Have you ever been accused of being a dizzy person? Do you or someone you know suffer from the feeling that the whole world is spinning out of control? Have you ever wanted to learn about vertigo? Are you bored out of your mind looking for something to do? If you answered yes to any of these questions, I have good news for you! This article is just what you need!
Vertigo is the feeling of motion when a person is not moving. There are several causes of vertigo. Some causes are intentional. Why would anyone do anything to make themself dizzy? Isn’t life hard enough without being dizzy?
The focus of this article is on two common causes I’ve seen over the years that are easy to diagnose and treat. One cause is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and the other is cervical vertigo.
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo
BPPV is caused by rocks rolling around in a person’s head. Crazy, right? Granted, they are very small rocks, but they cause some really big problems! I’ll get back to the rocks in a minute, but first let me ask you a question. Did you know that your ear does more than hearing? Have you ever wondered how you know you are moving when you can’t see anything? The feeling of motion you get in an airplane when you can’t see outside is coming from your ear.
The vestibular system is the part of your ear that gives you the ability to sense motion. The semicircular canals and vestibule are the two main parts of the vestibular system. Here is an image of the ear with all the major parts labeled.
The rocks in your head are located inside of the vestibule. They are called otoliths and as long as they stay in the vestibule everything is fine. However, when an otolith gets inside a semicircular canal, the world starts spinning out of control. Check out this really cool video about how all this works.
Treatment of BPPV is very simple. Once BPPV is diagnosed, treatment is something anyone can do at home. Here is a quick clip showing treatment.
Cervical Vertigo
Cervical vertigo is a dizziness that comes from incorrect messages from the neck to the brain due to the neck not functioning properly. Your brain gets messages from all the joints in your body and uses that information to tell you about balance and motion. When the upper part of the neck is not working correctly (crooked or stuck), the messages it gives to the brain do not correlate with the other messages the brain is receiving about balance and motion from the rest of the body. When these messages do not match up, vertigo is the result.
The treatment for cervical vertigo is correcting the function of the upper cervical spine. This is something I do here at my office. The treatment works very well.
The key to getting rid of vertigo is proper diagnosis. Once the cause is figured out, the treatment is straight forward. If you or one of your loved ones is suffering, I can help! Get on in here and let’s figure out what’s making you dizzy and fix it!
At this point you should feel a lot smarter than you did before you started this article. You have received a crash course on ear anatomy, physiology and psychopathology, along with the neurology of your body’s balance and motion systems! Congratulations!
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