Vertigo: How Chiropractic Can Help

In this video, Dr. Derek Haughton shares his recent experience with vertigo and how chiropractic helped him.

I want to tell you a story about something that happened to me a few weeks ago. I got out of bed, put my feet on the floor and immediately had the room spinning. I almost fell onto the floor and was feeling pretty nauseous. It was like everything was turning and I was on a roller coaster. I immediately knew I had vertigo.

I want to talk to you today about vertigo and a cause that often goes unnoticed by many. You can have problems in your upper neck leading to vertigo that can be corrected by a chiropractor.

Your balance system is comprised of 3 main things:

1) Eyes

Your eyes keep you balanced by helping you know your position when you look out into the horizon. That’s why when you close your eyes you can often feel unbalanced. You are removing one of your balance cues.

2) Semi-circular canals of the inner ear

The semi-circular canals of the inner ear have fluid that flows through them and depending on how you move your head will determine the direction of flow. The fluid brushes up against tiny hairs or nerve endings which send signals to the brain about how your body is positioned. For most, they would attribute their vertigo to the semi-circular canals. A person can have crystals called canaliths form inside the tubes and they can irritate those nerve endings, or hairs, and send faulty signals about your position to your brain. Your brain then tries to match up those signals to what you are seeing. When they don’t match up, it creates this turmoil leading to the spinning sensation.

3) Upper neck

Your upper neck has more special balance receptors than any other part of your body per gram of tissue.

So for me, as the morning progressed, I was checking myself to rule out a problem with the semi-circular canals and concluded the problem had to be coming from my neck. What would have happened? Potentially, the joints of my upper neck were misaligned or subluxated. This doesn’t necessarily have to be caused by a big accident but could be from something more subtle – sleep position, a tweak from a previous workout, etc. The function in my neck was altered which in turn altered the nerve signals to my brain. Great timing – I see my chiropractor on Wednesdays and this happened on a Wednesday morning. He checked and confirmed I had subluxation in my upper neck and adjusted it. The relief was immediate! The nausea and room spinning were gone. I’m sharing my story with you today to inform you that vertigo can be caused by misalignments/dysfunction in the spinal joints of your upper neck that can be corrected by a chiropractor.

If you or anybody you know is suffering from vertigo, you or they may need to have a spinal check-up. I just wanted to share my own experience with vertigo and that it can make every difference in the world to get adjusted by a chiropractor.

Empowering you with your health,
Dr. Derek Haughton