For this article, we wanted tell you about common scenarios that happen every day at Caring Medical. Patients will come into our office with a story of a sudden onset of panic attacks, heart palpitations, chest pain, or rise in blood pressure. They report that there was no new stresses in their lives, and they were not even thinking “bad thoughts!” A recent patient reported, “I had an uncontrolled panic attack while driving to work. All of a sudden, I had chest pain, chest heaviness, shortness of breath, and my heart was pounding. I thought I was going to pass out. After I calmed down, I was able to go home and lay down and wait for it to subside.” No cardiologist or internist was able to discover a cause after putting the patient through a battery of labs and tests.
While this patient was reporting her history to us, she stated that she worked for a chiropractor and had recently received a lot of cervical manipulation. We performed a Dynamic Motion X-ray of her neck in our office which revealed significant upper cervical instability. In other words, the ligaments that hold her upper cervical spine together were loose. This looseness can cause pressure on the vagus nerve, which runs down both sides of the neck, as well as her cervical arteries. Blocking the vagus nerve (which is the lifeline to rest of the body) and these arteries can cause these seemingly strange and unrelated symptoms.
This patient experienced the symptoms because she turned her head in one direction while looking to make a turn while she was driving and these areas were pinched. Thankfully she was able to pull over safely and wait for the symptoms to subside, but you can see how this might result in a serious injury.
We have seen similar cases where patients report new onset anxiety for absolutely no reason. For most of her life, this patient was one of the most calm and wonderful people in the world – great mom, great wife, happy life – nothing would suggest anxiety – even to her! Like the first case, she reported that she was dropping the kids off at school. She had a history of neck tension, headaches, chiropractic care with lots of cracking up high, as well as a swishing sound in the ear. These too are symptoms of cervical instability. Her Dynamic Motion X-ray showed significant upper and mid-cervical instability.
Both of these patients received H3 Prolotherapy injections to tighten the ligament-bone junctions throughout the loose areas – much like spot-welding. Their symptoms gradually resolved as the neck became more stable.
If you have unexplained dizziness, balance problems, blood pressure swings, palpitations, heart rate fluctuations, and/or anxiety, consider the neck as a possible cause, especially if all other tests came back negative. If the sensory nerves that deliver messages to the brain are blocked or impaired, these symptoms can develop.
