What is the Cause of Vertigo? | Vertigo Treatment

Have you been from Doctor to Doctor with no solid answer for what’s CAUSING your vertigo? Have you been told it’s all in your head? Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? If the answer is yes then keep reading. Traditional vertigo treatment is symptomatic treatment with the exception of the apply maneuver. 

Medications like meclizine and Antivert are commonly prescribed for vertigo treatment and often they work. When we say work, it can relieve the symptoms. If you are only interested in treating symptoms then the rest of this blog isn’t for you. However, if you are interested in learning what is the most common CAUSE of vertigo then this article should help shed light on the cause and its correction.

We live in a “health care system” that focuses on the treatment of symptoms. Traditional vertigo treatment is no different. Instead of looking for the cause of vertigo, your doctors to this point have most likely prescribed “treatments” to relieve symptoms. Many of the medications prescribed for vertigo treatment can help treat the symptom, however most intelligent people would rather know its cause and then remove it. Billions of dollars each year are plowed into medications that treat symptoms.

Almost zero money is allocated towards finding causes. There is little money in making people healthy. It’s a better business model for big pharma to treat symptoms and never ask the question, what is the CAUSE? In this article, we will discuss how your body's balance system works and then discuss how upper cervical spine injuries are at the root of the large majority of people who seek vertigo treatment.

How does Your Bodies Balance System Work?

The body’s balance system works through a perpetual process of position sense, feedback, and corrections using transmission between the inner ear, eyes, muscles, joints, and the brain.

The inner ear has two functions, hearing and balance. The balance portion of the inner ear called the vestibular apparatus is designed to send information about the position of the head to the brain’s movement control center, the cerebellum. The cerebellum is the back part of the brain. The cerebellum receives feedback from the eyes, joints, and ears and relays information to the muscles of the body to maintain balance against gravity.

Since this system is controlled fundamentally by the central nervous system it is common that vertigo patients have many HEENT tests that all check out normal. The structure of the system may be normal, it is the nervous system's inability to coordinate the input of the vestibular system that underlies most vertigo symptoms. We will discuss this further at the end of this article.

Position feedback from the inner ear

The balance system in each inner ear is made up of three semi-circular canals and two pockets called the otolith organs, which together provide constant feedback to the cerebellum about head movement.
Each semi-circular canal has a different orientation to detect a variety of movements such as nodding or rotating. Inside of each canal are hairs that line each tube.

The canals are full of liquid and based on head movement the fluid stimulates hair cells located in the canals. This sensory information is sent to the cerebellum and is instantaneously interpreted and made useful by your body's vestibular system.

Position feedback from eyes, skin, muscles, and joints | Vertigo Treatment

The vestibular system (inner ear balance mechanism) works with the visual system (eyes and the muscles and parts of the brain that work together to let us ‘see’) to stop objects blurring when the head moves. It also helps us maintain awareness of positioning when, for example, walking, biking, running, or riding in a vehicle.

In addition, sensors in the skin, joints, and muscles provide information to the brain on movement, the position of parts of the body in relation to each other, and the position of the body in relation to the environment. Using this feedback, the brain sends messages to instruct muscles to move and make adjustments to a body position that will maintain balance and coordination.

Natural Vertigo Treatment- The Upper Cervical Spines Role in the Cause of Vertigo

We showed that balance is a coordinated effort of sensory input from the eyes, the inner ear, and the joints of the body. If you are suffering from vertigo and are like most vertigo sufferers, you have been to your general practitioner, then to a HEENT, and perhaps a neurologist also. All of the tests they have run show that there is no problem with the inner ear and the eyes. 

They unfortunately are overlooking the cervical spine’s role in vertigo treatment. The upper two bones in the neck, the atlas, and the axis, have the most highly enervated joints in the body. This means that they give the vestibular system more input than any other joint in the body. As a result, prior neck trauma can be at the root of chronic vertigo symptoms.
Whiplash Trauma, sports injuries, slip and falls can all be traumatic to the joints and soft tissue of the neck.

These types of blunt trauma can tear the ligaments and soft tissues of the cervical spine joints resulting in spinal misalignment reduced joint motion and increased spasticity of the cervical spine anatomy. When the upper cervical joints lose normal biomechanical range of motion this can be an underlying cause of vertigo. In our Los Angeles upper cervical health care office we have helped hundreds of patients with chronic vertigo, Ménière’s disease, and other vestibular issues.

What Does A Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractor Do? | Natural Vertigo Treatmentvertigo

Blair Upper Cervical doctors are specially trained to find spinal misalignments in the upper cervical spine. This is determined by running the prospective patient through a battery of neurological tests that locate the spinal segments that have been injured and misaligned by a prior neck injury. 

Once located, precision imaging in the form of digital x-ray or cone-beam computed tomography (Cbct) is used to precisely determine which joint has misaligned and the angulation of the offending joint. Each person's anatomy is different and therefore imaging is used to uncover the blueprint to be used to correct each patient's individual misalignment pattern. Once this information is gleaned, a gentle, light correction is made without twisting, popping, or pulling.

The patient is then monitored over time to ensure that the correction is holding. If the testing indicates the need for another correction then it is performed. However, the goal of Blair Upper Cervical Care is for the patient to stay in “adjustment”. It isn’t the correction that produces healing. It is the removal of nerve irritation and the adjustment “ holding” in its normal position that allows the body to function better and proceed through a healing process.