Do you used to love the feeling the wind on your skin and seeing the vibrant colors of the scenery around you while you’re on your motorbike? Do you miss the adrenaline rush when you twist your wrist to speed up? Are you dying to get back on the road but feel anxious that your spinning sensations will get you into a serious accident?
Some motorbike riders fall victim to vertigo-causing disorders because of the numerous head and neck trauma sustained during their trips. Other causes of vertigo while on the road, like the sun's intense heat and dehydration, can also contribute to vestibular issues.
Sadly, many motorbike riders prone to spinning sensations stay off the road until they find a reliable and long-term source of vertigo relief.
Are you stuck in the same - if not worst - predicament? Do you want to put an end to your vertigo episodes while riding so you can finally enjoy adrenaline-pumping travels? Read on to learn what causes vertigo and what tips you can use to regain your sense of balance.
Vertigo affects the inner ear, causing you to lose your balance, feel dizzy or disoriented, and struggle to walk or stand upright without assistance. It can also affect your depth perception, making it difficult to judge distance. This can lead to accidents while driving because you may not realize how close you are getting to other vehicles on the road while attempting turns or switching lanes. In addition, vertigo can make it hard for motorcyclists like you to judge speed and acceleration, confusing you to think you’re traveling at a slower pace than you actually are when passing cars on their left side (or vice versa). Finally, inner ear organs failing to adjust each time you change your speed and direction can also cause you to lose your balance.
A popular but false belief among many is that vertigo is the same as dizziness. Unlike dizziness, instead of simply causing you to lose your balance, vertigo can trigger other issues like uncontrolled eye movements, vomiting, and nausea. Some folks note that their vertigo episodes also come with other debilitating symptoms like ear congestion, trouble speaking, sweating, and temporary hearing loss.
Doctors generally describe vertigo attacks into two separate classifications based on the sensation felt by a patient. These classifications are as follows:
Besides classifying vertigo according to what symptoms manifest in a patient, doctors further classify an attack based on the potential root cause. For example, if your attacks seem to originate from an abnormality of the vestibular system, you likely have a peripheral type of vertigo. On the other hand, if the problem arises from a central nervous system malfunction, you might have the central vertigo type.
Getting diagnosed by a physician or your neurologist is the best way to understand your vertigo attacks a bit more. This way, you can determine if the additional symptoms you experience connect with your existing vertigo symptoms. It also helps you resolve the leading cause of your problem and find long-term and sustainable relief options. Find out more about the link between conditions like Meniere’s, BPPV, ear infection, whiplash, and vertigo as you read on.
While this vestibular condition only affects about 0.2% of the population, tens of thousands of cases are diagnosed each year in the US alone. Why is Meniere’s on the rise? Some believe it is related to undiagnosed whiplash and other head and neck trauma. Regardless of the initial cause, Meniere’s disease is known for presenting with serious vertigo bouts that last anywhere from 20 minutes to 24 hours. The good news is that vertigo seems to happen less frequently as the condition advances. The bad news is that hearing loss and other symptoms like tinnitus (ringing in the ears) seem to increase. In fact, while this condition is usually only experienced in one ear, patients who don’t seek care can sometimes find that it starts up in the other ear as well.
The labyrinth is one of the tiny bones tucked inside your inner ears. Sometimes, it can get infected with bacteria. When this happens, your labyrinth fails to perform its function – which is to send signals to your brain about your head’s movement or orientation. Patients diagnosed with labyrinthitis mainly report symptoms like vertigo episodes, hearing loss, vomiting, and nausea. The symptoms tend to go away on their own once the infection subsides.
Besides the labyrinth, the vestibular nerve is also at risk of getting infected by bacteria or viruses. If it gets inflamed, it fails to transmit signals on balance and motion to your brain. This messes up the flow of information, convincing you that you are in motion, even when you’re not. Similar to labyrinthitis, the symptoms go away only after you recover from the condition.
Did you know that about 107 out of 100,000 individuals have BPPV? Usually shortened either to BPPV of positional vertigo, this refers to vertigo which is related to movements of the head. An underlying issue may involve calcium crystals called canaliths that are located in the inner ear. While vertigo may only last a few seconds after the wrong head movement, at other times it may last for minutes.
