subject: Vertigo: A Meadville Chiropactor Approach [print this page] Are You Plagued by Vertigo?? Are You Plagued by Vertigo??
Vertigo is not a very common problem but the reason I am writing about it is that the two main causes are easily treated right in my office. First, let me explain what vertigo REALLY is for the Meadville chiropractor crowd and of course anyone else who wants to know. When you where a kid Im sure you stood in one spot and spun your body round and round like a top. After you have convinced yourself that you better stop spinning before you vomit or fall on your face you force yourself to physically stop spinning but the rest of the world keeps spinning before your eyes. That spinning sensation while you are physically still is called vertigo. The type of vertigo you get from spinning childhood insanity is normal and does not need treatment. However, you can get bouts of vertigo with out reliving your ballerina days spinning in your living room.
The first main type of vertigo that I treat is caused by mechanical and nerve dysfunction in the neck. This results in bad information being sent to the balance centers in the ear and brain stem and it is called cervicogenic vertigo. While Im on the topic of this balance center in your ear let me explain it. There are a series of hoses that are filled with fluid. On the inside of these hoses there is hair like lining that senses the flow of the fluid that is normally there. When the fluid moves it also moves the hairs. All these hairs are connected to nerves and the nerves send the information to your brain and help tell you your position in space. This works similarly like a level that a carpenter would use to make sure some thing is parallel with the ground. When you tilt your head the fluid level stays parallel to the ground but the fluid level will climb the hose in your ear and stimulate different hairs that the brain detects and process as a different position of your head.
Now that we have that all cleared up lets get back to cervicogenic vertigo. When just the right neck joints muscles and nerves become dysfunctional they can interfere with the information in the balance centers described above and other balance areas in the brain stem. Many of you already know that I treat spinal joints AND the muscles with a precise pressure point technique. This is the reason I can treat cervicogenic vertigo so easily and effectively but this story is not over. The second type of vertigo that I treat is cause by something that very few docs know about.
The second type of vertigo is called benign positional vertigo. This simply means that the vertigo is not dangerous and it is made worse by certain positions. Some really cool scientist doctor kinda guy figured out that sometimes little tiny mineral deposits form in the tubes of your balance center in your ears. These mineral deposits can move freely in the hoses in your ear when you move. The problem is that these mineral crystals move slower than the fluid in the hoses in your ear balance center. So, when you change the angle of your head the fluid stops moving when your head stops but the minerals deposits keep moving slowly until they settle and they stimulate the hairs inside the hoses as they move. This causes you to feel like you are still moving until the mineral deposits rub up against the hairs as they settle in the fluid filled hoses in the ear balance centers. This creates the feeling of the world rotating around you like back in the days of child hood spinning fun and games. However, as an adult, this can get quite nauseating and torturing, as it will happen over and over all day long as you move. If you are so unlucky so get this condition and all the doctors you have seen have not helped then today is your lucky day. Yes, I know a treatment that can many times cure this problem with in one to four sessions. I use a series of specific positions that guide the mineral deposits out of the hoses and into an area that does not contain the hair lining. Since there is no hair lining to trigger motion sensation then the mineral deposits wont trick your brain and make you feel like you are moving when you are not. Typically the mineral deposits never float back to the area that causes the vertigo but if they do (and they seldom do) then its easy to fix it. During your visit I will determine if your vertigo is treatable by me and if not I will refer you to the appropriate doctor because sometimes vertigo is caused by an inner ear infection or other rare neurological problems.
