What’s Really Causing Your Vertigo?
Episode 100
Are you suffering from vertigo or other imbalance/coordination issues with little to no results from conventional therapies? Join Dr. Nick and Dr. Nicole as they shed light on the potential root causes of your symptoms and the alternative approaches that can be taken to finally provide you relief. Want to learn more about how integrative medicine can transform your life? You can find Integrative Wellness Radio on Podbean, iTunes, and Google Play.
Topics: vertigo, integrative, medicine, spinning, eyes, issues, back, feel
Key takeaways from this episode
- So, we wanted to shed light on some of the other components that can actually be contributing to imbalance issues, coordination issues, or even vertigo type symptoms.
- Because we have the textbook description of vertigo, which is describing this massive disequalibrium that is causing us to feel that we are spinning, that potentially is going to induce vomiting.
- Nicole to learn more about the top trends and integrative medicine.
- And they're not always understanding why because often they're being classified as either a nontraditional vertigo or vertigo and then being told that really the the main component is going to be triggered by the inner ear.
- Um, different aspects of that could be the canals, could be stepes, could be these coclea, different types of um parts of the inner ear.
Pull quotes
The information provided is for educational purposes and is not intended to diagnose or treat any conditions.
To learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey.
I feel like at this point in time there is a massive uprise in how many people are dealing with not really just vertigo but just dis-equilibrium.
Transcript
What's Really Causing Your Vertigo? The information provided is for educational purposes and is not intended to diagnose or treat any conditions. The lifestyle interventions discussed should not be used as a substitute for conventional medical therapy. all night no sleep Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. Dive into integrative wellness radio with Dr. Nick and Dr. Nicole to learn more about the top trends and integrative medicine. To learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey. Sometimes I tend to lose myself. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio. So, I am Dr. Nicole and I am here with my co-host. Dr. Nick. So, we are here talking all about vertigo. I feel like at this point in time there is a massive uprise in how many people are dealing with not really just vertigo but just dis-equilibrium. Meaning, that people feel unkilter, off balance. Um, they're having a lot more issues with coordination. And they're not always understanding why because often they're being classified as either a nontraditional vertigo or vertigo and then being told that really the the main component is going to be triggered by the inner ear. So, there are obviously some people out there that are doing therapies for the inner ear and not necessarily seeing results. So, we wanted to shed light on some of the other components that can actually be contributing to imbalance issues, coordination issues, or even vertigo type symptoms. Mhmm. Nothing for others. I got all the things. Really what it looks at vertigo uh you want to look at the three main things. So, like vertigo, uh blanket it's just balance issues. A lot of times you feel like either you're spinning uh internally or you're spinning externally. Um, which is going to create like Dr. Nicole said, a lot of dis-equilibrium uh type symptoms. But when you look at what's holding our body upright uh so that we have a sense of being stable. Uh it comes from three major components. Uh one of them being the inner ear. Um, different aspects of that could be the canals, could be stepes, could be these coclea, different types of um parts of the inner ear. Uh it could be contributing to that. But then it's also your eyes. Uh your eyes are always wanting to be horizontal. Um, if our head is crooked uh literally our body would uh become crooked to then straighten our eyes of uh apart. And then the last part of it is uh the small brain in back called your cerebellum. Uh, so it's really those three major parts your ears, the cerebellum and the visual center, the eyes uh that make up and contribute to the symptoms of vertigo. Well, going back to what you said as well, to describe vertigo is I think it is important to understand that not everything looks like the textbook. Because we have the textbook description of vertigo, which is describing this massive disequalibrium that is causing us to feel that we are spinning, that potentially is going to induce vomiting. So, there is obviously that extreme and then there are more mild versions of that as well. So, this is not just a blanketed, "Oh, you're you have to be spinning to the capacity of puking in order to say you have vertigo." This could also be that you're spinning only sometimes. Sometimes you're spinning based off of different movements that you do or different strain on your eyes. And it can also have to do with um feeling unkilter. Uh there's a lot of people that are constantly saying that, "I just feel that what my eyes are taking in and what my body is experiencing is different and I don't know how to explain it." It's a very, very common thing that we hear. Right. And this goes back to what you were describing, with the visual system. But circling back to the ear is I want people to understand that there's this blanketed statement, "Oh, you have an inner ear problem. It must be the crystals that have, you know, moved or become compromised." And then it's like, "Okay, that's the end of the story." So, we're going to do some maneuvers in order to put the crystals back in place and everything's going to go away. But the bigger question is, why? What's happening that could disturb the inner ear? And this really comes back to a lot of possibilities, but some of those possibilities can circle back to the neck. The structure of the