue as there are in skin, joints, periosteum, and arterial walls. Therefore, it takes longer for the inflammatory chemicals and swelling to accumulate and produce pain.

Doesn't the lack of pain mean I'm not injured?

Not necessarily. You feel pain when your brain's pain center is stimulated. If a pain impulse, from a firing pain receptor, is blocked at the pain gate, either because of medication or a large amount of location and touch impulses, the pain center in the brain will not be stimulated. In other words, just because you don't feel pain, doesn't mean that chemicals or swelling from injured tissue isn't causing the pain receptors to fire.

What provides the best chance for a stronger, less painful, and more functional end product of soft-tissue damage? 

Chiropractic. The chiropractic adjustment reduces or eliminates localized muscle spasms for a lengthy period of time. This elimination of muscle spasm consequently allows more movement of your involved joints. Movement of your joints produce more touch and movement impulses; closing the pain gate. This interruption decreases the possibility of your nervous system becoming over sensitive.

Joint movement also rids the injured area of chemicals and swelling, the products causing adverse affects, by swishing these harmful products into your lymphatic system.

Finally, joint movement will produce a stronger and more functional scar.

Frequency Specific Microcurrent

FSM is a modality used at Pure Life Clinic that has been shown to increase healing of tissues by five times that of their natural history. Since ligaments are fairly avascular, they take a long time to heal. FSM encourages healing in these ligaments by increasing ATP production, thus increasing protein synthesis, amino acid transport and accelerating healing.

FSM is a relaxing, subsensory treatment that is applied through graphite gloves worn by the doctor or by pads placed on the skin.