Dizziness and neck pain are not ideal for anyone, but if you have them both thats a double whammy. Have you thought about them being related? You get dizziness at the same time or soon after neck pain or decreased neck range of motion.
How to diagnose cervicogenic dizziness?
With a diagnosis of cervicogenic dizziness (meaning dizziness related to the neck), there has to be BOTH neck pain and dizziness. It can be combined with a headache at the back of the head as well. However, there is no one test that will confirm or deny the diagnosis which can make it elusive to treat initially.
What causes dizziness?
There are many other causes of dizziness and a detailed medical history will help identify the true nature of the dizziness:
- Heart condition
- Medication
- Stroke
- Vestibular (inner ear)
Treating cervicogenic dizziness
Some patients with cervicogenic dizziness requires both a cervical and a vestibular approach. Vestibular pertains to the inner ear. These exercises can include challenging your balance, eye movement, and graded (slow) exposure to environment and neck movements that make you dizzy.
Additionally, your therapist will help address any myofascial tension in the neck. Manual therapy helps to calm down the nervous system that then reduces the neck pain and improve range of motion. They have a variety of different manual therapy techniques at their disposal.
Why did this happen?
The etiology isn't completely clear but the current working theory is that the sensory nerves that come from the neck become disturbed. Which results in a miscommunication between cervical, visual and vestibular inputs. There wasn't anything you did wrong, or intentionally did that could have caused this.
Physical therapy for cervicogenic dizziness in Columbia and Baltimore, Maryland
If you have neck pain and dizziness reach out to our office today!
