Cervical vertigo – Is dizziness often related to the cervical spine?

  Cervical vertigo is a common disorder that plagues people’s lives and work, mostly seen in people who work or study with their heads down for long periods of time, use computers, watch TV in bed, and have chronic neck pain. Patients usually experience sudden episodes of vertigo or dizziness, ranging from a few seconds to more than a day. Some patients may feel dizzy and dull in the head, or may experience spinning vision, and in severe cases, they may be unable to stand or walk and cannot be relieved by closing their eyes. In addition, most patients will have neck and shoulder pain (head shaking sensation, feeling that the neck can’t hold up the head), headache, nausea, blurred vision and other symptoms. Iris Hu, Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital The cause of this disease is still the instability of the cervical spine caused by various reasons, which in turn leads to impaired blood supply and sensation in the brain and eventually triggers dizziness symptoms. Since the symptoms are mainly dizziness, most patients will first think of ENT and neurology and cardiology to consult, while a series of examinations, such as neck rotation test, cerebral hemogram and blood pressure test usually have no specific abnormality, so it is easy to miss and misdiagnose. And according to statistics, about 50% of dizziness patients seen in ENT departments are cervical vertigo.  Although the symptoms of cervical vertigo are in the head, the root cause is in the neck. Therefore the key to treatment is to restore the stability of the cervical spine. Through suspension exercise therapy, the deep muscle function of the cervical spine can be well improved and the stability of the cervical spine can be enhanced, thus effectively relieving the symptoms. Usually one treatment has both significant effect and long-term improvement can be obtained through 2-3 weeks of treatment.