https://cdn.journals.lww.com/spinejournal/Abstract/2017/04150/Mechanoreceptors_in_Diseased_Cervical.4.aspx

I have had a couple of cases of dizziness in the past two weeks. In both cases, they were glad to find out that we were actually open. Both patients have had prior occurrences of the same symptoms that have responded well to chiropractic care, and if you have ever been in the same boat, you can understand why the idea of waiting until May 4th is wholly unappealing.

Dizziness is a broad lay term that actually encompasses a range of symptoms from a sensation that the room is completely spinning (true dizziness/vertigo), to a sensation of being lightheaded, off balance, and/or on shifting ground. The former is unlikely to be fully caused by a cervical spine disorder but the latter may well be.

The cause of dizziness can be difficult to pinpoint. I have several colleagues, much smarter than I am, who say the day is off to a rough start when a patient presents with a primary complaint of dizziness or fatigue. Behind the joke is the reality that some symptoms can really be caused by anything and you have to be a very persistent detective to sift through the options.

The part of the brain that integrates you sense of position in space receives input from a variety of little sensors throughout the body. The biggest contributors are the inner ear, the visual system, the joints of the lower extremity, and the joints of your neck. If one of the sensors does not give off correct information, the brain center that processes all the information will get very confused by the conflicting sensory data and the end result can be this sensation of being “off”: lightheaded, dizzy, nauseated, or off balance.

The research paper in question was quite interesting in that it pointed out that the mechanism by which the neck can be a cause of dizziness, in particular in cervical spines with degeneration from trauma, age, or a combination of both. The degeneration can lead to an increase of position sensors in the neck (a protective mechanism of the body to give you early signal of a problem in a previously injured area so you stop injuring it further), and this can create a sensory storm to your brain centers if you add even the slightest bit of misalignment and mal-position of the cervical spine to top it off. Chiropractors have discovered that phenomenon by trial and error many decades ago, long before this research paper, when patients reported a decrease in their dizziness after a cervical spine adjustment. Since dizziness diagnosis is usually a diagnosis of exclusion, a chiropractic evaluation when other causes have been ruled out seems a logical choice.