Osteochondrosis of the cervical spine manifests itself in different symptoms, including dizziness.
Unpleasant sensation of objects rotating, loss of balance, unsteadiness cause a lot of inconvenience and can disturb a person from time to time for a long time.
In order to completely stop the attacks of dizziness, you need to know what explains this phenomenon in osteochondrosis and go through the course of treatment chosen by the doctor.
Causes of occurrence
Each person has a canal in the cervical segment of the spine through which blood vessels and nerves pass. Through the vertebral artery located in this place, the brain is supplied with blood, and therefore the necessary tissues and cells with nutrients and oxygen.
With osteochondrosis, the vertebrae steadily change their normal structure , laid down by nature . They become thinner, approach each other, bone growths are formed on them, all this ultimately leads to pathological narrowing of the canal and to squeezing of blood vessels.
Due to stenosis, blood circulation changes, a smaller volume of blood enters the brain, and this disrupts the work of the most important parts. Dizziness is an indicator of pathological changes in the functioning of the vestibular apparatus.
Symptoms, forms and varieties
How dizziness manifests itself is probably known to every person. With osteochondrosis, this symptom is characterized by similar sensations:
- Unstable standing up or walking.
- Feeling of the floor rocking or unsteadiness of the soil underfoot.
- Uncontrolled swaying of the body.
- The appearance of color flashes, circles before the eyes.
- The illusory rotation of objects around a person.
Usually, pronounced dizziness with the cervical form of osteochondrosis appears immediately at the time of waking up, when a person begins to get out of bed. This is especially common after sleeping on an unnecessarily high pillow.
Against the background of dizziness, nausea, extraneous noise in the ears may appear, the skin often turns pale, and sweating increases.
Spasm of the vertebral artery leads to oxygen starvation and other parts of the brain in addition to the vestibular apparatus. And this becomes the cause of intense attacks of pain in the head, by nature they can be pulsating, constricting.
Dizziness and pain in the head can sharply increase when the neck turns, bends. Often, patients describe their condition as pre-fainting, and sudden fainting occurs, caused by compression of the vertebral artery.
The duration of the vertigo can last from several minutes to hours. In the latter case, you need to immediately contact a medical facility, since such a sign indicates a serious circulatory disorder, which may result in ischemic processes.
In contrast to vertigo itself, noise, ringing in the ears or hearing loss that appear at the same time as this symptom, can last up to several days.
It is customary to distinguish three forms of dizziness in patients with cervical osteochondrosis, these are:
- Systemic form of dizziness. It manifests itself as a sensation of rotation of its own body or nearby objects. Some patients describe this condition as various rotations inside their head.
- A non-systemic form of vertigo is manifested by a feeling of instability, body collapse or swaying.
- The combined form of vertigo combines the signs of the first two forms.
Also, there are several options for the course of the period of dizziness, depending on the mechanism of development of this manifestation of osteochondrosis.
- In angiospastic reflex form of cervical osteochondrosis, vertigo is caused by a spasm of the vessels passing in the canal of the cervical spine. Systemic or combined forms of dizziness appear, while the color of the face often changes, nausea appears, and occasionally vomiting. Some patients report extraneous sounds in the ears, sweating, light-headedness.
- With a compression-irritative form of the disease, dizziness is caused by a mechanical disturbance of the blood flow. The type of dizziness is non-systemic or mixed, it intensifies when turning the neck to the sides. In some patients, hearing impairments appear, up to its pronounced decrease.
Based only on complaints of dizziness, the diagnosis of cervical osteochondrosis is not made. This symptom can be a manifestation of a dozen other diseases and therefore it is very important to completely undergo a comprehensive examination.
How to recover from dizziness with cervical osteochondrosis?
The pills specially selected by the doctor help to reduce the number of dizziness and their severity.
But it is necessary to understand that the complete cessation of seizures depends only on the elimination of the main cause of the disease, that is, on the correct treatment of osteochondrosis.
When choosing a treatment regimen for cervical osteochondrosis, the doctor focuses on all examination data, the patient’s age, the presence of other pathologies in the anamnesis.
In addition to medications in the treatment of osteochondrosis, much depends on exercise complexes, the use of physiotherapy procedures, and diet therapy. Recipes from traditional medicine also contribute to recovery.
