Has vertigo got your head in a spin this Valentine’s Day?

This month, Rebecca Nelson, Founder and Spinal & Headache Physiotherapy Specialist at Apex Clinic & Apex Headache Clinic discusses how getting the correct diagnosis for your vertigo is key to treating it, and how the practice has been clearing patients of this debilitating condition for good.

Vertigo ruins lives

Here at Apex Headache Clinic, we have extensive experience in treating vertigo or dizziness, with approximately 20 per cent of all patients we see, suffering from it. This common health complaint has devastating symptoms such as poor balance when walking, light headedness or a sense of ‘being removed’ from the world. In the most extreme cases, vertigo confines people to their homes.

Getting the right diagnosis

Clearing your vertigo begins with getting the right diagnosis. What is commonly unknown is that there are in fact two main causes of vertigo; vertigo stemming from an imbalance in the inner ear, called vestibular vertigo, and vertigo originating from the upper neck region of the spine, called cervical vertigo. Cervical vertigo is often overlooked as a cause of vertigo even though its occurrence is extremely common. It is usually the result of stiffness or damage of the upper neck joints of the spine but usually the individual experiences no actual neck pain, only dizziness.

Cervical vertigo is often misdiagnosed and treated as vestibular vertigo. One of the features of cervical vertigo is that it does not respond to drugs used to treat inner ear vertigo, so if your vertigo hasn’t cleared up with medication, it is definitely time to consider if it could be stemming from your neck.

Clearing your vertigo for good

Here, at Apex Headache Clinic, we have been successfully diagnosing and treating cervical vertigo for over 20 years. Furthermore, I have extensively trained our whole team of physiotherapists in the manual regime of treatment that I use.  It is this specialist treatment regime which has been very successful in treating cervical vertigo at its source, and in the vast majority of cases, clearing it for good.

Your initial consultation at Apex Headache Clinic will involve an assessment by one of our experienced physiotherapists to determine if your neck is the source of your vertigo. If the assessment shows cervical vertigo, a treatment plan will follow. Our unique regime of manual physiotherapy involves gentle and safe mobilization techniques of the specific targeted segments of the upper neck region. Patients often start to feel relief within just a few sessions.

Richard Ross, 31 year old Electrician from Cullybackey said:

“Suffering from vertigo/dizziness was ruining my life. I felt terrible with dizziness, every minute of every day. It was a feeling as if I had just stepped off a roller coaster ride. It didn’t matter whether I was sitting, standing or lying down – the dizziness was still there. My balance and perception of things were completely distorted. Every night I had to sleep upright as it was too hard to bear when I lay flat.

“After hearing about Apex Headache Clinic, I booked an appointment in desperation. At the first session Rebecca and Nicola diagnosed my vertigo as cervical vertigo. I couldn’t believe that after just one session I started to feel some relief. I then had a course of treatment and now my life is totally back on track. I wish that I had heard of Apex Headache Clinic much sooner, because I had suffered so badly with vertigo for so long.”

Don’t let vertigo ruin the quality of your life. Here at Apex Headache Clinic, we are proud of our high success rate in clearing vertigo completely, with patients travelling from the UK and Ireland for our specialist treatment.

If you would like to book an appointment with Apex Headache Clinic, contact us on: 028 9048 4153.