Determining the Cause(s) of Dysautonomia, Vagopathy, and Autonomic Nervous System Imbalances

The dynamic ANS testing at The Hauser Neck Center attempts to solve the following mysteries concerning why your nervous system is not working properly:

1. Is it truly a sympathetic dominance/parasympathetic (vagal tone) deficiency?
2. What is the major cause of it?
3. How much of the problem is due to neck instability?  Reversal of the cervical curve? Emotional baggage/negative self-talk/toxic relationships? Harmful visual stimuli? Other harmful/destructive stimuli?
4. Are there actions you can take to help restore ANS homeostasis and improve vagal tone?

The major causes of dysautonomia, vagopathy and autonomic nervous system imbalances can be broken down into two camps:  structural and/or systemic causes.  As I have asked patients who have a complex medical history of 10+ different disorders, Do you really think it’s these numerous individual disorders causing your dizziness, light and sound sensitivity, change in voice quality, irritable bowel, nausea, dizziness, ringing in your ears, ear fullness, blurry vision, itching, poor body temperature control, brain fog, choking sensations, depression, anxiety, inability to focus and other symptoms or just one.  According to Occam’s Razor: the simplest answer to a problem is usually the correct one. It is much more likely you have one condition causing all symptoms and disorders. That condition is usually cervical instability resulting in vagopathy, is called cervicovagopathy. The cause of cervicovagopathy is actually what I’ve termed cervical dysstructure (Hauser’s disease), the breakdown of the cervical spine supporting structures which ultimately leads to destruction of a person’s nervous system.

This situation is often worsened by the vagus nerve being under constant attack from the average lifestyle.

Once the body’s nerve supply to the vital organs and brain is off, the body’s homeostatic mechanisms for survival start to fail. This ultimately leads to a breakdown of pulse and blood pressure control, digestion, endocrine gland secretion, circulation, temperature regulation, immune function and as well as proper balance, hearing, vision, taste, speech and ultimately brain function. Once brain function starts plummeting, any symptomatology is possible, including headaches, head pressure, poor vision, inability to concentrate, overwhelming fatigue, brain fog, depression, anxiety, panic disorder and a myriad of other horrible consequences.

In our office, we can take a baseline ANS function in a relaxed position, then a person is put through a variety of physical maneuvers starting with various neck positions to see the effect neck position and thus stressors on neck ligaments and nerve centers in the neck has on ANS function. We do a lot of work with heart rate variability (HRV) which is an excellent ANS marker. The person is put through a variety of stressors depending on the persons history to assess each stressor and its effect on their ANS. The amount of change from baseline is then calculated.  This change from baseline and the time it takes for a person to get back to baseline is an indicator of the magnitude of the effects those stressors had on the ANS. Ultimately, the person is given “homework” to use what they have learned to improve their vagal tone and ANS functioning.

The primary reason patients are seen at our Neck Center is to receive Comprehensive Prolotherapy and curve correction in order to restore function of the brain and vagus nerves. As we say, 50% is us, and 50% is you. Therefore, doing everything possible to better understand what is working against your healing, and how to mediate those things, is paramount to see significant long-term improvement.

• Surgery
• NSAIDs
• Cortisone Shots
• R.I.C.E.