What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Vertigo & Your Cerebellum

The cerebellum, or “little brain” in Latin, is the part of the brain that significantly influences posture, muscle tone and equilibrium. Conventional doctors often fail to evaluate the functional role—they may scan the brain with an MRI but poor cerebellar function cannot be visualized this way.

Chiropractic neurologists recognize that a poorly functioning cerebellum is wholly capable of causing vertigo, dizziness and balance problems. Through a Functional Neurological Evaluation of the patient, they may be better equipped to identify cerebellar problems.

Here are two common ways that cerebellar problems can cause dizziness, vertigo and balance problems:

--A disc injury or pinched nerve can affect normal nerve transmission in the cerebellum (these are typically the cause of vertigo in people under 45 years old). Normally your cerebellum receives input from your muscles, tendons, joints and head movements like tilting. The right side of the cerebellum processes information from the same side of the body and the same goes for the left side. If the information from each side doesn't match up, problems arise.

--Premature aging of the cerebellum can also cause dizziness. Each day we lose thousands of brain cells. If too many brain cells are lost the cerebellum becomes unable to properly process sensory information. In a sense, the brain is like a group of muscles: If one side of the cerebellum is more neurologically active (stronger) than the other this can cause balance problems and vertigo. Thankfully, our brains are capable of re-wiring, an attribute known as neural plasticity, and it is possible to “strengthen” the weaker part of the cerebellum. If you’re over 45, check out this “Brain Game” post.

In general, for you to be balanced, your cerebellum has to be balanced. So, the first step is to undergo an evaluation by someone trained to detect functional imbalances in the cerebellum. It has been our experience that patients who were initially told nothing could be done generally make rapid progress. When it comes to dizziness, vertigo and balance problems, you don’t “just have to live with it.”