What is Cervicogenic Dizziness?
Cervicogenic dizziness is a condition that results from poor proprioceptive input from the neck muscles and joints, causing dizziness or vertigo symptoms. Proprioception is our body’s ability to tell where we are in space, which is why you can tell that your elbow is bent even if your eyes are closed. Tiny little receptors in our muscles and joints provide feedback to the brain on where your neck is positioned. If this information is not matching up with what your vision and vestibular system is providing to your brain, then that mismatch will cause disorientation or dizziness.
What does Cervicogenic Dizziness Feel Like?
People with cervicogenic dizziness often describe their dizziness as a disorientation or “head up in the clouds” type of feeling. Sometimes people also describe fuzzy or blurry vision that goes along with it.
How is Cervicogenic Dizziness Diagnosed?
It’s important to exclude common causes of dizziness prior to arriving at a diagnosis of cervicogenic dizziness. You want to make sure that you do not have BPPV, vestibular migraines, 3PD, or other causes of vertigo. With that in mind, you can often have overlapping diagnoses. Maybe you are experiencing vestibular migraines, 3PD, AND cervicogenic dizziness. How do you know if cervicogenic dizziness is contributing to your symptoms?
Often these symptoms will be worse in the morning and improve throughout the day. I sometimes attribute this to sleeping position/posture, as neck ergonomics while sleeping can perpetuate cervicogenic dizziness. People will also have an increase in symptoms if they are looking down or looking up for a prolonged period of time. This often occurs when looking down at your phone for a while and then looking back up you may experience some disorientation. If laying down with your neck extended (such as in the dix hallpike test) is causing dizziness but you have no nystagmus and your dizziness stays the same or worsens the longer you are in that position, you may want to consider cervicogenic dizziness. There are some clinical tests we can do but they need to be correlated with the entire presentation as the tests alone are not enough to say “yes, you have cervicogenic dizziness.”
Taking into account your symptoms, the duration, frequency, description of how they feel, and when they are worse/get better help vestibular specialists to narrow down a diagnosis. I often will try doing some manual therapy on my patient’s neck, if their symptoms improve afterward, then I can say more confidently that they have cervicogenic dizziness.
Is Cervicogenic Dizziness Serious?
Of all of the conditions that could cause dizziness, cervicogenic dizziness is one of the less serious problems you could have. With saying that, it can still significantly affect your daily activities and impair your ability to perform or feel your best throughout the day.
Who Treats Cervicogenic Dizziness?
Vestibular physical therapists have the knowledge and skills to effectively treat cervicogenic dizziness! Other disciplines that may be helpful are acupuncture and massage therapy.
Can Cervicogenic Dizziness be Cured?
Yes! I see many of my patients improve that have cervicogenic dizziness! The treatment will depend on whether the problem is stemming from excessive mobility or excessive stiffness. I often provide manual therapy to my patients and provide appropriate exercises to address their impairments.
What Causes Cervicogenic Dizziness?
Cervicogenic dizziness can be caused by trauma to the neck such as whiplash, chronic poor posture, or repetitive movements with impaired mechanics. Sometimes people who have been coping with neck impairments and not having any problems, develop a vestibular neuritis, and that progresses into a combination of cervicogenic dizziness and vestibular hypofunction. Sometimes the body can manage one problem, but when you introduce another, it can no longer cope and both issues contribute to your symptoms.
