Are you experiencing spells of dizziness and nausea? You might be suffering from vertigo. Although this condition is not necessarily dangerous, it can seriously impact your quality of life. It’s hard to go about your day and do everything you need to when it feels like the world is spinning and like you may be sick. Fortunately, chiropractors can help relieve your vertigo in a variety of very effective ways. 

What Is Vertigo?

Vertigo is a sensation of feeling off kilter and like either you are spinning or like the world is spinning, even though you are not. 

What Causes Vertigo?

Many things can cause vertigo. In most cases, inner ear problems are the culprit. Vertigo can stem from migraines, Meniere’s disease, labyrinthitis (an issue usually related to infection), head or neck injury, brain problems, car accidents, and more. The most common cause of vertigo is a condition called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). 

BPPV happens when the miniscule calcium carbonate crystals from your inner ear organ end up in the canals of your inner ear. This can affect how your inner ear communicates with your brain, ergo, impacting your balance and creating a spinning sensation. 

Symptoms

Vertigo is most commonly associated with a spinning sensation. Its most common symptoms are feeling like you are spinning, tilting, swaying, unbalanced, and generally unsteady. These are not its sole symptoms, though. Other effects of vertigo include: nausea, vomiting, jerking eye movement, headaches, ringing in your ears, and sweating. You may experience any of this symptoms for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. 

Treatment Options

Vertigo usually goes away by itself within a few weeks. This is because typically, your brain will be able to adapt to how your inner ear changed and switch maintenance of balance to other areas. Sometimes, though, it can last for months or even years. Luckily, it’s a treatable condition, so you don’t need to worry about just waiting for it to fade on its own. 

What treatment looks like for you depends on the cause of your vertigo. They can range from physical therapy, to head and body movements designed to restore balance, like what a chiropractor can perform, to medication which will help with the nausea or inflammation, to surgery in the worst of cases, which are when the vertigo is an indicator of a serious problems such as a brain tumor. 

How A Chiropractor Can Help

If you suffer from vertigo, a chiropractor can help. Chiropractors have a number of treatments from spinal manipulations to head and neck movements such as that doctors will also do which can alleviate your vertigo. 

Chiropractors specialize in the spine and the central nervous system. This means that chiropractic adjustments can improve how the inner ear and the brain communicate, which can then improve your balance and reduce that spinning sensation. Chiropractic adjustments are also great for reducing inflammation, which can affect your inner ear, especially if you recently had an ear infection. 

The Epley maneuver is a proven method to treat vertigo, especially if it is BPPV. This treatment method affects the vestibular system, which is what maintains our balance. If our vestibular system is off, our balance is off. This maneuver is non-invasive, and involves moving and holding your head in certain positions for a set period of time. The reason why this works to treat vertigo is because it uses gravity to allow the crystals in your inner ear to move into another position, which can resolve the problem.

The effectiveness of the Epley maneuver depends on if there are multiple crystals in the ear or if the problem is in both ears. In this case, repetition over the course of a few days should fix the issue. This maneuver can be challenging sometimes, because vertigo can cause nausea, and this head movement can make you nauseous, which makes it hard to hold a set position for the designated time frame. 

This maneuver has proven to be effective for over 90% of people who suffered from vertigo, and is an extremely safe method of treatment. 

As you can see, there are a number of ways that a chiropractor can help your vertigo. You don’t need to just wait for it to go away on its own. Treatments can help get rid of it faster. 

Do You Need Help With Vertigo?

Here at Health And Wellness Clinic, we offer professional chiropractic care. If you’re suffering from vertigo, we can help you. We also offer a range of other treatments to get your body working properly again in a natural way. For any questions or to schedule an appointment, please contact us at Health And Wellness Clinic today! 

Whether or not children should see chiropractors is the subject of much debate. People generally believe that chiropractors are only for adults and are skeptical of the benefits of pediatric chiropractic care. There are many false claims made about pediatric chiropractic care that contribute to this skepticism. Here’s what you need to know both about the benefits pediatric chiropractic care can offer and about what it cannot do.