neck, scar tissue in the neck, from whiplash, car accidents, other types of injuries. It could also be chronic ear infection, Uh it could also be chronic tonsil infections, to the point even that you that you had the tonsils removed because if you had chronic tonsil infections, chances are whatever infection was in there has also now affected the surrounding lymph nodes and maybe even other glands. And the sinuses. And the sinuses, so sinus issues and then also dental issues, dental or oral cavity issues. And, with the oral cavity, this could be, you know, constant bleeding gums, you've had infections from different dental procedures. But this can also be that you get tons of canker sores or cold sores, which is triggered by the herpes simplex virus that could easily get into the ear canal as well. So, if you're working with a practitioner that is not considering all of these different elements, then you are not being looked at properly. You're not being looked at as a whole and you easily are going to be on a merry-go-round of different therapies that are failed. Or, it's you're just giving short-term relief because there may be fixing the alignment issue but the causation of that alignment issue is never really corrected. Exactly. And really, if you have inner ear issues, it is inevitable that you are start going to start having other issues because your ear is connected to your neurological system. It's connected to sinuses, not just your nasal passages but you have sinuses throughout the brain that help with drainage. Um, so there's a lot of different elements that will be it will be a trickle down effect especially if there is an infection that's in the inner ear that is not being addressed. So, do you want to talk about more ways to correct the inner ear or just more possibilities of tests? Well, I definitely want to cover how to correct the inner ear, but before go there is being able to clarify all those elements that you described. So, we have the potential for an inner ear problem but this is not always just based off of crystals that are not in the right place. This could be something that is viral. This could be bacteria. This could be chronic inflammation in the tonsils. This could be sinus issues. This can also be infections in the brain, which is really something that's going to uh apply to all of these other things between the visual system and the cerebellum. But there is a really uh unique test that we look at called neuralzoomer plus. Neuralzoomer plus is something, it's a test by Vibrant America. Uh, I guess Vibrant Wellness technically it's just a uh subset of Vibrant America. But they started uh running this test in order to evaluate the neurological system for autoimmunity, a damaged blood-brain barrier as well as infections that are affecting the brain and neurological system. As well as myelination. Yes. So, we now actually have a test outside of a spinal tap that is giving us insight if there are infections affecting the brain. And, guys, this is not uncommon. That's what the crazy thing is. Is that this is definitely not uncommon. So, when we are talking about even the herpes simplex virus, which is what causes cold sores, is that's the textbook. This causes cold sores. But it can cause cold sores. It can cause canker sores. It can cause sores in your nostrils. It can even cause sores in your gut, which is also known as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. And, in addition, we have actually seen it in many kids in their neurological system, causing them to have ADD, Asperger's, and even autism. Yeah, it's not something you you think about but it's like it's the transmission of HSV1 or even HSV2 is so easy uh to go from, you know, typical HSV1 in the mouth uh to go, you know, into the sinuses or into the brain. You know, it's it's really an easy pathway. Um, but people get freaked out when they think they would have a virus in their brain. Um, but it's honestly a lot more common than one would think. Yeah. Well, it's even too, it's if it's in the mouth and you constantly have bleeding gums, then it's going to get picked up by the blood vessels and that is one of the ways that it travels as well. So, we're not trying to freak everybody out because we know that this stuff is like totally freaky. But this is just really important to understand that maybe this is your unresolved vertigo. But in many cases there are people that are here listening right now that know of a child who is struggling with some type of neurological issue that has not been has not gotten better through conventional methods and they easily could be something infectious affecting the brain that is completely being overlooked. Yeah, 100%. And, you know, physically an easy way um to look at, you know, is vertigo an inner ear or an ear problem, is that how are you falling? Or, how is a person falling? And a lot of times if it's with the ear, they're going to be falling forward or backwards. Uh if it's involving the cerebellum, usually they're falling to the left or to the right. You know, it gets a little more complicated than that but that's kind of the foundational easy uh aspects to see. Yeah, and this is something that you can potentially see that just through the activities of daily living. But if you were to do a proper neurological test uh the specific test is called Rombergs, you would be able to further evaluate which way the person is falling to really decipher, is this more of a brain issue or is this an inner ear issue? And, what Dr. Nick is talking about with the cerebellum, that is the back of the brain. So, the interesting thing is that um a lot of us hear about how the brain talks to the body and we hear how the brain uh like the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. So, that is true because that's what we're talking about with the cortex. But the cerebellum is the opposite. So, the cerebellum is the right controls control the right side of the body. So, you will be um have more balance issues on the right side. So, if you're