There are many different health problems that can cause vertigo. This explains why it is a familiar symptom in our modern world. Even though many people will never find out the underlying cause of their vertigo, most people will get a diagnosis. That is because doctors like to say it is positional vertigo if they can’t identify another reason. About half of people who get diagnosed with positional vertigo don’t really know the root problem. 

Today, we are going to look at a number of vertigo conditions and their accompanying symptoms. Then we will conclude by explaining how hundreds of patients have received natural help for vertigo in case studies. 

Varying Diagnoses for Vertigo 

When a person goes to the doctor for vertigo, there are many possible reasons. Here are a few things that you may end up diagnosed with if vertigo is your main symptom.

#1 Positional Vertigo 

We mentioned this in our intro, but it is the most common diagnosis for vertigo patients. The reason is that it ends up being a catchall when doctors are unsure of the underlying cause. In some cases, a calcium crystal may have gotten loose in the inner ear. When this happens, changes in head position will cause vertigo. However, if this is not the case for you, then you probably received the diagnosis out of a lack of information to provide a better one. 

#2 Meniere’s Disease 

This may not be a common syndrome, but it is one of the more identifiable conditions that cause vertigo. First of all, the vertigo associated with Meniere’s is severe. While seconds or minutes of vertigo will get you a positional vertigo diagnosis, vertigo associated with Meniere’s can last all day. Bouts are usually at least 20 minutes in length. Additional symptoms include tinnitus (ringing in the ears), a feeling of fullness in the ear, and partial hearing loss that grows greater as the condition progresses. 

#3 Vestibular Neuritis and Labyrinthitis 

Don’t let the fact that we are considering these two conditions together feed into the false idea that they are the same. It is just convenient to discuss them at once because they have a lot in common. For example, both result in vertigo due to inflammation (which is why both conditions end in -itis). They also both occur following some sort of virus, like the flu or a bad cold. Also, both conditions will clear up within a couple of weeks following your illness. So what is the difference?

The difference between vestibular neuritis and labyrinthitis is the location of the inflammation. Vestibular neuritis is inflammation of the eighth cranial nerve (also called the vestibular nerve) that brings information from the ear to the brain. Labyrinthitis is inflammation of the labyrinth, the maze-like series of canals in the inner ear. Both conditions cause vertigo, but neither is very severe. Remember to sit down when you blow your nose toward the end of a cold or flu, just in case vertigo occurs suddenly. 

#4 Mal de Debarquement 

If you know any French, then you may already have an idea of what this condition involves. The main idea is that vertigo occurs following the end of some kind of journey – after you disembark. Of course, it doesn’t have to be anything so grand. If you close your eyes and spin in a circle as fast as possible (like you probably did all the time as a kid), you will still feel the spinning for a  few moments after you stop and open your eyes. 

Examples that you may experience as an adult include a feeling of swaying after a long time on a boat or a continued sensation of movement after getting off a rollercoaster. While this feeling should go away within a few minutes of the end of the motion, sometimes it hangs on for hours, days, or (in sporadic cases) even longer. 

Finding Natural Help for Your Vertigo 

One of the things that we see many vertigo patients share in common is a history of injury to either the head or the neck. While this may seem like a coincidence at first, upper cervical chiropractors don’t believe that it is. Instead, these may be the very injuries that caused upper cervical misalignments that have now led to vertigo. Here are a couple of ways this could happen.

• Central nervous system effects – When the top bones of the neck are misaligned, this can impact brainstem function and inhibit blood flow to the brain. These and other factors can contribute to the central nervous system misinterpreting signals received from the ears and other components of the body that control balance. 
• Ear function impacts – Upper cervical misalignments also affect the surrounding soft tissue as the body responds to maintain proper balance of the head. When this occurs, the structures of the ear may be inhibited. For example, the eustachian tubes may gradually be affected so that they no longer appropriately drain excess fluid away from the ears. This, in turn, can lead to vertigo. 

If you are experiencing chronic bouts of vertigo, especially if you have a history of head or neck trauma, it makes sense to give upper cervical specific chiropractic a try. To learn if this is the natural way to get help for your vertigo, contact a practitioner near you and schedule a no-obligation consultation now.

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