This month we’re going to focus on balance disorders, things like vertigo, dizziness, and that kind of thing. Those are really disorders of the vestibular system. So the vestibular system is our balance system, the thing that allows us to sit, stand, lean, turn, twist, and be able to maintain our balance and orient ourselves in the room and in space. When that vestibular system has a problem, or bad communication with your body, that’s when we start to see breakdowns and we start to have problems.
The vestibular system itself is complex, but fairly simple to understand. So we have receptors in every part of our body, all of our muscles, and all of our joints. If you close your eyes right now and stick your arm out to the side, you pretty much have a good sense of where that arm is, unless there is a problem. That’s because those sensors in the body send information up into the brainstem, which is at the top of the neck and the base of the brain. And then up into the vestibular system so that your brain can recognize where that arm is and where your leg is. And that’s what it does all day long, doing math and calculus to figure out how we move, and then we have good solid balance when we’re standing up, and we’re steady.
If that starts to break down, we start to have balance problems. Maybe you’ve got some vertigo, and dizziness, or when you walk, you’re leaning to one side a little bit, or when you first stand up, if you stand up quickly, you feel like you’re a little bit swimmy. We even see some people that have issues when they drive. Sitting or standing, they’re pretty good, but when they’re driving, things are a little blurry or they start to feel really lightheaded. All of those are signs that they have a problem with the vestibular system.
So two of the most common vestibular problems that people are familiar with, and we see a lot of here at Upper Cervical Health Centers of Fort Myers, are vertigo and dizziness. So let me differentiate vertigo and dizziness, let’s separate them a little bit. The real boiled-down definition is if you have vertigo, you’re standing still, but the world feels like it’s spinning. If you’ve ever experienced vertigo, it’s horrible. The minute it happens, you feel like you’ve got to grab on to something or you’re going to go flying off the earth. You get really nauseous, a horrible feeling. Dizziness feels a little bit more like the room is sitting still, but you’re kind of bouncing and moving around, lightheaded and dizzy. That’s really the big two definitions: with vertigo, the world is moving, and with dizziness, you’re moving. Either way, regardless of which one of those is your problem; it’s a problem with your vestibular system.
So there’s several things we do for both those issues here Upper Cervical Health Centers of Fort Myers. So first, we’ll test it. We’ve gotten some new testing equipment where we can test balance, we can figure out where you’re at, we can establish a baseline, then we’re going to figure out where that problem is coming from.
So there are multiple things that can be wrong. We all know that an inner ear problem could cause vertigo or dizziness, and sometimes that is the case. If that’s the case, we send you to physical therapy. And usually there’s something called the Epley maneuver that can clean that up. The brain takes in information from the ear, and it takes in information from the eyes too. So let’s say you wear glasses, if you switch those out, and you have the wrong prescription or sometimes even just a new prescription, immediately, you might start feeling a little bit swimmy.
But one of the things that can cause problems with the vestibular system, and is often missed when we have a problem with the upper neck area. Earlier we talked about those receptors, right, the ones that let you know that your arm is pointing out from the body when you hold it out. Well the upper cervical part of the neck—the top two bones in the neck—determine whether your head, and thus your brain, is sitting level on your spine. If they’re aligned, and your brain is sitting level, everything is kind of synced up properly. So those top two bones have about 80% of those receptors in them, because they have so much to do with head tilt.
So lets say something happens, like a car accident, or a slip and fall, or maybe it’s something you don’t even really notice that much, like you tripped but caught yourself. But maybe the incident made those bones get misaligned a little bit, now we’re going to get some head tilt. So if your head is stuck over here to the right, or over here to the left, whatever it may be, the brain begins to recognize that as straight. And you’re going to start having a problem with feeling vertigo or dizziness. It’s going to be just like wearing the bad glasses or having that inner-ear problem. Suddenly, it’s going to take some time for the information in your brain and the vestibular system to get caught up, and to figure out where you are in space, because you’ve got the wrong input going through the brainstem, which is really the core part of that vestibular system. All the information that we get from our eyes or ears which tells our brain where our body is, all comes into the brain through the brainstem.
So if those bones are misaligned, I’m going to get some head tilt which puts some pressure on that brainstem, which is going to break down the communication system between the body and the brain. The result is, if my brain is getting bad input about balance and where the alignment of my body is, it’s going to give bad output as well. And suddenly, now I’m going to have problems with feeling dizzy.
So that’s the biggest thing that we look for here at Upper Cervical Health Centers of Fort Myers. We’re going to start by testing your balance, and we’re going to get a baseline, and then we’re going to find out if it is coming from a problem in the neck. If it is, obviously we’re going to figure out how to correct the alignment of the neck. And then there’s some other therapies, some eye therapies, and some home exercises we can offer you that have provided tremendous results with other patients, and then we’ll test it again the next time you come in. At that time we’ll find our post baseline. It’s a condition I see a ton of, and we have really had incredibly successful results with. So if that’s something you’ve been dealing with, come in and we’ll take a look. It’s a no-charge consultation. We can do some testing, and we can figure out if that’s where the issue is coming from. We also have a form we can e-mail you that has a few questions about your vertigo, dizziness or balance issues. You can e-mail that back, and we’ll take a look at it for free. We can see if we think that you might be a good candidate for this kind of care.
Dr. Lee Angle
“I enjoy the fact that I can help others feel better or be at their best thru upper cervical care.” — Dr. Lee Angle
Dr. Lee Angle is originally from southern West Virginia. After having his life changed through Upper Cervical Care he chose to pursue it as a career. He is an alumnus of Virginia Tech, and later completed his Chiropractic education at Sherman College of Chiropractic in Spartanburg, SC . He has been practicing Upper Cervical Chiropractic for over nine years. Dr. Angle previously worked as a certified personal trainer. This background allows him to educate his patients on proper movement and exercises to speed their recovery and enhance their Upper Cervical Care. In his free time, Dr. Angle likes to exercise and spend time with his loving family.
12651 McGregor Blvd Ste 102 Fort Myers, FL 33919
Phone 239.243.8810 • Fax 239.243.8804
https://uppercervicalfortmyers.com/
Email uchcfortmyers@gmail.com
