The fly in the ointment: What doctors don't tell you about what they don't know (about vertigo)
By David Christine CST
To be honest, reading the medical literature on vertigo absolutely drives me up the wall. It 's not that the information the medical profession provides the public is wrong, but that the information is incomplete and misleading. Popular medical articles usually start out with a seemingly rosy picture of what medicine can do for you and then subtly drift into mentioning destructive chemical or surgical therapies. The later treatments don't cure anything at all, but simply kill or deaden the balance nerve and sometimes, inadvertently, the hearing nerve as well. It's never really made clear how little the medical profession knows about diagnosis and treatment of chronic vertigo.
In one unusually candid editorial, physician and dizziness researcher, Kurt Kroenke, MD stated that “Our insecure approach to this intangible symptom does not breed much enthusiasm.” He called the lack of specific therapies for many types of dizziness and the lack of objective and agreed-on diagnostic tests “one of our Achilles Heels.”
For me determining the cause of chronic vertigo and treating it is a no-brainer. In twenty years of treating chronic vertigo patients with craniosacral therapy nearly 100% had asymmetrical movement of the bones of the skull that house the balance organs. Most people were completely free of vertigo in a few sessions and the vertigo did not recur. While medical tests for chronic vertigo can run into the thousands of dollars, craniosacral evaluation of vertigo takes seconds!
Craniosacral treatment can be complicated by strokes, chemotherapy, medication or additional severe craniosacral restrictions. But most cases are simple and straightforward.
Medical treatment of chronic vertigo is limited to damping the symptoms with medication and teaching the patient to adjust to be being dizzy with vestibular rehabilitation, a form of physical therapy. Although vestibular rehab may be invaluable for patients who have permanent neurological damage, it is not a cure. Rehab moves patients through a series of dizziness provoking exercises and teaches ways to adapt and maintain balance despite the dizziness.
Unfortunately, many people are sent to rehab even though the underlying cause is medically unknown simply because medication has been unsuccessful. In fact, non-specific causes for vertigo account for about 50% of vertigo cases, according to Kroenke. That means that physicians simply do not know the cause of the dizziness or how to treat it in about half the cases they see.
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