Vertigo Treatment in Westminster
The room won’t stop moving. You grab the wall, wait for it to pass. And it does, until it hits again while you’re driving, or halfway up a trail. Vertigo shrinks your world, one canceled plan at a time.
Why the Top of Your Neck Might Be Behind It All
Vertigo isn’t really a diagnosis. It’s a signal your balance system has gone off track. Most providers check the inner ear first, or send you off to vestibular therapy and hope the spinning calms down on its own. What gets missed almost every time is the atlas, the small ring-shaped bone at the top of your spine that cradles the brain stem. Shift that bone even slightly, and it can pressure the pathways that keep you steady on your feet.
How Years of Head-Forward Posture Set the Stage
An atlas misalignment rarely shows up overnight. It builds from old injuries and years of small stress loading onto the same joint:
- A fall, car accident, or sports collision, even one from years back
- Hours hunched over a phone or computer screen
- Poor sleep posture, night after night
- Skiing or hiking hard without giving your body time to recover
The Spinning, Swaying Feeling That’s Hard to Explain
No two patients describe it the same way. Some feel like the room is tilting. Others get more of a rocking sensation, like standing on a boat that never fully settles. It can strike out of nowhere or follow certain head positions, often with ringing in the ears along for the ride.
Signs It’s Time to Stop Waiting It Out
Canceling plans. Gripping the wheel a little tighter. Avoiding stairs because you’re not sure your balance will hold. If that sounds familiar, it’s worth a closer look. Medication might quiet the symptoms for a while, but if the spinning keeps circling back, something structural may be driving it.
Finding What Other Providers Never Looked For
Every new patient at I Get It Chiropractic gets specific upper cervical X-rays and a cervical motion study, not a quick glance. Westminster Chiropractor Dr. RJ Gelinas checks the motion in your neck, feels for restriction along the upper spine, and reviews your films to see how your atlas is sitting.
If there’s a misalignment, he calculates a precise correction, called a listing. The adjustment itself is gentle and specific. The goal is simple: take the pressure off the brain stem so your nervous system can finally settle down.
Getting Your Balance Back, One Adjustment at a Time
Once that pressure eases, patients tend to notice their symptoms actually calm down, not just get covered up. Walking down stairs without a second thought. Hiking a favorite trail near Westminster without wondering if the ground’s about to tilt. Recovery isn’t instant, but relief tends to build steadily once the nervous system starts regulating itself again.
A Doctor Who’s Lived This Firsthand
After years of health struggles, upper cervical care gave Dr. RJ needed relief. He went on to earn his Doctor of Chiropractic from Palmer College and holds Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner credentials in subluxation-based corrective care. More than 20 years in, precise atlas correction is still the foundation everything else is built on.
Let’s Find Out What’s Really Causing Your Vertigo
You don’t have to keep planning your day around the next dizzy spell. A precise evaluation can show whether an atlas misalignment is part of the picture, and a specific correction may be the piece missing from your care so far. Reach out to I Get It Chiropractic to schedule your first visit.
