.png)
Dizziness and Vertigo
WARNING: Long a complicated post following. You’re going to need 10 minutes but well worth your time.
This is a super common problem for people as they get into their 60s and older. I’d love to tell you it’s always simple, you know, the top bone in your neck. But, it’s not always the case.
Here’s the mechanism(s): The cause is one of a few things. Nervous system, blood pressure or “stones” in inner ear.
I’m going to take the easy ones first. Nervous system and “stones”. The way your balance works is, on each side of your head in the bone that also houses your hearing nerves, you have 3 loops of fluid inside the bone and a boney sac at the bottom. The loops are organized in different planes so whenever you move your head in any plane or directly, the fluid inside the loops will move and there’s little nerve “hair” like projections into the loops that sense the fluid movement and communicate that to the back of your brain via the vestibular nerve. The messages arrive at the cerebellum in the back of your brain, which sends messages down your spinal cord to move your feet underneath you so you don’t fall over. You don’t have to think about it because it is a reflex.
You basically have 6 motion sensors in your head that tell your balance and coordination center of your brain, where your head is moving and to get underneath it so you don’t fall. All of it happens magically without any thought when it’s working properly. When it’s not, it is very distressing for those suffering. Here’s the possible problems.
First, let’s talk about the “ear rocks” or otoconia, technically. The concept is, as you age, you may develop small precipitates in the tubes and that may block the flow of fluid in those loops. That’s not going to send the correct “where is my head?” information to the cerebellum, so you get dizzy and feel like your head is spinning when it’s not. There’s a procedure that uses gravity to ideally get those little stones out of the loops and down into the sac at the bottom again. You can look it up on youtube. It’s called the Epley Maneuver. You can do it at home on your bed. Sometimes it’s immediately successful. And, it’s free to try and won’t make any of the other causes worse. Other than, a bit nauseous while doing it.
Next, is the spinal subluxation cause. That means a bone in your neck out of alignment causing nerve interference between the vestibular nerve and the cerebellum or the cerebellum and your feet. This is the mostly likely cause for younger sufferers. The older you are at first onset, the more likely it is still the cause, too. Older initial onset is about 50/50 whether it’s the spine or “ear rocks”. The procedure to correct this cause requires an x-ray of the spine, in a chiropractic office. Because they are done standing or seated, never lying down. Once that’s evaluated, setting about restoring normal structure usually results in reduction or elimination of dizziness and vertigo.
Lastly, is the giant vast universe of drug induced problems that cause vertigo and dizziness. The mechanisms are most often blood pressure related and caused by antihypertensive medications. As you age, your connective tissues lose elasticity. You can see it as wrinkles in your skin. It’s no longer as “springy”. It doesn’t spring back as quickly when you pinch or pull it. Well, it’s not just your skin. Your blood vessels are essentially the same tissue type and they lose elasticity as well. So, as you age, your blood pressure needs to increase a bit to compensate for this. The aorta, the largest vessel coming off the top of your heart, distends like a bagpipe when the ventricle contracts and pushes blood out. The aorta then pushes it down the vessels at a more constant rate then the large pulse from the heart, just like bagpipes keep the air going so there’s no break in the Irish song, Danny Boy.
When we get older, the aorta and indeed all our vessels, don’t contract as quickly they lose some of that, so pulse gets harder and when you stand up, gravity pulls the blood down to your feet and what normally took a second or so for your vessels in your legs to contract, now takes quite a few seconds. So, on rising in the morning, you must sit up, get your bearings, stand, get your bearings again, THEN walk.
If you add to the loss of elasticity, some anti-hypertensives, to purposely relax the vessels and purposely decrease the pulse pressure from the heart, well, that’s going to result in less blood to your head. Frequently expressing as balance problems. But, recognize that your thought process will be slowed as well. Causing memory and cognition problems.
We didn’t even talk about restricting salt in the diet and what that does. In general, you need higher blood pressure as you age because of the loss of elasticity in the vessels. This keeps you from falling down. If you restrict salt, you may end up with not quite enough fluid volume to fill all the space that your blood vessels will hold.
This can also happen from dehydration or systemic infection, and UTIs that don’t hurt are common in elderly, particularly those with diabetes, and can result in balance problems as well.
All of this wouldn’t be complete without the additional information that a sudden onset of this with no previous history can be immediately life threatening if the cause is an occlusive or hemorrhagic stroke, or blockage of artery by a blood clot.
This is extremely more common now that we have spike proteins in our bloodstreams that are doing this. You’ve all seen the videos of people falling over on the news or at the podium. You’ve never seen that before 2021. It’s not always just a bone out of place or “ear rocks” anymore. We have a whole new landscape of cause.
I hope you are wiser now for having read all this. Thanks for reading. :-)
Vibrant Life Center
651-777-3611
Comments