Why Does Pediatric Chiropractic Care Exist?

Chiropractic care is not restricted to adults and has long included those under the age of eighteen. This is because adults are not the only people who suffer from misalignment and other musculoskeletal issues; children under 18 do, as well. These issues do not start at 18; as long as you have a musculoskeletal system, it can go out of alignment or have issues, which is why pediatric care exists. 

A major argument in favor of pediatric chiropractic care is the fact that since children are still growing and developing, that makes seeing a chiropractor to ensure everything is in alignment is especially important, to ensure that children’s development isn’t impeded by preventable issues. Here’s what you should know about what pediatric chiropractic care can do for children. 

What Pediatric Chiropractic Care Can Do

While true that there are claims that some chiropractors make for chiropractic care doing things that have no scientific evidence, this does not invalidate the very real benefits chiropractic care can indeed provide for children. What chiropractors can help with with children is musculoskeletal conditions, as you may expect, with their area of expertise being the musculoskeletal system. 

As mentioned above, children are in a constant state of development. In order to be able to grow correctly, their bodies require proper alignment. Chiropractors can help with this. Chiropractors are experts at finding misalignments in the spine and righting them, ergo assisting with proper development. 

If you’ve ever had back pain or neck pain or the like, you’ll know how that affects everything you do. If your back hurts, that likely means that sitting hurts, standing hurts, walking hurts, lying down hurts, etc. This hurts and annoys adults; and even more so affects children. Chiropractic care can relieve stress and anxiety and sleep issues through alleviating this pain by getting to the root of the pain itself. 

Since your central nervous system is in your spine, this means that pressure on your spine can cause pressure on how your nerves communicate with each other. Relieving that pressure and fixing alignment issues can help not just adult’s but also children’s nerves communicate with each other better, in addition to helping it grow properly. Since pain can be a major cause of bad moods and behavioral issues in children, treating the source of the pain can help with those things, if it is caused by musculoskeletal issues. 

What Pediatric Chiropractic Care Does Not Do

There are many reasons why people are wary of pediatric chiropractic care, and many of them stem from false claims some chiropractors make. While many chiropractors may promote themselves as a primary care provider and claim that they can help with such issues as colic and more, science does not support this. This belief is often spread by biased magazines with no clinical studies to support and prove their claims. 

It’s important to be wary of chiropractors who make such claims and to consult with a physician about health issues such as colic and the like. There is a substantial lack of evidence for the theory that subluxated vertebrae cause illnesses in children, and you don’t want to expose your child to unnecessary radiation of an x-ray trying to prove this. 

However, there are people who make false claims in every industry, no matter what it is. These do not invalidate the very real benefits that pediatric chiropractic care can offer. If you have any questions or concerns about pediatric chiropractic care, it’s important to consult with your doctor and a legitimate chiropractor in order to make an informed decision. 

The Takeaways About Pediatric Chiropractic Care

The fact is that chiropractic care offers similar benefits to children as it does adults, as well as some additional ones in helping with development. So long as a chiropractor is trained in how to work with a developing child, pediatric chiropractic care could be a good choice for you, especially if your child is at risk for misalignment, through playing sports or some other activity. 

Pediatric chiropractic care can help with musculoskeletal issues, and since those can snowball into issues that affect your overall health, to an extent, it can also help improve your overall well-being through treating a problem that could be impacting it. 

Pediatric chiropractic care can help with children’s overall mood, health, and happiness through treating pain and alignment issues that could be impacting them. It can also help with proper development through their childhood. 

Are You Considering Pediatric Chiropractic Care?

Here at Health And Wellness Clinic, we offer professional, informed pediatric chiropractic care. We are happy to help your children grow up strong and healthy. To schedule an appointment or for any questions, please feel free to contact us today!

