02/09/2025
Acupuncture is often used to help people with vertigo, especially when it comes from issues like inner ear imbalance, poor circulation, tension, or stress. Here’s how it may work, from both a biomedical and a Chinese medicine perspective:
🔹 Biomedical View
Improving blood flow and oxygenation
Needling certain points increases local circulation and helps the inner ear and brain get better oxygen supply, which may reduce dizziness.
Balancing the nervous system
Acupuncture can calm the sympathetic nervous system (stress response) and enhance parasympathetic activity (rest and balance), which steadies signals that control balance.
Reducing inflammation
Research shows acupuncture may reduce inflammation in the vestibular (inner ear) system and surrounding tissues, helping reduce vertigo episodes.
Releasing muscle tension
If vertigo is linked to tight neck/shoulder muscles compressing blood vessels or nerves, acupuncture can relax these areas and ease symptoms.
🔹 Chinese Medicine View
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), vertigo is seen as a symptom of internal imbalance. Common patterns include:
Liver Yang Rising / Liver Wind – dizziness with headaches, irritability, or ringing in the ears.
Phlegm-Damp blocking the head – heaviness, nausea, foggy head, often linked to digestive weakness.
Kidney Yin Deficiency – chronic vertigo with fatigue, poor memory, and tinnitus.
👉 Treatment focuses on restoring balance by:
Calming the Liver, extinguishing internal Wind.
Resolving Phlegm and clearing Damp.
Nourishing Kidney Yin and supporting essence.
🔹 Common Acupuncture Points for Vertigo
GB20 (Fengchi 风池, “Wind Pool”) – back of the neck; clears Wind, improves circulation to the head.
DU20 (BaiHui 百会 ）The name signifies the meeting point of a hundred meridians or pathways in the body. This point is located at the crown of the head, where various neurological synapses and pathways converge.
LI4 (Hegu合谷) – hand point; regulates Qi and circulation.
ST36 (Zusanli足三里) – leg point; strengthens energy and digestion, resolves Damp.
PC6 (Neiguan内关) – wrist point; calms nausea, regulates the heart and mind.
KI3 (Taixi太溪) – ankle point; nourishes Kidney Yin.
🔹 Evidence
Clinical studies show acupuncture can reduce the frequency and severity of vertigo attacks (including Meniere’s disease).
Often used alongside lifestyle advice, diet changes, and sometimes herbal medicine for stronger results.
✅ In short: Acupuncture helps vertigo by regulating circulation, calming the nervous system, reducing inner ear inflammation, and restoring body balance (Qi, Yin/Yang, Damp/Phlegm).
