A 65-year-old woman came to our clinic complaining of severe vertigo, anxiety, and insomnia for the past six months. Medications were not helping, and she was desperate for a solution. Today’s blog post describes how acupuncture eased her symptoms and got her back on her feet again. Acupuncture eases vertigo – learn how it can help you too.
Life Spinning Out Of Control
Our patient’s vertigo was the biggest problem. She would get random dizzy spells throughout the day, causing her to lose balance, feel nausea and be unable to think. Her symptoms started six months earlier after her husband passed away following a long illness. She believed grief was the main trigger for her vertigo, along with exhaustion from caring for her ailing husband for the past year. The anxiety and insomnia came with vertigo, and she was hoping acupuncture could help her with these issues as well.
We agreed with our patient’s assessment – that grief and exhaustion were the leading causes of her vertigo, anxiety, and sleep problems. From a Chinese medicine perspective, vertigo developed due to weakness in her digestive system (called Spleen Qi deficiency) combined with a build-up of grief, stress, and worry in her body (called Liver Qi stagnation). Our treatment would address this Liver/Spleen disharmony and seek to restore balance.
Acupuncture Treatment For Vertigo
Acupuncture does not treat all vertigo cases the same. Unlike Western medicine, which typically has a “one pill per diagnosis” approach, Chinese medicine believes that the same diagnosis may have different root causes for different people. For example, our patient was presenting with a Liver/Spleen imbalance, which we deduced from her symptoms and an evaluation of her tongue and pulse. Tongue and pulse give a tremendous amount of information about a person’s body function.
Her tongue had a thick, greasy yellow coat – a clear indication of phlegm heat, one of the hallmark triggers of vertigo. She also had a wiry pulse, indicating that her body was holding a great deal of stress. This presentation is a classic Liver/Spleen pattern. On the other hand, a vertigo patient could easily present with a dry, red tongue and thin pulse, indicating that her pattern imbalance was Kidney Yin deficiency with empty heat. These two patients would require different treatments to resolve their vertigo.
Acupuncture Eases Vertigo
After the first treatment, our patient felt 20 percent better. Following the fourth treatment, she was feeling fifty percent improved. Not only was vertigo getting better, but her anxiety reduced, and her sleep improved. At this point, we dropped her treatments to every other week. Four treatments later, she was 95 percent better. Now, the only time she got vertigo was if an extreme situation triggered it. For example, she had some vertigo while watching a 3-D movie – so she stopped watching in 3-D.
In addition to acupuncture, we prescribed Chinese herbs to our patient throughout her treatment. When acupuncture ended after her eighth session, we sent her home with herbs to take “when needed,” like after watching the movie. She has continued taking the herbs as needed and has not required any additional acupuncture. Acupuncture eases vertigo by treating the root cause of the condition. Our patient had been thrown out of balance by the illness and death of her husband. Acupuncture helped restore her health by identifying the areas of imbalance and correcting them, bringing lasting relief.
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What our Clients are Saying
I came back from a trip to the Caribbean with a terrible case of vertigo and nausea. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t work, couldn’t walk straight. I had this throbbing headache all day long. It was driving me crazy. I tried acupuncture and in three sessions was completely cured! I was so impressed that I had them treat my back pain next. I only wish insurance covered the treatments.
I was diagnosed with dizziness and put on a medicine that made me more dizzy! My chiropractor said it was from my neck, but the adjustments didn’t help. So I tried acupuncture. Every time I bent down I would get so dizzy that I fell over. The doctor at Raleigh Acupuncture didn’t treat my neck. He said he was treating my organs to balance them and correct my water levels. I don’t care what he called it – it stopped my dizziness! I can bend over now without dizziness and can function like a normal person. They also got rid of my toe pain at the same time!
I had vertigo and dizziness for years. I run my own small business and it was starting to really affect my work. I had difficulty driving, and was starting to get nervous about getting into an accident at work. My vertigo was like the room spinning around, and the only way to make it stop was to close my eyes and lie down. I was also burning up hot, but never had a fever. My cousin went to Raleigh Acupuncture so I gave it a try. They treated me with little needles and gave me chinese herbs. I’m not kidding, this stuff really works. My vertigo stopped happening for the first time in years, and I even stopped feeling so hot. I get small bouts of vertigo now and then, but usually just a single treatment gets me better. I also understand why I get vertigo and what I can do to prevent it coming on. They were really good explaining how it worked, in a way that totally makes sense to me. Thank you Raleigh Acupuncture.
