Vertigo (dizziness) is a condition that affects a large percentage of our population. “Vertigo is a feeling that you or your surroundings are moving when there is no actual movement. You may feel as though you are spinning, whirling, falling, or tilting. When you have severe vertigo, you may feel very nauseated or vomit. You may have trouble walking or standing, and you may lose your balance and fall. Vertigo occurs when there is conflict between the signals sent to the brain by various balance- and position-sensing systems of the body. Your brain uses input from four sensory systems to maintain your sense of balance and orientation to your surroundings.” (www.webmd.com)
Common causes of vertigo include:
- Inner ear disorders, such as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), Meniere’s disease, vestibular neuritis, or labyrinthitis.
- Injury to the ear or head.
- Migraine headaches, which are painful, debilitating headaches that often occur with vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light, noise, and smell.
- Decreased blood flow through the arteries that supply blood to the base of the brain (vertebrobasilar insufficiency).
Some of these disturbances are caused by the atlas being out of alignment. If your atlas, the first vertebrae/bone in your neck and which supports your skull, is out of alignment it structurally causes your head to be off center and this can cause a number of health issues…One of those health issues is vertigo.
The vertebral artery, which supplies blood to your brain, goes through the atlas en route to the brain. If the atlas is out of alignment and you turn your head from side to side, you momentarily block off the blood supply through the vertebral artery. Dizziness can then be brought on by a brief disturbance to that vital blood supply to your brain.
Another causative factor could be irritation to the vestibulocochlear nerve (the 8th cranial
nerve) by the atlas misalignment. This is the same nerve that controls your
sense of balance, the one that makes you seasick. When the atlas vertebra is out of its proper alignment it causes a disturbance at the section of the brain stem where that very nerve has its origin. It is not hard to see how an irritation to that area of the nervous system could produce the symptoms of dizziness. To put it simply, the pathway from the brain to the body (in this case the balance center of the body) is disturbed and can lead to many health issues.
We have had positive results with a number of patients with vertigo by giving a very light and specific adjustment to their atlas vertebrae. Please call us to schedule a consultation with Dr. Strunk AT NO CHARGE to see if he can help with your health concerns!
919-303-2213
The choice is yours. Medicate the symptoms and live with the limitations, or see if there is a correctable cause to your dizziness, and live the life you were created to live.