standing on the right leg, you're more likely to fall over. And vice-versa. So, when we're talking about the cerebellum and how this part of the brain can actually become compromised, is think about how many people hit the back of their head. And how many kids are born with torticollis, which is when their head is cocked to the side. How many kids have to wear a helmet because their skull bones are not misaligned? Yeah, misaligned. Um, or how many people have some type of whiplash from skiing, snowboarding, car accidents and a variety of other injuries that jams their base of their skull called the occiput. All of those things can contribute to the cerebellum being compromised. And this was like historically always what's looked at and what's awesome is that there's tons of actually new information um being um actually published that's showing that all those things directly affect the brain. But, honestly, more often than not, it's the things that we injure that we think have no connection to the brain. So, they just published a couple months ago, uh I think it was an MCL. Either MCL or ACL of the knee. Uh but they showed that the after surgery that the the big thing about our joints of the body is that they produce what's called proprioception. Uh so it's just proprioception's body awareness in space. So, when we injure that, we have poor information going up to the brain and what the uh article that was published on the knee, it showed that it actually changed uh decreased the size of the brain connected to the knee uh because there was less information going up. And they strengthened the knee, so it was 100% just equally as strong as the left but the strength of the knee was there but the actual connection between the knee and the brain was not there. Um and that induced through the quadriceps that was not firing 100% properly. Um so it's like you have to be able to really evaluate the entire neurological connection. Um and that neurological connection going through the chain of muscles that's connecting the brain as all the way down, in this case, to the knee. Uh so it's not just about having that damage to the brain but it's like, you know, have you rolled an ankle and is that ankle not been properly rehabbbed? And if it hasn't, you're continuously compounding that weak information up to the brain and then you do have a slight brain injury and you're just setting yourself up to these huge problems. And this is why, you know, we look at concussions and people don't have problems until 15, 10 years later and nobody's ever connected the dots and it's like, it's because they're just looking at just a concussion, but it's like, what happens if they have a little bit of the viral infection and what happens if they also have that right ankle sprain that's never been worked on? It's like, you're it takes today you have to look so much more in depth to really be able to evaluate all the chronic stresses that put a person to the actual time frame when their body just couldn't handle it anymore. Well, it's huge what you said as well because that just even recently one of my uh patients, she specifically um was coming up for some significant issues in her uh right temporal lobe. And one of the primary things that was affecting that lobe was the herpes simplex virus. And um as we kind of dug into her history and, you know, we were really trying to piece the puzzle together, that was actually so she she did not mention this in her initial consultation but as I did all of her uh analysis and I said, you know, "This is the part of the brain that's the most stressed and it's contributing to X, Y, and Z." And I was like, "Are you sure you didn't have any type of injury to that part of the brain?" And I'm primarily asking because if this was truly just a viral issue then that should technically be affecting all of the parts of the brain. It wouldn't just affect one specific area. And she's like, "I don't know, I don't know." And I always ask things in many ways and I was like, "Do you have any scars on your head?" And she's like, "Oh, yeah." And her brother hit her with a pool stick when she was, like, eight and she had um 10 staples that she had in her head right above her ear where the temporal lobe is. I'm like, "Mm, there it is." So, this specific scenario is that she potentially had that virus and it was circulating through the system because of, you know, cold sores it ran in the family, etcetera. And it just took that specific stresser to damage that part of the brain because of, you know, the injury, the inflammation, etcetera, and it made that part of the brain more vulnerable to the virus. So, uh so it's very interesting how things unfold and how things manifest. But I will tell you all is very, very rarely does any of this look like the textbook and I'm sorry if you're spending only 10 to 15 minutes with your doctor. There's no possible way they can ask you enough questions to understand the big picture. And since this is an integrative podcast, it's looking at, where she had her staples, that's right where the gallbladder meridian is too. So, it's like she might be having, you know, uh issues with digesting fatty foods and protein. Um, so it's like being able to like most like functional medicine practitioners, as great as it is, they're only focusing on the health of the gallbladder and the liver but they would miss the actual component of that the that meridian is being affected through a trauma uh to the head affecting the gallbladder meridian that is also probably mostly a part of vertigo. So it's like, being able to look and it's like, my favorite part of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together is to pretty much explain that all these issues are coming, they're all connected. Uh and people's like just eyes are like, "No shit." Like this is impossible. Like, it's all connected. It's all always connected. Uh and I think that that's so huge with meridians. I want to do that on a different podcast. But uh so many of our patients when they