Double Vision After An Accident

“I have MS and was recently in a car accident. I developed double vision after the crash. I got treatment for my neck and my vision improved. Is there some exercise I can do at home to help it?”

You also mentioned that you have cervical stenosis and neck pain.

People often have more than one problem.

Cervical stenosis won’t really relate to your double vision.

Multiple Sclerosis can definitely cause double vision and other visual changes.

It’s impossible to know what is going on in a person over the internet.

What may happen after a motor vehicle collision is that underlying health problems can be uncovered and/or worsened.

In the case of Multiple Sclerosis, the stress and possible the head trauma can cause a flair up of the symptoms including visual changes. Of course, a concussion alone could also cause visual changes.

Autoimmune conditions like MS will often have times when they improve and times when they worsen. It’s possible that the therapy to help your neck may not have improved your vision but coincidentally was being done as your flair up improved relating to improvements in your vision.

Specific neurological rehab by a chiropractor that understands how to do it could potentially improve visual changes like double vision through central mechanisms related to control of midline musculature. The spine and eyes are very closely related in central motor control. We’re designed this way because movement and vision must work together. If you turn your head, you should be able to fixate on a target. Specific neurological rehab might improve these motor control factors in some cases.

If there is a change in eye position one relative to the other then you can experience double vision. There are simple exam tests that a competent practitioner can do to evaluate this during a physical exam to see if there are subtle changes in the position of an eye relative to the other one. It would also make sense to evaluate the optic nerve in cases of MS. An eye doctor can do this.

Of course many things could cause double vision other than Multiple Sclerosis including things as bad as a tumor and things that are much less severe. Things like a space occupying lesion could cause double vision. Occasionally a new symptom might occur that is unrelated to a recent injury.

Autoimmunity is a much bigger problem than most realize, including most healthcare practitioners. Research has shown that many individual factors can cause abnormal immune activity that may worsen an autoimmune problem.

Autoimmunity, including MS, is a huge problem that is incredibly complex.

There will be specific individual immunological triggers that vary from person to person. Potentially many of these can be altered due to a car accident.

These include:

• Stress as might occur in a motor vehicle accident,
• Sleep loss that might occur for a variety of reasons including pain related to a motor vehicle accident,
• Blood sugar abnormalities that could worsen due to stress, loss of sleep, and reduced physical activity,
• Specific dietary proteins that a person may have an immunological response to,
• Chemical exposures including possibly medications that might be taken for symptoms related to a car accident,
• Head trauma/concussions that could be related to a crash,
• Sedentary behavior which may increase after a trauma,
• and more.

You need to see someone in person that understands autoimmunity and MS. You likely need to get some imaging and tests to look at brain and eyes.

It’s likely you need to see several different healthcare practitioners including a medical neurologist – in addition to someone that can help you with the many lifestyle factors that may improve your function and a practitioner that understands neurological rehabilitation. You probably also need to see eye doctors to evaluate your vision as well.