Everything
maintains a delicate balance in life.
Relationships, finances, and mental health are some of the more
practical things that require balance day-to-day, exemplifying a comparable
balance maintained inside the body routinely throughout our lives. There is fluidity to it all, like a
never-ending game of percentages, a shift toward a school grading scale
equivalent of “A” level balance and the subsequent positive momentum that comes
with it followed then by the pendulum swinging the other way in a test of
resiliency sometimes too hard to pass.
When it comes to problems with balance and equilibrium suffered by those
diagnosed with conditions like vertigo, Meniere’s disease, and others,
resiliency has been weakened to a significant degree, so what factors shape the
loss of that delicate balance and what can be done to correct them?
First, it is
important to understand how balance and equilibrium are established. The brain depends on feedback from the eyes
and the inner ears. The position of the
eyes is a dynamic constantly read by the brain, as is the amount of fluid in
each of the various inner ear canals. This
awareness is accomplished through the hub of the body’s internal communication
network, the brainstem, and the nerves branching from it. An even keel can typically be upheld so long
as the feedback loop between the brain, eyes, and ears remains clear of
distortion through the brainstem.
Unfortunately,
there is a simple but common problem that can throw balance and equilibrium
slowly and progressively into chaos.
Due to the
importance of eye position and inner ear fluid equality, the head needs to
remain at least reasonably level. The
head sits on the top bone in the spine, which connects to the second bone to
form the triumvirate serving as the body’s defacto foundation; the human body
is built from the top-down structurally, not the ground-up. Uniquely, the top bone in the neck lacks the
interlocking features that prevent it from moving too much, making it more
mobile, but less stable, a fact amplified in the early years of life before
development is completed. Trauma of all
types tends to influence, in addition to the point(s) of impact, the end of the
path of least resistance; in the body, the point of least resistance is the top
of the spine, held in place predominantly by muscles. When trauma occurs, the top bone in the neck
regularly gets knocked out of its proper alignment.
Losing
proper alignment of the head and neck frequently causes the brainstem to be
compromised, akin to interfering with a cell tower in a phone network; it also immediately
causes the head to tilt, throwing the eyes off level and the inner ear fluid
out of balance. 75% of the time[i],
this situation occurs in the first several years of life. Before age 20, the percentage jumps to 85%,
and by age 40, to 95%. Head/neck
misalignment is one of the most common ailments in the world. The human body is innately wired to adapt, so
it compensates for the tilt of the head, but borrowing from the earlier used
game of percentages / school grading scale analogy, its ability to sustain the
resiliency necessary to be even keeled with something so fundamental in an
abnormal state is slowly weakened over time.
The
restoration of optimal head/neck alignment is an essential component to
reversing the downward trend, allowing the body to readapt and return to normal
balance. Otherwise, the development of
various balance disorders, or some other of the myriad diagnoses related to
head/neck misalignment, is highly likely.
Fortunately,
there is a simple solution. The upper
neck is very dynamic, so it often does not take much for it to be influenced
negatively, but problems with it can be rather easily corrected by an Upper
Cervical Chiropractor. A head/neck
misalignment is unique to all other misalignment types and thus must be handled
with a great deal of precision – no cracking, popping, or manipulation. X-rays are taken to identify the exact nature
of the misalignment, down to the nearest millimeter and degree. The correction based on the x-ray findings
requires minimal force; it just has to be very specific so that once head/neck
alignment is restored, the body can maintain it like a good habit replacing a
destructive one.
Other causes
of balance disorders do exist, of course – due to their intended influence on
the nervous system, pharmaceuticals quite frequently list various forms of
dizziness / imbalance among their common side effects – but none are more prevalent
than head/neck misalignment. The goal
for anyone suffering from vertigo or Meniere’s is ideally to engage the body to
optimally adapt and heal, which makes the brainstem functioning normally and
the head/neck being balanced foundational to returning to a healthier state.
Visit www.triaduppercervical.com or call 336-992-2536 for more information.
