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Vertigo

Autoimmune Diseases | Last Active: Aug 10 3:40pm | Replies (55)

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@jenniferhunter

@archarch @angels4everyone Yes, you are correct. Cervical spine problems can cause vertigo. I am a Mayo spine surgery patient and before my surgery, I had some episodes of vertigo that were touched off by the position of my head. I looked up at birds flying overhead, and became extremely dizzy and when I leveled my head, it didn't stop. My physical therapist was able to resolve it for me. It was happening because of muscle spasms (from the spine problem) that were pulling my cervical vertebrae out of alignment. It was twisting and tilting C1 & C2 causing vertigo and nausea. When I looked up with my neck in that alignment, it caused vertigo. By realigning everything again, it went away. I worked with my physical therapist a lot before my surgery to try to maintain a normal lordotic curve as best I could and we kept working on the spasms that cropped up. I also have thoracic outlet syndrome which makes one side of my neck tighter than the other which pulls harder on all the cervical vertebrae on one side of my neck. Your skull can be skewed as it sits on top of the spine or it can be jammed into the spine by muscle spasms affecting alignment (like looking upward). I'm working on that in PT and I'm 2 years past my spine surgery and there has been no more vertigo since then. A heat wrap (relaxes muscles) or topical arnica jel (pain relief and relaxes muscles) on your neck can help. I recommend working with a physical therapist. they will need to know if there is any instability before they work on you, so if you have not have imaging, that is a first step. If you haven't seen a spine specialist, I would recommend it. You might be OK with physical therapy which they could write a script for. If you do end up headed for spine surgery, always get several opinions so you can make informed choices. I came to Mayo when 5 spine surgeons missed connecting my symptoms with the diagnosis and I am glad I did. It makes me wish I had started here instead of wasting 2 years looking for help from surgeons who refused to help me. Mayo doctors get things figured out quickly because it's a team approach, and I had an offer for surgical help in 2 days after coming to Mayo. I had a great recovery and I don't have any spine related pain.

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Replies to "@archarch @angels4everyone Yes, you are correct. Cervical spine problems can cause vertigo. I am a Mayo..."

Thanks @jenniferhunter--great information all around. I'm self-diagnosed at this point, but this describes my experience exactly. Cheers!

Who was the Dr at Mayo that was able to help you? I am habing neck instabliikty even with PT, dry needling, muscle relaxers (to loosen my traps and not pull on my neck), chiro, you name it.

I'm at my wits end here

Thx

Thank you soooo much for your reply.

My c1 also pulls to the left, and all my muscles are knotted up as well on the left. It hurts to lift my arm, hurts to carry a purse on that shoulder and lifting it gets extremely tiresome. I haven't been evaluated for TOS yet.

Thank you for the recommendation. I will try and request an appt.

I actually have to go through Mayo, as I work at mayo as a medical assistant, so anything out of network would be more expensive.

I also have a connective tissue disorder, which more than likely is Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos. Again, finding a Dr comfortable to diagnose is also proving to be difficult.