Are you Looking for a Solution for your Vertigo and Dizziness?

Hard is it to block out the spinning sensation when it’s there? Almost impossible! And is it affecting your life? Your time with your family? Your work? Your weekends? How many doctors, “ vertigo specialists,” vestibular physiotherapists and other practitioners have you been to when the only thing that you’re told is, “We can’t find the cause of your vertigo and dizziness, but we’ll give it a name like ‘Meniere’s disease’ or ‘labyrinthitis' or ‘vestibular neuritis.’

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Are you sick of taking the medication that doesn’t really work anyway? Wouldn’t you rather find the cause of the problem so that you can fix it? So what if I told you there was a natural approach that could help you with vertigo and dizziness? Would you want to know? If so, let me ask you: have you considered the possibility that your vertigo and dizziness may have nothing to do with your inner ear, but that they could be coming from your upper neck?

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What no one has ever told you about Vertigo and Dizziness

Vertigo and dizziness comes in a variety of flavours: Meniere’s syndrome, beniegn proxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), vestibular migraines, mal de baquement syndrome (MDBS) labyrinthitis, vestibular neuritis and so forth. So that you know where I’m coming from, I don’t really care much what the diagnosed name is: I want to know what’s causing your vertigo and dizziness! That way, we can actually do something about it!

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Ultimately, vertigo and dizziness is all about the wiring in your brain. Your central nervous system is processing some kind of abnormal information, and it is manifesting as a sense of imbalance under certain circumstances. Balance information comes from all tissues in the body. However, there are three major sources: your inner ear, your eyes and your neck.

If you are like most people who suffer vertigo and dizziness, you have already had brain MRIs, eye tests and done things like the Epley Manoeuvre to “reposition the crystals in your ear.” If you’ve done these things but nothing has shown up - or didn’t work - then that eliminates your inner ear and your eyes as the cause of your vertigo and dizziness. The next most likely source then is your neck.

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What is the Role of your Upper Neck in Vertigo and Dizziness?

Your neck contains a huge number of nerve receptors called “proprioceptors” that tell your brain where you are in open space relative to gravity. The density of these nerve receptors especially in the upper part of your neck - around the C1 (atlas) and C2 (axis) vertebrae - is greater than anywhere else in your body!

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If you experience vertigo and dizziness, it may very well be that something had happened to the joints in your upper neck, and that instead of your brain receiving “pain” signals, it’s receiving this altered proprioception that is causing you to feel vertigo and dizziness. This “something that has happened” is most commonly a physical injury that occurred in the past, and then for some reason has “woken up” like a dormant volcano. Most people who experience vertigo and dizziness can’t recall a specific reason for their symptoms with the potential exception of “stress.” However, stress is often only the trigger.

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The types of injuries that are most commonly associated with vertigo and dizziness are whiplash-type injuries that involved some type of head snapping forwards-and-backwards on the average of 10-20 years before the onset of any symptoms. These types of injuries don’t need to break or dislocate anything in your neck. However, if they do shift the alignment of any of the vertebrae in your neck - notably the C1 or C2 - it can add up like compound interest over the years and decades to the point where your body simply can’t compensate anymore. That is when the vertigo and dizziness start.

It is one of the other reasons that vertigo and dizziness are so often associated with other neck-related conditions such as neck and shoulder pain, headaches, migraines and jaw (TMJ) problems.

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So by considering just a little bit of neurology, we can shed some light on a few of the mysteries about vertigo and dizziness … Most importantly, we discover an important piece of the puzzle that may be able to offer a solution for people suffer vertigo and dizziness, who have “tried everything else” and still need to improves the quality of lives.

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Can Upper Cervical Care Help your Vertigo and Dizziness?

I am not surprised if you have never heard of Blair upper cervical care before. There are fewer than 12 doctors in all Australia who offer any type of upper cervical specific work, and we are the only advanced certified Blair upper cervical practice in the entire country. (Then again, one of the world’s leading researchers on vertigo and dizziness, Dr Michael Burcon, is a Blair upper cervical doctor and provides the same type of care that we do at our north Brisbane practice).

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So what is it? Blair upper cervical care is a unique form of chiropractic developed in the USA that focuses on the correct alignment of the top two vertebrae in your neck for the purpose of restoring normal fluid flow and function to the nervous system. By doing so, Blair upper cervical chiropractors are able to help a large number of people suffering vertigo and dizziness.

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Now before you fret at the word “chiropractor,” allow me to emphasise that Blair upper cervical care is nothing like general chiropractic or spinal manipulation that is commonly practiced in Australia. Blair upper cervical care is a precise and personalised approach that does not involve any twisting or cracking of the neck.

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The procedure first involves a detailed analysis of your health condition including computerised thermography and custom-tailored digital x-rays to identify the exact alignment of the bones in your neck. The procedure itself is a series of highly-specific corrections for the alignment of your upper neck without any twisting or cracking. (So that you know, the total force of the adjustment is similar to the amount of pressure you need to take your pulse. That’s it!)

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Even though the adjustment procedure is light as it is, people are surprised at how powerful a simple correction to the alignment of your neck can help with vertigo and dizziness … and more importantly in improving the quality of their lives!

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Have you Tried Upper Cervical Care to Help your Vertgo and Dizziness?

The cause of vertigo and dizziness is often a complex issues that involves more than just the inner ear. Often there is significant involvement of the upper neck that also requires treatment if you want to find a long-term solution for your vertigo and dizziness.

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For all the challenges associated with vertigo and dizziness remember that the core the problem is one that is affecting your nervous system. So even if you’ve tried general chiropractors, vestibular physiotherapists, and“vertigo and dizziness specialists,” if you have not tried a Blair upper cervical care, it could be the most important things you can do to help your vertigo and dizziness.

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If you or a loved one is looking for a natural solution for vertigo and dizziness - no matter what name it is - please contact 07 3188 9329 to reach our practice.

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References

Kulkarni V, Chandy MJ, Babu KS. Quantitative study of muscle spindles in suboccipital muscles of human foetuses. Neurol Indfa, 2001;49(4):355-9.

Armstrong BS, McNair PJ, Williams M. Head and neck position sense in whiplash patients and healthy individuals and the effect of the cranio-cervical flexion action. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2005 Aug;20(7):675-84. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/04/prweb15395440.htm

Burcon MT. Health Outcomes Following Cervical Specific Protocol in 300 Patients with Meniere’s Followed Over Six Years. Journal of Upper Cervical Chiropractic Research ~ June 2, 2016 ~ Pages 13-23. Yang L, Yang C, Pang X, et al. Mechanoreceptors in diseased cervical intervertebral disc and vertigo. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2017 Apr 15;42(8):540-546.

Ravn JH, Fuglsang R, Højland C, Hauvik M. The effect of the sympathetic nervous system on proprioception of the neck. Aalborg University. Project supervised by Deborah Falla and Shellie Boudreau. 2009. Date of submission: 1/5/2010. http://vbn.aau.dk/files/19025476/Projekt_3.0_F_RDIG.pdf