A Vertigo attack can be extremely disturbing. All of a sudden, the room is spinning around you, and you struggle to maintain balance. Vertigo attacks can also be accompanied by nausea, headaches, sweating, and ringing in the ears. Although there are several causes for vertigo, it’s important to understand how the brain receives signals about balance and your body’s position. The brain and body receive signals about where it’s positioned in space from three sources:
- The inner ear
- Sensors within the joints of the body
- Your vision
When there is a problem with one of these systems, the others will try to compensate to make up for it. However, when a vertigo attack occurs, it means that the signals carrying this information over the nerves to the brain somehow got distorted, which leads to that dreaded sensation of spinning.
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How Can Vertigo Be Related to My Spine?
Because vertigo is so connected to the signals travelling to and from the brain from the three sources mentioned above, it’s important to make sure that there is no obstruction to those signals. As an upper cervical chiropractor, I look at the relationship between the spine (particularly the uppermost vertebra) and the nerves. When the atlas vertebra misaligns, it can easily create an interruption of those brain-body signals. This can affect any of the mechanisms that lead to the various symptoms of vertigo.
The atlas can misalign as a result of daily wear and tear, or because of an injury or trauma. Over time, this will cause damage to the nerves and lead to improper signaling. Correcting atlas misalignments, which is the focus of our upper cervical chiropractic practice, releases the pressure on those compromised nerves and tissues and lets the healing process begin. Over time, normal signals are allowed to travel over the nerves, which can lead to relief from spinning.
References:
http://www.webmd.com/brain/vertigo-symptoms-causes-treatment
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