Anyone who has ever suffered an injury resulting in whiplash knows just how painful it can be. This type of injury to the neck, shoulders and upper back is often caused as a result of a rear-end auto collision but can also result from a sports injury as well. If you are looking to find relief from whiplash you are suffering; there are various ways to treat the pain while seeking to repair any damage that was done.

1. Relax the Affected Muscles

Since much of the pain is the result of sore muscles; one of the best remedies is to relax any muscles that sustained an injury. When it’s neck, shoulder, or upper back pain, it is difficult to relax those muscles in a standing position simply because of the weight of the head sitting squarely over the neck and shoulders. It would be ideal if you could relax the entire body on a beanbag pillow by Fombag and that is easily accomplished because they can be ordered online. Bear in mind that the idea is to keep the weight off those injured muscles in order for them to relax; so laying weightless on a bean bag pillow offers the most relief.

2. Neck Brace

Traditionally, a doctor will prescribe a neck brace to also keep weight off the injury; but neck braces will also prevent you from turning your head too far in either direction. In fact, it is preferable if you don’t swivel those muscles until the pain is no longer excruciating.

3. Alternate Hot and Cold Packs

This is another effective treatment for whiplash. The idea is to relax and expand the muscles with heat packs and then to reduce any swelling and inflammation with ice packs. You would think that immediate transitioning from hot to cold; and back to hot again would exacerbate the pain, but it actually works wonders.

4. Pharmaceutical Intervention

Then there are pharmaceuticals prescribed by your doctor that can at least temporarily ease the pain. Sometimes pain killers are prescribed, and they are often accompanied by muscle relaxers. The combination of a drug to ease pain with one to relax muscles works in the short term but it is not a treatment you would want to use for long periods of time. Addiction could be an issue if these medications are used for anything but short intervals in the very beginning.

5. Chiropractic Adjustment

It is also recommended that you do a few slow stretching exercises but going for chiropractic adjustments does much the same thing. The difference is that a chiropractor has an x-ray or some other image of the injured area. They are able to adjust alignment so that everything lines up once again. This will ease the pain significantly, but you may need more than one treatment concurrently with other methods mentioned above to get the full benefit of relief. Whiplash can be extremely painful but the good news is you probably haven’t suffered any broken bones; so you can almost always benefit from these five non-invasive therapeutic remedies.