Cervical vertigo and how to treat it?

  When it comes to vertigo, many people think of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, high blood viscosity and other medical diseases, but they do not know that these are the main causes of vertigo in clinical practice. Foreign clinical data show that about 40% of all dizziness patients are related to the cervical spine, and cervical vertigo is second only to Meniere’s syndrome in the proportion of the whole dizziness patients.  The main mechanism of cervical vertigo is believed to be insufficient blood supply to the vertebral basilar artery and cervical sympathetic nerve hyperfunction. Due to the compression of vertebral artery directly or indirectly by internal and external factors such as osteophytes, misalignment, spasm and abnormality of cervical muscles, or stimulation of sympathetic nerves around it, it causes constriction of vertebral artery and narrowing of its lumen, resulting in insufficient blood supply, and eventually affects vestibular vagus ischemia, resulting in vertigo symptoms. Among the clinical manifestations of cervical vertigo, vertigo is the most prominent symptom, with a sense of rotation, disorientation, dizziness, etc. It mostly occurs when the head and neck position is changed, such as turning back and turning the neck, getting up and lying down, stretching and flexing the neck, etc. The attack time may be instantaneous and last for a few seconds, or even up to a day or even several days, and the symptoms are mostly vertigo, headache, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, chest tightness, panic, abnormal sweating and other symptoms. Most people also have neck stiffness and restricted movement. In addition, it is often accompanied by tinnitus, hearing loss, nasal congestion, sore throat, foreign body sensation in the throat, change of voice, blurred vision, etc. During physical examination, most patients can find extremely sensitive pressure points in the back of the occiput and shoulder. The auxiliary diagnosis of cervical vertigo mainly includes X-ray, C T, MRI, cerebral hemogram, cervical cranial Doppler ultrasound, blood rheology examination and so on. The key to diagnosis is to exclude other causes of vertigo, especially cerebrovascular lesions and otogenic and ophthalmogenic vertigo, and if necessary, to ask relevant specialists to assist in the diagnosis.  Clinically, Chinese medicine combined with physiotherapy has good therapeutic effect on this disease. For example, traction, cerebral circulation therapy with acupuncture, acupuncture knife, manipulation, potion injection, oral and external use of Chinese medicine, etc.. The main mechanism is to adjust the anatomical and biomechanical relationship of the cervical spine, relax the soft tissues of the neck, especially the suboccipital triangle, which is most vulnerable to compression and stimulation during the travel of the vertebral artery, so as to reduce or eliminate the direct or indirect compression and stimulation of the vertebral artery by various factors caused by the lesion, and improve the blood supply of the vestibular labyrinth, which can often have an immediate effect. Chinese medicine combined with physical therapy, the method is simple and safe, the effect is rapid and stable, most patients can obtain significant results in 3-5 treatments. Of course, after treatment to maintain good living and working habits, for the consolidation of the effect also has a very important role.