Issues in your spine or with your spinal nerves can cause problems in your hands, feet or your vision. If you are having vision issues like blurred vision, dizziness or headaches, you probably aren't going to assume the issue is housed in your spine, but it very well might be.
Subluxations of the cervical vertebrae may cause symptoms such as blurred vision, dizziness, headache and diplopia that convince patients to seek optometric care. Optometric examination often reveals small vertical heterophorias that resolve, along with the presenting symptoms, with manipulation of the cervical spine.
A meta-analysis published recently in September 2021, consisting of 27 studies on the effect of cervical spine surgery on atypical symptoms, demonstrated that five studies correlated cervical spondylosis with blurred vision.
Misaligned vertebrae or impeded nerves can therefore contribute to vision problems, ranging from irregular fuzziness in your eyesight, to minor vision loss following a spinal injury.
Muscle tension in the upper back, neck and shoulders can lead to headaches or problems with your vision, as the flow of blood is restricted to your eyes. Signs you may notice are: Throbbing pain around the temples. Blurred vision or difficulty focusing.
Symptoms of c5-c6 disc herniation can include numbness, tingling, burning, weakness, problems with vision, and more.
Nerve problems can affect the nerves of the muscles surrounding the eyeball and those that control the dilation and contraction of the pupil. Such problems can result in symptoms such as double vision, nystagmus, oscillopsia and disorders of the pupils, such as anisocoria.
Moreover, if nerves in your spine become permanently damaged, you may experience long-term adverse health effects in other systems and organs in your body. A pinched or damaged nerve in your spine may lead to blurred vision or headaches, loss of hearing, slurred speech, and bowel and bladder problems, to name a few.
In addition to poor vision, optic nerve compression symptoms may include: Blurred vision. Double vision. An increased “blind spot”
When you have optic nerve compression, the most common symptom is gradual worsening or loss of your vision. Other symptoms may include: Dark, dimmed, or blurred vision. Problems with sharpness and color perception.
As the condition progresses, weakness of the arms and hands can occur with loss of coordination. Also, in advanced stages of cervical stenosis, problems with bowel and bladder function can result, in addition to weakness and numbness in the legs and feet, which can cause difficulty walking.
If your stenosis symptoms don't respond to home remedies or conservative treatment, or if the condition is so painful or debilitating that it affects your daily life, then you likely have severe spinal stenosis.
The optic nerve is a bundle of more than 1 million nerve fibers that carry visual messages. You have one connecting the back of each eye (your retina) to your brain.
The hallmark of arthritis—inflammation—can lead to vision problems when your eyes are affected. Some people with arthritis may develop scleritis, especially adults between the ages of 40 and 70 years old. This is when inflammation thins the sclera, or eye wall.
About the optic nerve
The optic nerve connects the eye to the brain. Our sight relies on the optic nerve transmitting information on shape, colour and pattern from the back of the eye (retina) to the brain's visual centres. Optic neuritis is inflammation of the optic nerve that causes blurred, grey and dim vision.
Vertigo, headache, palpitation, nausea, abdominal discomfort, tinnitus, blurred vision, and hypomnesia are common symptoms in patients with cervical spondylosis.
Your eye doctor can diagnose optic neuritis during a routine eye exam through a series of vision tests and looking at the structures inside your eye. Blood tests and MRIs may be ordered to check for other conditions related to optic neuritis.
Neuropathic Pain of the Cornea
Neuropathic eye pain can be perceived as itch, irritation, dryness, grittiness, burning, aching, and light sensitivity, which are integrated at higher brain centers and are patient specific. Hyperalgesia and allodynia draw a parallel in the cornea.
When a nerve in the spine is damaged it can cause pain, increased sensitivity, numbness and muscle weakness. Pain can originate from multiple nerve roots. Radicular pain refers to pain that comes from one single nerve root.
When a bulging or herniated disc occurs in the C5-C6 region, it can cause sharp pain that radiates from the neck to the shoulder, arms, hands, and fingers. It can also lead to muscle weakness, numbness, spasms, headaches, and neck stiffness. There may also be a cracking or popping sound when moving the neck.
Common problems we search for are eye misalignments, nearsightedness, farsightedness, cataracts, glaucoma, drooping eyelids, astigmatism, symptoms of any neurological disease, etc. Any number of these conditions will affect your eyesight and how you interpret the world around you.
The eyes are a window for our brain into the world. As functional neurologists, the eyes are our window to look into the brain and nervous system. Eye movement evaluation is a crucial part of our approach here at CFNC.
Neuro-ophthalmologists specialize in visual problems related to the nervous system, including loss of sight due to injury to the brain or the optic nerves which transmit visual signals from the eyes to the brain. Such injury may be caused by trauma, inflammation, strokes, tumors, toxicities or infections.