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 MILWAUKEE (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- If you've ever been in a rear-end collision, you may have experienced whiplash. There are over three million whiplash injuries in the United States every year -- painful conditions that often linger months or even years after the accident. You may not be able to prevent another driver from crashing into you, but now researchers say you can help protect your neck.
"A car or truck was actually coming really fast behind me and there was nowhere I could go," Paula Winchel recalled to Ivanhoe.
More than ten years after her car was rear-ended, she is still suffering.
"I have a lot of intense pain at times where I get headaches, I have stiffness," she said. "There were times when I woke up every single morning with a headache."
Biomedical engineer Brian Stemper, Ph.D., a biomedical engineer at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, has studied whiplash injuries for a decade. His goal: find the best way to protect people behind the wheel.
 "Originally, we thought that the whiplash was a hyperextension injury where the head rotates backward relative to the thorax, and that leads to a stretching in the soft tissues of the spine," Dr. Stemper explained to Ivanhoe.
Now he says extensive crash tests and computer modeling show whiplash happens before the head rotates backward. The key is the relationship between the head and chest.
"The goal in whiplash is to minimize the relative motion between the head and your chest," he said.
Research shows head rest position is crucial. Too low and too far back, it sets the stage for injury. Placed level with the top of your head, and two inches or less from the back of your head, it can prevent whiplash by limiting head movement.
"It's going to minimize the motions -- the relative motions between your head and your chest, which will cut down on the forces on the cervical spine in that rear impact," Dr. Stemper said.
Researchers also found in a similar impact, women's cervical spines move more than men's, making women five to 10 percent more susceptible to whiplash.
 "When they're coming up fast behind me, I definitely get nervous," Winchel said.
Despite her nerves, Winchel is still on the road, but she's made the adjustments to protect herself in the driver's seat.
Dr. Stemper is working with automakers and says they're already taking steps to develop head restraints that help prevent whiplash injuries; but he says even if your car doesn't have that new equipment, taking a few minutes to adjust your headrest can keep you safer in a rear end collision.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Medical College of Wisconsin
Toranj Marphetia, Public Relations
(414) 456-4700
tmarphet@mcw.edu
http://www.mcw.edu
To read Ivanhoe's full-length interview with Dr. Stemper, click here.
Sign up for a free weekly e-mail on Medical Breakthroughs called First to Know by clicking here.
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Lindsay Braun at lbraun@ivanhoe.com.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
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