Recently, we have had several clients come to see us with stories of having vertigo. Often times they share the information as an aside to why they’re really here. I want to explain why posture plays a huge role in the onset of vertigo for some people. We took the following from Pete Egoscue’s insights on vertigo published on the Sonima website. Be sure to check out the Egoscue E-cises Pete recommends at the end of his article:
VERTIGO
Vertigo is not pleasant. Its primary symptom is dizziness, sometimes so severe that the patient experiences nausea and vomiting, and it can last anywhere from a couple of hours to months and even years. Other symptoms range from headaches and eye twitching to sweating and hearing a persistent ringing in the ear. While the exact number of people who experience vertigo is not known, it has been estimated that 40 percent of all Americans will visit the doctor at some point in their lives because of vertigo. If you have had it, there really is no mistaking the sensation.
What Causes Vertigo?
Sometimes, vertigo is disease or illness-based, the result of a virus or a tumor, but doctors can quickly determine those cases. Most often vertigo is idiopathic, which is a medical term meaning no known cause or origin. In my experience, though, I’ve found most of those idiopathic versions of vertigo actually have a very specific cause—the position of the head. In other words, vertigo is usually about posture.
Humans are gravity machines; like the entire operating system of our universe, we rely on gravity to function, and because the body knows just how important our relation to gravity is, it offers redundant systems to make sure we have an accurate reading on our gravity field, i.e., the ground.
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