Vertigo and balance issues can be related to many conditions, more serious conditions can be associated with chest pain (cardiovascular) or neurological symptom’s like numbness, weakness or palsy (TIA, stroke, tumor). Vertigo can also be associated with anxiety, insulin injection, drug side effects, rapid head movement (BPPV), hearing loss and tinnitus (Meniere’s) and viral infection.
Vertigo is the perception of movement when none is actually happening. Functional vertigo and balance issues are common and can be the result of whiplash, other trauma or significant dysfunction in the neck and spine. It occurs due to dysfunction in the unconscious control centers in the brain which integrate information. Your brain integrates information from three main sources to establish balance, stability and a sense of where you are in space. These include your eyes, inner ear canals and receptors in the muscles and joints of your whole body- especially the spine. When the information from these three sources is conflicting it creates confusion in the control centers of the brain which is experienced as dizziness, headache, nausea, palpitations, autonomic dysfunction and balance issues. The process is likened to three inputs to a single TV, if the inputs differ the picture becomes unclear and confusing. This confusion in the brain becomes confounded as plastic changes or re-wiring occurs in the circuits of the brain, as the brain attempts to tune out the information that is conflicting.
To effectively treat functional vertigo and balance issues you need to assess and improve the accuracy if inputs into the control centers of the brain and rehabilitate dysfunctional re-wiring patterns the brain has adopted. This is achieved via interventions and brain based exercises that challenge the neck and spine, ocular system and inner ear canals, effectively tuning the three systems and reducing the confusion the brain is perceiving.
