~~Study Shows Chiropractic Care Relieves Vertigo Dizziness
Vol 17 Issue 65
Standard medical care often doesn’t pinpoint the reason for unexplained dizzy spells called vertigo, and simply prescribes drugs to treat the symptoms. Chiropractic care, on the other hand, is all about finding and correcting the underlying causes of pain, illness and other unwanted conditions – including vertigo.
Vertigo is a type of dizziness that makes people feel like they’re spinning or whirling, or as if their environment is whirling around them. It can be very brief, lasting only a few seconds, or it can continue for minutes, hours or days. It can also become a chronic condition that lasts for months or even years.
Vertigo affects two to three times more women than men, and becomes more common as people age, but it can affect people of any age, even children. Some 20 to 30 percent of people suffer from vertigo at some time in their lives, and it accounts for 2 or 3 percent of all emergency department visits.
If it lasts for more than a few seconds, vertigo frequently brings on feelings of nausea, disorientation and other discomfort. When vertigo becomes chronic it can virtually incapacitate someone. Just standing or walking can be difficult and driving is out of the question.
The commonest type of vertigo is Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV), a problem with the inner ear where our balance is controlled. It’s associated with changing head positions, such as rising up from sitting or lying down, or leaning over and then quickly straightening up. Even just looking up at something, or rolling over in bed, can set it off. The important words are “benign” – it’s not that serious – and “positional” – it happens when you change head position. And the good news is that BPPV is curable almost 100 percent of the time in just minutes, without drugs or surgery.
The treatment for BPPV is called canalith repositioning (also called the Epley manoever, named for the ear surgeon who invented it). The dizziness of BPPV is caused by calcium crystal debris, like chalk dust, which has collected in the inner ear canal and is causing the balance mechanism to malfunction. With canalith repositioning, the chiropractor gently moves the patient’s head and body through a series of four positions – turn your head, lie down, roll on your side, sit back up – which lets gravity float the debris into a location where it can no longer upset the balance.
A recent case study was undertaken involving eight patients with persistent BPPV. After one or more Chiropractic treatments with canalith repositioning, all eight patients reported a reduction in severity, duration and frequency of their symptoms, including less pain and disability and increased quality of life. All vertigo symptoms were gone within eight days after the initial treatment.
Earlier studies have also demonstrated that Chiropractic care also helps relieve dizziness caused by misalignments in the cervical spine (neck), another common cause of vertigo
Unexplained vertigo can make people worry that something serious is wrong. And that can sometimes be the case. Your chiropractor can help determine what’s going on, and recommend what the next step should be. If it’s BPPV, or a misalignment of the cervical spine, Chiropractic treatment is fast and effective.