Dr. Rita Bhuyan

A stinging pain in the neck that makes you feel broken from the neck joint could be a reason to worry. It is often accompanied by an aching head or a throbbing shoulder joint. Neck pain, such as this occurs due to an injury in the area resulting from sudden back and forth movement of the neck. It is referred to as whiplash as the nature of the pain and subsequent discomfort resembles the snapping of a whip. The pain is more like a sprain, but not exactly so. This can affect athletes or even any person in general who has faced an accident in recent past. Whiplash is characterized by a tearing of ligaments and tendons that connect one bone to another.

Causes of Whiplash:

1. Sports that involve contact: Any extracurricular activity involving collisions or other forms of physical contact can cause neck injuries. Football and rugby players frequently suffer from Whiplash.
2. Road accidents: Public transport has a host of disadvantages. Reckless driving can make the tendons of your neck tear. Auto accidents cause immense strain on your neck; it can also lead to Whiplash.
3. Any kind of physical abuse: If you have gotten into a violent fight with someone your neck could suffer from a Whiplash. Instances of physical abuse where the neck is jerked or punched at can also result in neck strains. Domestic violence often leads to instances of neck strains.

Symptoms related to this condition:

1. You may or may not suffer from tinnitus. Tinnitus is a physical disorder where you hear ringing sounds. It is quite distracting.
2. Your vision might get blurry.
3. You can experience irregular sleep patterns.
4. You can find it hard to concentrate on any one thing for more than a while.
5. You can grow irritable at the drop of a hat.
6. Your memory may fail you. You might find it next to impossible to trace back a day's activity.

Some of the other direct symptoms are:

1. Your neck might turn stiff preventing you from moving it left, right, up or down.
2. Pangs of pain can be felt in and around your shoulders.
3. Your upper arms can grow numb and tender.
4. Your head can spin repeatedly or you could feel dizzy.
5. Whiplash can also result in serious fatigue.

When you give some of your blood for someone else, it is called blood donation. It usually helps people who have lost quite a bit of blood in accidents or suffer from diseases, such as cancer or hemophilia, etc.

Like all activities related to medical conditions, there are myths related to blood donation too and some of them are:

1. Myth: Because you're a vegetarian, you don't have enough iron in your blood; so your blood isn't useful as donated blood.
Fact: The fact is that vegetarians can donate blood and their blood has enough iron, just as much as non vegetarians.

2. Myth: Infections, such as HIV can be contracted from donating blood.
Fact: This does not have a practical basis except for the fact that using contaminated needles might lead to contraction of the infections. However, usually fresh needles are used; therefore this never happens much.

3. Myth: Your health can deteriorate after you donate blood.
Fact: Your body produces new red blood cells as well as white blood cells after donation; hence your health doesn't deteriorate at all, except in cases where there is no rest taken at all after donation.

4. Myth: If you take medications, you cannot donate blood.
Fact: This is entirely dependent on your physician's advice. In case of some medications, you need to halt them in order to donate blood. In most cases though, taking medications does not prevent you from donating blood.

5. Myth: You will be unable to partake in physical activities after donating blood.
Fact: Heavy lifting should be avoided. Apart from this, donating blood does not stop you from physical activities. You need to rest for a while, but there is nothing about blood donation putting a check on most physical activities.

6.Myth: People with more weight have more blood to donate.
Fact: This is an entirely baseless assumption. Overweight or obese people are often unhealthy, so donating more blood has nothing to do with weight. Hence, obese people do not have more blood in their bodies as compared to their thinner counterparts.