Why is Everything Spinning?
Help For Vertigo And Other Dizziness Disorders!

For those of you who suffer from dizziness, motion sickness, or benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, you know it’s not a pleasant experience whatsoever. These conditions drastically affect the quality of life someone is able to live. For some, it’s just being a passenger in a car, bus, train, or plane that makes their head spin and their stomach flip. For others, vertigo may come and go at random—causing you to be unable to move one day because the room is spinning and be fine the next. What do chiropractic adjustments have to do with any of this? Let me explain:

Adjustments Promote Proper Nerve Communication

Often the feeling of vertigo results from an imbalance of or improper deposits of tiny calcium crystals in the inner ear. The inner ear is the area of our body that helps us maintain our balance and sense of place. When this is thrown off, it can result in the feeling of falling or spinning and can make the sufferer nauseous or sweaty. Another cause of vertigo could be miscommunication of your joints to your brain. When your joints are not moving as they should, especially in your upper cervical or neck area, these motions can misinform the body about its position. Whether it’s your joints or your inner ear that is the cause of the problem, at Mount Maunganui Chiropractic we can help you through different motions to restore your inner ear’s sense of balance.

Our body relies on different forms of communication to understand its position. These forms of communication include:

Your eyes. This might be obvious, but your eyes help relay information to the brain about where you are relative to other objects.

Your skin, muscles, and joints. Your skin, muscles, and joints are sensitive to pressure and this pressure can tell your brain where your body is or where it’s going. The sensory impulses in your neck are very important, as cues from this tell your brain which was your head is turned.

Your vestibular system. This is where your inner ear comes in. These canals detect movement and have a fluid in them called endolymph. This system is very important and sends messages to the brain about your position. The messages should be the same coming from both of your inner ear canals.

When one or more of these communication sensors is not functioning correctly, it can create the sensation of vertigo. Chiropractic adjustments can help alleviate your vertigo by structurally guiding your spine back towards its normal range and relieving critical nerve pressure that goes to the ears and brain.

Real Solutions Rather than Just Treatment

Some doctors may suggest pharmaceutical medication to help deal with your vertigo, but often there isn’t a treatment that will really help you. Extreme sufferers of this feel very sick, nauseous, and off-balance, and it affects their day-to-day living and activities. Imagine feeling dizzy or nauseous all the time, or for long periods of time such as hours in a day, with no relief.

Chiropractic care offers a solution rather than just treatment for your vertigo. At our clinics, we take a very objective and structural approach to the spine. We completely understand that no one has a “perfect spine”, that being said, there has to be a normal range for things to be in (think blood pressure, cholesterol, etc), and that is how we view the spine. Commonly, and as we’ll explain, the position of the occiput and top few vertebrae in the spine have a profound affect on the organs and senses that those nerves go to. Hence, improving the spine commonly improves the dizziness.

Chiropractic adjustments can help alleviate vertigo: “Balance, coordination, blood pressure, insomnia and heart rate, as well as vertigo, are often related to the alignment of the Atlas (the top vertebrae in the neck). The proper corrective adjustment for this area can often solve vertigo issues with no drugs or painful procedures.”

Since some sufferers of vertigo may feel slightly off-balance or dizzy after a chiropractic adjustment, it’s important to give your body time to adjust to the changes and be gentle with your body and movements.

Chiropractic adjustments have many great benefits including very commonly posture and decreased pain. Whether inner ear imbalance, postural issues, or a misalignment could be causing your vertigo sensations, a chiropractor can help alleviate your symptoms and get you feeling better today!

Be assured that chiropractic care does offer a positive approach to helping reduce and remove nerve pressure leading to dizziness.  For the majority of those checked in our clinic, there has either been a significant overall improvement or it has completely solved the problem. If you or someone you know is suffering needlessly, feel free to call us at (07) 574 3099 for a complimentary consultation and to set up a time to have your spine and nervous system checked.

Dr. David Guest is a Doctor of Chiropractic, a member of the New Zealand Chiropractic Association, and owner of Mount Maunganui and Te Puke Chiropractic in the Bay of Plenty.  Dr. Guest focuses on an area of chiropractic called Structural Correction and has been in practice for 17 years. You can reach Dr. Guest at david@mtchiro.co.nz or (07) 574 3099.

References:

• http://www.livestrong.com/article/180711-chiropractic-treatments-vertigo/
• http://www.chiropractic-help.com/vertigo-dizziness.html