Whole-body cryotherapy isn’t just a celebrity trend. People have been using ice to reduce inflammation, increase energy levels, and treat pain for centuries. Even before whole-body cryotherapy gained popularity, athletes would submerge themselves in ice baths after exercise, doctors would recommend ice packs for swelling, and people would jump into ice-cold water to spike their alertness and improve their moods. People use extreme cold to freeze off warts and break down other diseased tissues. Cold therapy has many benefits, which lend themselves to the rise of whole-body cryotherapy.

What Does Whole-Body Cryotherapy Consist Of?

Whole-body cryotherapy (aka WBC) is conducted in a hyperbolic chamber where the temperature drops down to subzero temperatures. People wear anything from nothing aside from slippers, to underwear, to athletic wear. They need proper footwear and other protective coverings like gloves, masks, and head-gear. After stepping into the chamber, you can expect 2-3 minutes of subzero temperatures, and rest easy knowing that a professional is monitoring you the entire time. After treatment, they’ll help you warm up!

But why would you do this to yourself? There are multiple reasons! Here are six reasons why you should give whole-body cryotherapy a shot.

Boosted Recovery Rates After Exercise

There’s a reason why you always hear about athletes using ice baths following training. The cold increases muscular recovery rates. WBC is similar to ice baths in that your whole body is exposed to extreme cold, which ergo helps your muscles recover faster after physical activity. Cold is also proven to numb pain, which is another reason why it’s a go-to after exercise. WBC can reduce pain and provide relief for any strained, inflamed, or injured muscles.

It should be noted that one session alone likely won’t ease any muscular pains, which is why going to regular whole-body cryotherapy sessions for a period of several weeks or months is recommended for the best results if this is your goal. 

Reduces Inflammation

People commonly apply ice packs to sore muscles and inflamed areas because the cold helps the swelling go down. It also aids in soft-tissue related injuries and can revitalize damaged tissue. Reducing inflammation is a key benefit of WBC. WBC helps your body fight off the toxins and injuries causing inflammation, ergo improving healing rates. 

Improves Immune System

This goes hand-in-hand with the above point. Because whole-body cryotherapy reduces inflammation, it, clearly, triggers the anti-inflammatory process. This boosts the immune system. Since bringing down inflammation is one of the main things whole-body cryotherapy helps with, it can also improve your overall health both by that, and by improving your immune system’s performance.

Increases Energy

When you think cold, you think bundling up to conserve heat and energy. You wouldn’t necessarily associate WBC with increased energy, but it’s true! Immediately following whole-body cryotherapy treatment, many patients report increased levels of energy, due to the adrenaline of being exposed to subzero temperatures.

Boosts Metabolism

Whole-body cryotherapy can also spike up your metabolism! Cold boosts your metabolic rate because it sends your body into overdrive, making it work double time in order to try to stay warm. The cold can also freeze fat cells so they’re broken down faster. 

Improves Mood

The extreme cold can cause physiological responses which include releasing endorphins. Endorphins are proven to improve mood. This is especially beneficial for those suffering from mood disorders such as anxiety or depression, as part of those disorders involves the brain not producing enough endorphins. 

Whole-body cryotherapy can also positively affect one’s mood because the cold triggers the parasympathetic system. Your parasympathetic nervous system is what creates a sense of calm and relaxation after elevated heart rates – something whole-body cryotherapy causes -, which can also ease anxiety. This is why people often report a sensation of lightness and calm after a whole-body cryotherapy session.

While Great, Cryotherapy Isn’t For Everyone

While cryotherapy can prove many benefits to many people, it is not recommended and can even be harmful to others. Some of the conditions cryotherapy can worsen include: poor circulation, heart disease, neuropathy, and more. Consult a doctor to see if cryotherapy is right for you!

Considering Cryotherapy? Call The Health And Wellness Clinic!

At the Health and Wellness Clinic, we offer whole-body cryotherapy and recommend it for anyone plagued by inflammation or who wants a good, reinvigorating energy boost! Our expert team of professional chiropractors is passionate about providing you with the best care possible. For more information about cryotherapy or any of the other services we offer, contact us at Health and Wellness Clinic today!