How much force is required to cause a neck injury?
That was the question asked by Panjabi & White. Both are researchers and professors of orthopedics at both Harvard and Yale Schools of medicine. What they found was it only took 3.5 G of force to damage ligaments in the neck as well as cause injury to the cervical discs.
Experiments
When a rear end car accident happens, the entire whiplash occurs in less than one half a second. The original work done in this area was by DM Severy in 1955. They conducted rear end collisions and filmed it with high speed cameras and used anthropometric dummies to monitor the forces generated. None of the crashes were above 10 mph. They discovered that a rear impact at 5 mph generated a G force of about 1.9 BUT they also found that the heads of the occupants accelerated at a much faster rate, typically 2-3 times faster. This generated G forces in the area of anywhere between 4 G and upwards to 12 G in some studies.
Chiropractic Care
Just so you know, the force of a chiropractic adjustment could never reach the 3.5G required to cause a neck injury.
Dr. Robert Ebeling is a licensed chiropractor in Englewood Colorado and specializes in neck injury from whiplash injuries. (303) 377-1755
Robert Ebeling, DC