The vestibular system consists of parts of the inner ear and brain. These parts help control balance and eye movements. When the vestibular system is damaged, vestibular disorder can occur. The natural process of aging can damage your vestibular system as well as an injury or disease.

For adults 40 years of age or older, it is estimated that 35% have experienced some type of vestibular dysfunction.

What is the most common vestibular disorder symptom?

The most common symptom of vestibular disorder is dizziness and having trouble with balance. Other than these symptoms, those who have vestibular disorder could experience the following:

Vertigo and dizziness – Vertigo is a sensation of the environment spinning around you or the sense of you moving while you are standing still. Vertigo can also make one feel they are being pulled in one direction. Dizziness is the feeling of lightheadedness, floating, or rocking.

Vision disturbance – This vestibular disorder symptom can cause the person to have trouble focusing or tracking objects with the eyes. Busy visual environments like stores, concerts, patterns, and traffic may cause discomfort. The person may develop a sensitivity to lights or glares and experience increased night blindness – making it difficult for them to walk in the dark. Along with this, having vision disturbance as a vestibular disorder symptom can result in the person experiencing poor depth perception.

Changes in hearing – Changes in hearing as a vestibular disorder symptom includes hearing loss, tinnitus, and sensitivity to loud noises or environments.

Imbalance and spatial disorientation – When it comes to this vestibular disorder symptom, a person may have trouble walking straight or while turning. When your body is imbalanced, it can cause muscle and joint pain as well. In addition, they may have difficulty in maintaining proper posture and the head could tilt to the side

Because of spatial disorientation, the person tends to look down to confirm the ground’s location or feel the need to hold onto something when standing or seating. This symptom can cause the person to develop a sensitivity to changes in walking surfaces or footwear.

Cognitive changes – Some cognitive changes reported as a vestibular disorder symptom include forgetfulness, confusion, difficulty paying attention or concentrating, trouble understanding conversations, trouble comprehending directions or instructions, mental fatigue, and short-term memory lapses.

Psychological changes – Psychological changes include a drop in self-esteem or confidence, depression, anxiety, panic, loss of self-reliance, and social isolation.

How does Vestibular Disorder Affect my Health?

Vestibular disorder can affect your health in many ways, mentally and physically. Those who have vestibular disorders could be seen as being easily distracted, overly anxious, attention seeking, or lazy. However, the symptoms that come with having a vestibular disorder causes changes in how you act and do things on a daily basis.

Over time, these negative changes can take a toll on your mental and physical health.

Since the vestibular system is a link between the brain and the inner ear that helps with balance, injury to your vestibular system disrupts the balance and can cause nausea, motion sickness, headaches, or feeling of being seasick.

Difference Between Vestibular Disorder and Closed Ear

A closed ear is when your ears become clogged from an ear infection or eustachian tube dysfunction. During an eustachian tube dysfunction, the mucosal lining of the tube could be swollen or does not properly open or close. With a vestibular disorder, however, this is caused by damage to the vestibular system and affects your balance.

Can Vestibular Disorder be Treated by a Neck Adjustment?

It is recommended that a neck adjustment be done by a professional who studies the upper cervical spine (neck area). A professional who studies the upper cervical spine will know more about how the health of the neck area can affect the rest of the body and cause many issues and conditions down the line if left untreated.

Believe it or not, getting a proper chiropractic neck adjustment can do wonders for those experiencing vestibular disorder.

Can Chiropractic Offer Vestibular Disorder Treatment?

Chiropractic neck adjustments are known to help improve patients’ conditions on many types of disorders, including vestibular disorder. This is because the upper cervical spine (the top two bones located beneath the base of the skull in the neck area) oversee in protecting the brain stem – the most powerful part of our body.

The brain stem controls our normal bodily functions and sends brain to body signals to help heal and repair injuries and sickness. If a misalignment occurs, where any of the top two bones fall out of place, they can press against the brain stem causing it to not function properly.

When this happens, many negative changes begin to take place within the body as signals now become distorted and the body does not respond properly or sometimes does not respond at all.

Disorders that involve issues with balance, hearing, and vision are often improved after chiropractic neck adjustments.

Best Chiropractic Technique for Vestibular Disorder

The best chiropractic technique for vestibular disorder is referred to as upper cervical adjustments. These adjustments are focused on the neck area and are gentle, precise motions that take pressure off your brain stem as the bones are moved back into place.

Because proper brain to body communication is restored after releasing pressure placed onto the brain stem, the body begins to repair and heal itself immediately and will continue to do so as long as the correct adjustment holds.

Those with vestibular disorder have seen great improvement after as little as one upper cervical adjustment.

The goal of the upper cervical chiropractor is to continue to adjust the upper cervical area of your spine until the body repairs the soft tissue surrounding the bones to become strong enough to hold it in place.

This helps regulate the blood flow that could cause headaches and vertigo, and helps pain caused by tight muscles or torn ligaments. Upper cervical adjustments have also help parts of the inner ear move back into proper place. When the brain stem enables your system to return communicating and functioning normally, the body changes itself significantly to repair itself back to health as best as it can.

Chiropractic Vestibular Disorder Practitioner Near Me

If you have vestibular disorder and are looking for an all-natural, safe alternative that can target the cause of the issue rather than only focusing on the symptoms, upper cervical adjustments should not be overlooked.

The brain stem is very powerful and having a healthy brain stem is important. Any harm placed on the brain stem can cause many multiple complications that will worsen over time if left untreated, including the development of vestibular disorder.

We can determine if you have a misalignment, the severity of the misalignment, and how it is affecting your body and treat it appropriately. Patients who have undergone treatments of medication and surgery have still reported great improvements with upper cervical adjustments as no medication or surgery helps the brain stem or body return to its natural function.