Unsteadiness, frequent loss of balance, dizziness and vertigo can be frightening symptoms that are hard to treat. There are many reasons why a person might feel dizzy or unsteady; the most common of which are inner ear problems, positional vertigo, head injury, eye tracking problems and some less common, but nasty ones that include stroke and other serious health concerns. Unsteadiness can be a dangerous situation. Falls and accidents occur frequently in a patient that has trouble with balance. Less known symptoms can include difficulty in reading and poor schoolwork. These latter symptoms often occur because the eyes don't track correctly, making reading lines of text almost impossible.
Dizzy and unsteady patients often also experience headaches and likewise certain types of migraine headaches, known as vertiginous migraines can produce awful bouts of spinning, dizziness and even nausea.
Most of us think that balance disorders or dizziness comes from the head. Certainly the brain, inner ear and a brain network called the vestibular system can be common causes of balance disorders. The base of the brain and a part of the brain known as the cerebellum often contribute to dizziness, unsteadiness and balance issues.
Less well known is unsteadiness that is associated with neuropathy of the feet. Typically, we think of foot neuropathy in terms of burning pain and numbness, not balance problems. But if your brain can't "feel" where your feet are, it makes it very difficult to walk with a stable gait. Patients suffering from neuropathy often stumble and frequently fall because they simply lose track of where their feet are while they are walking or standing.
Diagnosing the cause of dizziness and balance disorders can also be challenging. There are sensors in the body known as nerve receptors that are constantly assessing where our body is in space and assessing our balance. Then almost instantaneously making necessary corrections to our muscles to make postural changes that maintain and keep us in a balanced upright position. Furthermore, this balance network must constantly monitor changing conditions both within our body and also within our environment. Think for a second about a marathon runner. His speed and form of motion changes with each step. The terrain over which he runs also changes. All of this must be assessed in the blink-of-an-eye and changes must be made to make corrections in hundreds of muscles for each step. Furthermore, the runner must also assess where he is going, pace himself and plot strategy. This all places a tremendous demand on the brain and balance network in the nervous system. All of this assessing and recalibrating is occurring continuously, instantaneously and for the most part automatically.
The truth of the matter is we rarely consciously think of maintaining our balance. As a matter of fact, these calibrations and balance corrections, that occur in milliseconds, are way too fast for our conscious brain to control. By the time we recognize we are off balance, analyze the problem and make corrective movement, it would be way too late and we would be on the floor looking up wondering what just happened?
So you can probably guess what might happen if one or more components of our vestibular or balance system malfunctions due to illness, injury or degeneration. All you need to do is picture someone who had too much alcohol to drink and you can visualize exactly what happens. Alcohol directly affects a part of the balance network called the cerebellum. That is why someone who drinks too much will stagger and have balance problems.
Now imagine if one or more components of the brain's balance system is damaged through injury, illness or disease. In these cases the patient feels like he or she is dizzy or light headed. When vestibular components are severely affected the patient may be completely unable to walk or stand. In extreme cases the patient feels like he is spinning or that the world is spinning around him, this is known as vertigo. Often the patient will become nauseous and frequently vomit due to this terrible sense of spinning.
Balance problems can severely interfere with quality-of-life, cause falls which break bones and may prevent a person from socializing. Balance disorders are a significant illness.
There are a few drugs which sometimes help with the symptoms of balance disorders; others are given to reduce the nausea and vomiting that occur in severe cases. However, few if any, drugs are available to correct the cause of most balance disorders. A technique called vestibular rehabilitation is required for that.
Vestibular rehab exercises are designed to restore normal function in those parts of the brain's balance network that become dysfunctional. By rehabilitating the individual components of the damaged vestibular "machinery", it is often possible to correct the cause of ongoing dizziness, not merely treat the symptoms. This, however, requires meticulous examination of the function of the inner ear, the control system of the eyes, the cerebellum, the spinal cord and even the function of the nerves in the spine and feet. Balance disorders are complex problems and require thorough examination to create the ideal rehabilitation program for each patient.
Some of the techniques we utilize include eye tracking exercises, also they might include the use of different colored filters over the eyes. Specific exercise can often help restore function to the cerebellum and spinal exercises may help restore the brain's sense of "where the body is in space." This is known as proprioception training. Once the individual parts of the balance network have been treated and brought back "on-line", specific balance training can begin. These involve rehabilitating balance both in standing posture and while moving.
A new innovation in the treatment of balance disorders is the use of Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation or GVS for short. This technique utilizes a mild electrical current that is applied just behind the ear. The electrical current is unique in that it activates the nerves (called the vestibular nerves) in the inner ear that contributes to the sense of balance (or imbalance when not working properly). Research shows that by "tuning" the vestibular nerve with galvanic stimulation, often you can reset the brain's balance network. With the use this balance tuning electrical galvanic stimulation along with specific balance rehabilitation exercises can produce dramatic relief from dizziness, unsteady balance and vertigo.
The balance network system and its components that allow humans to walk and navigate through their world in a smooth and steady way are intricate and complex. These individual components each need specialized and specific examination and rehabilitation. Finally, the patient with a balance disorder requires tailored, specific and comprehensive rehabilitation. The use of state-of-the-art technology like galvanic vestibular stimulation improves the outcomes of vestibular rehabilitation and speeds up recovery for the dizzy patient.
The techniques for treating the nervous system that Dr. Kukurin has pioneered have been selected for inclusion at scientific conferences held at Johns Hopkins Medical School and through the Peripheral Nerve Society, an international organization devoted to the scientific investigation of disorders of the nerves, like vestibular problems.
Many of the treatment techniques he designed have been published in peer reviewed medical journals and are indexed in the National Library of Medicine.
The results patients have obtained using his treatment have appeared| on FOX and ABC affiliate newscasts. He has been practicing as a chiropractic neurologist for over 20 years. He sees patients in offices| located both in Phoenix Arizona and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
Learn more about Dr. Kukurin and his methods by visiting Litchfield Park Chiropractic Neurology
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