If complex conservative treatment turns out to be powerless and the patient also continues to be bothered by dizziness and other unpleasant manifestations of osteochondrosis, then an operation is possible.
Medications
Directly to stop the vertigo doctor may prescribe tools such as Cinnarizine, Betaserk or Vazobral . These drugs improve the blood supply to the brain, reduce the permeability of the vascular walls, and increase the resistance of brain tissues and cells to a lack of oxygen.
In addition to getting rid of dizziness, these drugs will help normalize sleep and improve memory. You can take these medications for long courses, and the dosage is selected individually by a neurologist.
But the use of only the listed medicines will not help solve the problem with osteochondrosis, and if you stop taking these pills, then dizziness may again begin to bother you periodically. Therefore, it is necessary to undergo a full-fledged treatment of pathology.
Drug therapy for this ailment involves the use of several groups of drugs.
- Painkillers or antispasmodics – Analgin, baralgin. Under the influence of these funds, pain disappears and muscle spasm is relieved , which also improves blood flow in the vertebral artery.
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are prescribed to relieve swelling and inflammation. Prescribe drugs such as Diclofenac, Nimesulide , Nise , Ketorol .
- Medicines that improve blood circulation and reduce brain hypoxia – Piracetam , Mexidol , Actovegin.
- Vitamin therapy is prescribed to stabilize metabolic processes in the body.
- Chondroprotectors are used for a long course for chondrosis .
If necessary, the attending physician, depending on the symptoms, prescribes groups of other drugs.
Exercises
Exercise for osteochondrosis is an integral and important part of treatment. Their daily implementation helps to strengthen the muscles in the right place, enhances blood circulation, puts in order metabolic processes and brings the mobility of the vertebrae to the desired level.
In case of osteochondrosis in the cervical spine and associated dizziness, a doctor must recommend a complex of classes to his patient, because a sharp movement can lead to severe compression of the arteries and nerves, and this threatens with serious complications.
All movements are performed slowly, smoothly, the appearance of pain or dizziness are considered contraindications to the further conduct of the session.
Of the simplest and safest exercises for cervical osteochondrosis, several can be advised:
- Sitting on a chair with a straight back, you need to make careful head turns in different directions, fixing the body in these positions for several seconds. You can gently tilt your head back and forth, also lingering in this position.
- Lying on your stomach, you need to raise your head and keep it in this position. The holding time of the head lengthens gradually. From the same position, the head is turned to the sides.
After the relief of all the main symptoms and the normalization of well-being, it will be necessary to choose a set of activities that is useful for the whole body.
Diet
With osteochondrosis of the cervical spine, the effectiveness of the treatment undertaken largely depends on what kind of food a person chooses.
It is necessary to minimize the consumption of too spicy, salty foods and smoked meats. It is necessary to limit the diet of strong tea and coffee, fatty foods. Vegetable and fermented milk food contributes to the improvement of all metabolic and biochemical processes, cartilaginous tissue helps to restore aspic and jelly.
Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy for osteochondrosis helps to reduce pain, improve blood circulation, relieve tissue swelling and inflammation, and increase nutrition in the spinal column. In this disease, most often patients are prescribed:
- Electrophoresis with pain relievers or anti-inflammatory drugs.
- Ultrasound acts like a micromassage , it is good for headaches and dizziness.
- Magnetotherapy promotes oxygen saturation of blood, dilates blood vessels, removes spasm.
With dizziness associated with osteochondrosis, a procedure such as traction also helps . It is done on a special inclined device, as a result of which the vertebrae expand and the compression of the spinal canal decreases.
Folk remedies
In addition to the main treatment regimen, you can use courses of various recipes from the piggy bank of traditional medicine.
From herbs, you need to choose those that have anti-inflammatory and diuretic effects. Herbal teas with a diuretic effect allow you to remove excess salts from the body, which have a negative effect on the condition of the discs and the vertebrae themselves.
Various rubbing, compresses and ointments are effective for pain in the neck. They are used both in the acute period and as prophylactic courses to prevent exacerbations.
When dizziness, headaches and other symptoms of a deterioration in well-being appear, you do not need to self-medicate. These signs do not always occur only with osteochondrosis, and the independent choice of drugs very often becomes the main reason for delaying recovery and the appearance of serious complications.