describe their different skin issues or patterns of rashes, patterns of eczema. They always match meridian patterns. Like I highly advise you guys, go online and get, you know, the the top meridian uh body chart of like where they follow. And you will be fascinated on how many people have different skin issues that are tied to meridian issues. It's pretty cool. I just want to take a quick moment to thank you for listening and allow you to know that we work with clients from all over the world. You can check out more information at integrativewellnessgroup.com to learn a little bit more about how we work with our clients remotely. Um that's say kind of jumping into the other part said the brain is and the brain we have cranial nerves. And we have three of those cranial nerves, uh cranial nerve four, uh three, four and six are all the ones that innervate the eyes. Uh, so it's really about going to um whether it's a integrated doctor or more of a functional neurologist, uh to be able to evaluate the eyes and see uh how well or or not uh those three cranial nerves are because if they're not firing properly, um that can can create many symptoms. But one of them is just inducing extra stress uh to the brain and it's positioning to be a part of that vertigo. Yeah, there are actually some really unique uh optometrist out there that are doing some really, really fascinating work. Uh specifically one of the conditions that one of our patients, uh we were co-managing and he was diagnosed with uh BVD, which was binocular vertical um dysfunction. So, it actually in layman's terms is when the eyes are almost uneven. So, the way that the person is taking information in is distorted and it's keeping them um offf-kilter or it's compromising their equilibrium. And, uh this was something that actually through uh the opthamologist was actually corrected through light and color therapy. And we were doing different work on our end for more of that functional neurology standpoint uh this specific patient had a lot of issues in the occipital lobe. So, the occipital lobe is the back of the brain. So, you have the the lower portion of the brain, the cerebellum, which is like really close to that ridge, which you call the occiput. And then a little bit higher than that we have the occipital lobe. And the occipital lobe is directly connected to the eyes as well. So, you could easily have an injury to the back of the head that is going to contribute to um visual distortion. So, he was specifically a hockey player. He had a ton of head injuries. He called it, he had his bell rung many times. So, through our therapies, we were working on uh through chiropractic. We were working through some uh active release technique. We were working through sound wave therapy. We were working through a variety of different things just to help with the alignment, the scar tissue. And uh even the inflammation that was happening in the brainstem and occipital lobe. And we got uh really far just with that but it got to the point that he needed to get his eyes evaluated because his glasses were not appropriate for him anymore. And he ended up going to this very specific practitioner and came across this uh, you know, this issue with how his eye alignment essentially. So, it's important to understand that you can do a lot of this work. You can decrease inflammation. You can get rid of the infection. You can help to repair the blood-brain barrier. You can repair the gut-brain access. You can do all of these things. But it does get to a point that depending on the patient that they might need some type of neurological rehab essentially. That might be in the form of uh neurofeedback. It might be eye exercises, neurological eye exercises. It might be color therapy. It might be light therapy. It might be those things. And if you are not up to par with those types of therapies, it's a matter of just collaborating with someone who can evaluate the patient in that regard because it's it's like the the brain becomes super de-conditioned when it's under inflammation for such a long period of time or it's not getting proper cerebral spinal fluid flow, etcetera. So, sometimes you have to go in and help to balance out those hemispheres or strengthen parts of the brain that are really weak. No, 100%. And it's it's so much focus on on the brain firing and connecting to the eyes, to the ears, um and also like that last part is really focusing on the connection of the brain, the gut, the brain, the body. Um, so it's like there's ways to evaluate all of those things and if they're not coming up, you know, as healthy as they should be connected, uh there's really honestly some easy techniques to to go through it. Like the exercises you talked about. Mhmm, 100%. And, um, even too with uh the whole gut-brain. This is not the biggest correlation but there is definitely some cases that we've seen in reference to gut issues that are affecting the vagus nerve, which is then in turn affecting the brainstem, which can definitely play a role in balance and coordination as well. It's not going to maybe be to the extreme of full-on vertigo but there it's something to not discredit or overlook. No, I mean, the vagus nerve's you could think of it like a highway of information but it's also a highway for these viruses uh to rule also travel to cause, you know, stress from the gut to the brain. Yeah. And and that's something that this is not always about top down. This could be bottom up like Dr. Nick said is that someone could have inflammation in their gut, there could be bacteria, yeast, other types of fungus, parasites as well as viruses that can infect the vagus nerve from the gut and work its way up. And this person could have occasional heart palpitations, then they can maybe have shortness of breath and in addition they start to have uh issues with their balance and coordination. So, always, always looking at the vagus nerve especially if their balance and coordination is the worst when they're getting up from a seated or laying down position. Cool. All