Chiropractic and Balance Disorders

Vertigo and balance disorders affects thousands of people in this country, and are characterized by an inability to perceive balance or motion correctly in relation to the environment in which you are situated. Feelings of vertigo or imbalance can occur once or twice in a lifetime or on a chronic basis, but in either case, the underlying causes should be immediately looked into as it could be signature of something much more serious. While chronic balance disorders refer to an inability for the brain to read signals from your senses, vertigo refers to this same brain miscommunication but in relation to motion. The person experiencing a balance concern could just not feel steady or may feel dizzy, while the person experiencing vertigo would feel like either they or their surroundings were moving when in reality, they were not. We have included these two here together as they have the same nature, symptoms, causes, and treatment.
Symptoms of these conditions-though in contrast according to balance and motion-are very similar and include: hearing loss, sweating, nausea, vomiting, difficulty speaking, sight problems, ringing in the ears, problems walking, weakness, and unusual eye movements. All of these symptoms vary in intensity, occurrence, and amount of time experienced; but any combination of the above symptoms should be investigated as either vertigo and imbalance issues on their own or more potentially serious diseases and conditions.
What causes this feeling of imbalance or vertigo? There are a variety of issues that could be causing the symptoms associated with a particular patient’s vertigo or imbalance. The most prevalent cause is problems with the inner ear. Labyrinthitis is what this is called, and it can easily lead to vertigo or imbalance if not treated, accompanied by hearing loss. Another common cause of these imbalance disorders are the occurrence of some sort of head or brain trauma experienced recently or in the past. This interferes with how the senses and brain communicate, thus producing an effect of imbalance in the body. Moreover, those experiencing vertigo or balance concerns have been linked to chronic migraines. Lastly, if none of these apply to your particular vertigo or balance condition, these symptoms could be evocative of something more serious, such as: Meniere disease, cerebellar hemorrhage, multiple sclerosis, or acoustic neuroma.
What is the cure? While the world of standard medicine has no real cure for vertigo or balance disorders, they try to treat the condition according to what might be causing it. Sometimes this is effective, while other times the vertigo or imbalance comes back after a brief reprieve. Moreover, medication is typically associated with treating vertigo to the same inconclusive effect.
Because there is no conclusive cure for these imbalance disorders, many people decide to try alternative therapies to not just placate their imbalance disorder but to fix it. One of the most popular means of doing so has been through chiropractic treatment. Chiropractors address the imbalance symptoms with spinal alignments and manipulation, diet, supplementation, and exercise combined with new lifestyle changes to avoid the occurrence of these symptoms in the future.