Can a Car Accident Cause Degenerative Disc Disease?

The worst car accidents involve high speeds and a lot of force. The faster a car is going when it hits another car, the more likely it is that someone will be seriously injured or even killed.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than one-fourth of all traffic fatalities in 2016 happened because of speeding. In raw numbers, NHTSA attributes more than 10,000 deaths to speeding that year. A lot of unpleasant things happen to the body when it’s inside a car during an accident, and in some cases, injuries can lead to degenerative disc disease.

Understanding degenerative disc disease

The cartilage in your body serves a few purposes. Among other things, it’s designed to cushion your body in case of a fall or other trauma. Imagine ice skating — if you fall, what’s going to hurt less? Falling on your rear or falling on your arm? If you fall on the padded part of your behind, that’s much less painful than landing on your arm and having it absorb all that shock.

Degenerative disc disease happens when the cartilage in your back wears out. This often happens as you get older. When you’re young, the discs between your vertebrae have plenty of cartilage and lubrication. According to the Arthritis Foundation, “the rubbery discs begin to shrink and lose integrity” with the passage of time.

Treating degenerative disc disease

The pain from degenerative disc disease can range from a minor annoyance to something that makes it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. Sufferers may feel pain in their neck that feels like it’s radiating outward to other body parts, and sitting comfortably can feel impossible.

There are a variety of treatments for DDD, including certain exercises that can alleviate symptoms when done right. Medications can be effective, as can steroid injections. CBD oil might work for some patients who don’t mind exploring alternative medicine. If you go that route, you need to first make sure CBD oil is legal in your state. If it is, then you can dig deeper and research filtration for hemp and CBD oil extraction. 

Connecting degenerative disc disease to a car accident

There are a lot of ways for your body to get battered during a car accident. You could slam your head against the dashboard, then reel back and hit the back of your car’s seat in a particularly painful way. Unfortunately, it’s not the only cause, and this can make it difficult to connect to a specific incident. Degenerative disc disease can also be caused or worsened by injuries suffered during sports.

For instance, take football. It’s a violent sport that we associate with head injuries, but research suggests we should also associate it with back injuries like degenerative disc disease. Think about what happens during a tackle when a 350-pound lineman puts all their body weight on another player, or when there’s a fumble and a player gets caught at the bottom of a massive dogpile. It’s not good for the body by any stretch of the imagination, and it can be especially harmful to the neck and back area.

But if you’re injured in a car accident and then a doctor diagnoses you with degenerative disc disease, it can be hard to prove which came first, the accident or the back injury. An auto accident lawyer in Mobile, AL, can go through your medical records with you and help you figure out if the car accident is to blame for your back troubles. Even if it wasn’t directly responsible, you may be able to prove that it exacerbated a condition which already existed. Almost every personal injury lawyer will give you a free consultation before they start billing for their time. In many cases, personal injury lawyers work on contingency, which means they don’t receive payment for their services unless you either settle before your court date or receive a monetary award from a jury.