right. So, some of the biggest things to consider is, have you had an injury to the back of your head? Did you have chronic ear infections, throat infection, sinus infections as a kid, as a teen, older, whatever. Um, do you feel that your eyes are progressively getting worse? Do you feel that information is coming in distorted? Do you have eye floaters? Do you have tunnel vision? Do you have issues with the peripheral vision? Are you crazy sensitive to light? Do you have to wear sunglasses when you go outside? Can you stand on one leg? Can you walk on a balance beam? Can you can you get up from a seated position without feeling nauseous or getting dizzy and lightheaded? Can you stand still with your eyes closed? Oh, there, yeah. There you go. A lot of people would be like terrified to do that. Uh, so these are all different things to consider when we're trying to really decipher what is the root to the vertigo or the vertigo-like symptoms. So, clearly we've shed light on this a bit but when it comes to therapies, you know, that's why people listen to podcasts. They want to know like, "What can I do? What can I do next? Like, who can I see? Where can I go? You know, what am I missing?" And clearly from what we've described so far, this has to be an extremely personalized approach based off of you, your testing, your symptoms, your history. But also, this is about an integration of different therapies because if you're trying to go in and balance out the brain or strengthen the cerebellum or strengthen the cranial nerves but you have a virus that nobody's looking at, you're not going to get anywhere. If you don't have adequate blood flow in or out of the head, then you're also going to have with your brain recovering. And that could easily just come back to neck injuries. It can come back to tight muscles. It can come back to scar tissue. Um, if you have a scar on your head because you hit your head when you were two years old, that can block the ability for there to be cerebral spinal fluid as well as blood flow to that part of the brain. There's a lot of things that could be done according to the needs of the person. No, 100%. And it's like you said, it's like, everybody has a different story, so everybody's going to have literally a different protocol uh or way to get better. And timing is always a huge importance. You know, if if you do uh timing inappropriately, uh a good stress could become a negative stress. Um and the brain is very sensitive. So it's always uh about looking at the full picture to be able to fully help someone. Well, I know we always take for granted that people might know what this is but if it truly is an inner ear problem, so, you know, an easy little at home thing someone can do is if you put your feet together, please do this with somebody around. If you put your feet together and you close your eyes and you're going back and forth, front to back, um that might mean there's an inner ear issue. Definitely you need to be evaluated by a practitioner who's actually going to verify that because a lot of times we'll overcompensate if you feel like you're going to fall, sometimes you correct. Uh, but if it truly is an inner ear issue, if you want to share what that therapy is that some people seek out in order to correct the inner ear. The Epley maneuver. Mhm. Yeah, I mean, there's Epley maneuver. What people usually go uh to P.T. and get or chiropractor and get, uh it's really like rotating the head, rotating the body, and then rotating the head and the body back together. Um there's that if it's more sometimes the ear as well as the visual component. Um you can really look at the creating almost a lot of havoc to increase the quote-unquote threshold uh so you're going above that to create chaos to allow it to reset. Um so there's a lot of different ways to be able to kind of go and reset the the inner ears as well as the visual systems connected to that and then uh combining a lot of balance exercises to help out the cerebellum. Yeah. Yeah, the I know that that's a technique that a lot of people will seek out in the event. But again, if that has been you, you've already tried that and it hasn't worked, um it's a matter of maybe looking at these different avenues. So, at Integrative Wellness Group, we offer so many different therapies. Um again, they're customized but a lot of these cases we are using chiropractic. We are using rehab, we're using neurological exercises and we're usually doing some type of scar release or scar tissue release. And sometimes that is from repetitive stress posture but sometimes it's actually from injury. So, overall, um it's considering that. It's considering are there infections, is there inflammation, are there gut issues? Or, is there a knee issue? Like you said, I think that's probably the most mind-blowing for the listeners is that, you know, no one is ever thinking, "Did my knee surgery or my major knee injury cause my vertigo?" Because it seems so far-fetched and so disconnected. But when you really look at the anatomy and physiology of the body and the neurology, it's very, very much connected. Yep. All right, guys. So, we hope this was super helpful. And, um if you are looking for more information about your specific case, definitely feel free to head over to our site and hit the button for free consultation. You can access a strategy call with our team and learn a little bit more about what we do and we can also see if you are a fit for our practice and if we can potentially get rid of these really debilitating symptoms that come along with vertigo or versions of vertigo. So, we hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you next week. We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr. Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com. night no sleep cause I feel like I'm always dreaming. While awake, there's no way
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Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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