Massage Therapist in Bothell, Wa.

Many people experience back pain from car accidents. Everyone has back pain sometimes, but when someone suffers from severe or chronic back pain, it can have a big impact on their daily life. Massage therapy is an excellent option for treating back pain. This article will go over some types of back pain that can result from car accidents, as well as how massage can help. 

A person involved in an accident could end up with a variety of types of injuries that cause back pain. Because the back and spine are complex structures, there’s lots of opportunity for injury. The back has tendons, muscles, spine discs, bones, and ligaments. If one area of the back is damaged, then it can cause pain and other symptoms in surrounding tissues. In some cases, the initial car accident injury is severe and causes back pain. In other situations, the initial car accident injury isn’t particularly serious, but worsens over time. 

Our massage therapists at Bothell Integrated Health will identify what’s causing your back pain, which will allow us to create a treatment plan that effectively addresses it. This is crucial in helping patients to recover and feel better. If a person just takes strong pain medications, that only masks the back pain and doesn’t actually treat the underlying cause. 

Common Back Injuries From Car Accidents 

Damaged Spinal Discs

Being in a car accident can cause trauma to the spine and the discs that it’s made of. Each vertebra of the spine has a soft disc cushioning it. If the disc gets injured somehow, such as slipping, rupturing, or getting otherwise damaged, it can cause irritation to nearby nerves. Irritated nerves can cause shooting and aching pain, weakness in the limbs, numbness, and tingling. Bulging and herniated disc injuries aren’t just painful; they can cause further spine degeneration in the future. That’s why it’s important that disc injuries are promptly treated. 

Massage therapy is helpful in relieving pain from damaged discs. It may even help prevent disc herniation from getting worse. Massaging tissues around the spine can ease symptoms of a bulging or herniated disc, and take some of the pressure off of the nerves. Massage can relieve pain, discomfort, and other symptoms. It can also promote healing in the disc and increase blood flow to the area. 

Whiplash

Many of our patients at Bothell Integrated Health see us for whiplash treatment. When a car accident happens, the head and neck can violently jerk back and forth. Whiplash can happen from accidents that happen at low or high speeds, and most often occurs from rear end collisions. The tricky thing about whiplash is that sometimes people don’t experience symptoms right away after the accident. Weeks after the accident, they may be wondering why they are suffering from upper back pain and stiffness. Our clinic will determine if whiplash is responsible for your back pain, and treat it with therapeutic massage. 

Massage Therapy in Bothell, Wa.

Pinched Nerves

When someone is in a car accident, the impact of the crash can put your joints or spine out of alignment. When a nerve is compressed because of pressure that isn’t meant to be on it, that is called a pinched nerve. Pinched nerves can cause pain that radiates through your back and limbs, in addition to tingling and numbness. Although usually not serious, this type of injury is unpleasant. Massage therapy can relieve pressure on nerves and resolve pinched nerves. 

Strains and Sprains

A car accident can strain or sprain a muscle, tendon, or ligament in the back. When the back and spine are pulled or stretched past their natural limits, the tissues they are composed of can get torn. Strains and sprains cause symptoms such as swelling, inflammation, chronic pain, bruising, and more. Without proper treatment, these types of injuries can develop scar tissue that makes movement stiff and painful. Visit our massage clinic after being in a car accident for effective treatment from any car accident injuries you have suffered. With comprehensive massage therapy for strains and sprains, our massage therapists are able to reduce your risk of suffering long-term symptoms. 

Back Pain From Stress

Being in a car accident is one of the most stressful things you can go through. They cause problems such as financial difficulties, having to deal with injuries, missing work, and more. All of this is really stressful to deal with. When someone has chronic stress, their body releases stress hormones that affect the body in various ways. These hormones can make you heart rate faster, increases blood pressure, makes your immune system overactive, and can even lower bone density and muscle mass. It’s especially harmful when someone has elevated stress levels for a long period of time. 

Tension from stress can make muscles tight, leading to pain. The back is one of the main areas of the body where people experience pain from stress. Bothell Integrated Health knows how to target trigger points during massage sessions to treat pain. We can also give advice for ways to lower stress and relax the body. 

Back Massage

When people are searching up information about massage on the internet, “back massage” is by far the most commonly-looked-up area of the body. Humans walk completely upright, which is rare among the animal kingdom. This is possible because of the strong muscles and ligaments in our back that hold our spine up. As these structures work against gravity, it’s easy for your back to end up getting injured at different points in your life. Back pain is the second most-experienced neurological ailment Americans experience. Additionally, eight out of every ten people experience back pain at some point. Thankfully, people with back pain can benefit from receiving massages. 

Massage therapy can be used to relieve incidental back pain or chronic back pain. A massage therapist with experience will know how to best treat your pain and other symptoms. Whether your back pain is from tense muscles, compressed nerves, a misaligned spine, or something else, our professionals can help you feel better. Massage can help your whole body relax, relieving tight muscles and reducing stress. Many of our patients find that after massages they are able to sleep better. Massage also promotes circulation, which brings oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to injured areas. 

If you are suffering from back pain after being involved in a car accident, Bothell Integrated Health is here to help you recover and return to normalcy. Massage therapy has proven to be an effective treatment method for back pain. Get in touch with us to set up an appointment and begin on your wellness journey.