Vertigo: Take Two

The Alfred Hitchcock movie, “Vertigo,” is a classic mystery thriller. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), the description given to symptoms such as dizzy spells, sudden loss of balance, and a sense that the world is spinning or dropping away, is not so much of a thrill. Nor is it as much of a mystery as doctors sometimes make it out to be.

Here’s the deal: you’re feeling terrible; your medical doctor makes sure you don’t have serious pathology such as a brain tumor. Your malady is labeled “benign” or “idiopathic.” You may be offered medicine such as Meclizine to help you cope with your symptoms. The thing is, the Meclizine (AKA Antivert) can make you feel like a zombie. Your co-workers don’t take well to working with zombies. But please, don’t despair. Chiropractic care may save you from eternal zombie-hood and clear up your vertigo to boot!

Chiropractors have helped many people with vertigo using simple spinal adjustments. Here’s how: the joints in your upper neck can become jammed, or subluxated, and that can interfere with the nervous system’s ability to regulate your balance.

Here are some examples from my personal practice: 1) A lawn chair breaks, and the man sitting in it falls back and hits his head. He becomes severely dizzy, so he is taken by ambulance to a hospital to rule out bleeding in the head. Once released, his wife brings him to my office, where his upper neck is checked and adjusted, and his dizziness clears up within hours. 2) A woman is reaching for a box on a high shelf in her closet, when the box falls onto her head. Her daughter finds her clinging to a couch, as if she was about to sink like a ship. After two chiropractic adjustments, she is back to normal. 3) A woman is involved in an auto accident, and several days later her entire field of vision tilts 180 degrees while she is driving, and she feels as if the entire car begins to fall into the road, which has disappeared. We adjust her, and after several adjustments, her field of vision returns to normal.

Of course, if you have been out of alignment for years and have been struggling with BPPV, it is going to take more than a few adjustments to overcome your vertigo, but over time you can see great improvement. Now you know: BPPV is not caused by a shortage of Meclizine, and often it can be resolved completely without medicine. Ask your chiropractor!