The main issue is that you may not be able to prevent the particular head movements that lead to vertigo and falls can result if vertigo strikes suddenly or when you are already off balance. For example, many elderly persons find that positional vertigo is triggered by bending over, making picking something up off the floor a potentially deadly activity.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society reported that about 1 million Americans above 18 years old have multiple sclerosis (MS). It often triggers a variety of symptoms which include vertigo attacks and dizziness. Studies explain that lesions or damages to the spinal column serve as the link between vertigo and MS symptoms.
Whiplash injuries are quite common in the country. According to the latest statistics, about 3 million Americans get diagnosed with a whiplash injury every year. Unfortunately, most patients who suffered from a whiplash injury report vertigo as one of their main symptoms. Studies explain that whiplash and vertigo tend to go hand in hand because the neck bones shift and press onto the nerves or the brainstem. This disrupts signal transmission and confuses the brain.
This is actually a much more common vertigo cause than it gets credit for. Thirty-nine million Americans get migraines. Estimates are that somewhere between 30-40% of those patients have vertigo as a symptom. Remember that you don’t have to get headaches to experience a migraine. Other common symptoms include aura, nausea, sensory sensitivities, and neck pain.
Vertigo is one of the top symptoms following a head injury. It may originate from the central nervous system. Another possibility is that the ear was affected by the injury, either by the impact or swelling resulting from the impact. When a person experiences whiplash with a head trauma, there is also a high probability that the upper vertebrae of the spine have been affected. The vertebrae may be putting pressure on the spinal cord and brainstem, hindering proper communication between the body’s systems that are essential for balance.
This happens when a patient’s vestibular function decreases in both ears. It is in a category of its own since most vestibular conditions only affect one ear. Vestibular problems with both ears can result in vertigo, balance issues, and even vision problems when the head is moving. These problems are noticeably worse in low-light situations since the body cannot use visual input to help with balance.
Most of the time, doctors do not make the connection between neck pain and vertigo. Vertigo patients often complain of neck pain as well. Existence of neck pain and dizziness are cervicogenic dizziness. This is when vertigo or other vestibular problems resulted from issues of the neck, like an upper cervical misalignment. A misalignment like this can be the underlying cause of many vertigo conditions (like BPPV and Meniere’s disease).
Seizures may occur along with migraines, in which case migraines are the more likely cause of vertigo. However, there is a rare condition called epileptic vertigo that results from temporal lobe damage.
Many of the health conditions and symptoms linked to vertigo can all go back to the same thing – an upper cervical misalignment. How can this be? Consider the effects of a subluxation in the top two bones of the neck.
If you are concerned with your safety each time you travel on your motorbike because of vertigo sensations, you can try to practice the following tips:
Upper cervical chiropractic care is a safe vertigo relief option for motorbike riders like you. This approach focuses on correcting postural imbalances that likely developed from whiplash, concussions, and traumatic brain injuries. Such events can hurt the neck and cause the connective tissues to tear and fail to hold the atlas and axis bones in place.
As you might know, the atlas and axis bones sit directly under your head. When they slip out of place, your head will tilt sideways, putting pressure on the nerves, muscles, and other tissues along your neck, shoulders, and upper back.
In the long run, the rest of your spine will twist to keep your head upright. This compromises your posture and increases your risk for health problems like chronic vertigo attacks. Thankfully, you can help your body cope with all the abovementioned issues with upper cervical chiropractic adjustments. Upper cervical care helps restore the balance in your spinal column with gentle adjustments to the atlas and axis bones. Gradually, your topmost bones will return to their original alignment so you can remove the pressure on your brainstem, spinal cord, and brain.
Find out if you have cervical spine misalignments so you can receive atlas bone adjustments and take back the life vertigo stole from you. It’s about time you get back on your motorbike and go on exciting adventures without worrying about constant bouts of vertigo and dizziness. Use our Find-a-Doctor tool to locate the nearest upper cervical chiropractic office in your neighborhood.
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The content and materials provided in this web site are for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended to supplement or comprise a medical diagnosis or other professional opinion, or to be used in lieu of a consultation with a physician or competent health care professional for medical diagnosis and/or treatment. All content and materials including research papers, case studies and testimonials summarizing patients' responses to care are intended for educational purposes only and do not imply a guarantee of benefit. Individual results may vary, depending upon several factors including age of the patient, severity of the condition, severity of the spinal injury, and duration of time the condition has been present.
