Whether you have a diagnosis or are still searching for answers, explore the conditions and symptoms commonly seen at Hope Southlake.
Choose from our eight broad clinical specialty categories
Specialized upper cervical care for persistent symptoms after head injuries, whiplash, or concussions when standard imaging shows no abnormalities.
Find lasting relief from chronic migraines, cervicogenic headaches, tension-type headaches, and occipital neuralgia by addressing cranio-cervical tension.
Gentle, specialized care for debilitating facial pain, trigeminal neuralgia, and Bell’s palsy by reducing mechanical stress on cranial nerve pathways.
Stop the spinning and regain your balance. Precise upper cervical care for vertigo, BPPV, Ménière’s disease, vestibular migraines, and chronic disequilibrium.
Supportive upper cervical care for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), orthostatic intolerance, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction.
Restore mental clarity, sustainable energy, and deep restorative sleep by improving cerebrospinal fluid dynamics and calming nervous system hyperarousal.
Help your body shift out of chronic fight-or-flight. Gentle upper cervical adjustments support parasympathetic recovery, resilience, and heart rate variability (HRV).
Target the structural source of chronic neck pain, bulging or herniated cervical discs, cervical radiculopathy, and radiating arm numbness without surgery.
Medically recognized conditions and clinical topics evaluated at Hope Southlake
A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth within the skull.
View Condition Guide →Commonly known as Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS), this condition describes a complex constellation of physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms that persist beyond the typical 7-to-14-day recovery window.
View Condition Guide →Whiplash-Associated Disorder (WAD) describes the spectrum of neck-related symptoms following rapid acceleration and deceleration forces, commonly from motor vehicle collisions, sports impacts, or falls.
View Condition Guide →Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) results from an external mechanical force causing brain dysfunction, categorized clinically as mild (concussion), moderate, or severe based on Glasgow Coma Scale scores.
View Condition Guide →Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is an acquired injury caused by sudden physical damage to the brain. While medical stabilization is paramount, lingering functional deficits often involve secondary cervical dysfunction.
View Condition Guide →A neurological disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of moderate to severe pulsating, throbbing headache pain, frequently unilateral and aggravated by routine physical activity.
View Condition Guide →Migraine with aura involves reversible focal neurological symptoms—most often visual phenomena like scintillating scotomas, zigzag lines, or blind spots—that typically precede the headache phase.
View Condition Guide →Chronic migraine is defined as experiencing 15 or more headache days per month for at least three consecutive months, with at least 8 of those days meeting full migraine criteria.
View Condition Guide →A secondary headache characterized by pain referred to the head from bony structures or soft tissues of the cervical spine, commonly starting in the neck or occiput and spreading forward.
View Condition Guide →The most common primary headache disorder, presenting as mild to moderate dull, non-pulsatile pain described as a tight band or vice around the forehead, temples, or back of the head.
View Condition Guide →A neurological condition caused by irritation or entrapment of the greater or lesser occipital nerves, characterized by piercing, throbbing, or electric-shock-like chronic pain in the upper neck and scalp.
View Condition Guide →A chronic neuropathic pain disorder affecting the 5th cranial (trigeminal) nerve, characterized by sudden, severe, unilateral, electric-shock-like spasms of excruciating facial pain.
View Condition Guide →An acute, unexplained weakness or paralysis of facial muscles on one side of the face resulting from inflammation or compression of the 7th cranial (facial) nerve.
View Condition Guide →A false sensation of spinning, rotational movement, or tilting of oneself or the surrounding environment, resulting from dysfunction within the vestibular system or its central connections.
View Condition Guide →An inner-ear disorder characterized by episodic vertigo attacks lasting hours, fluctuating low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus, and a sensation of ear fullness (aural fullness).
View Condition Guide →A common inner ear disorder where calcium carbonate crystals (otoconia) become dislodged and migrate into the semicircular canals, causing brief episodes of intense rotational vertigo when changing head positions.
View Condition Guide →A variant of migraine characterized by recurrent episodes of vertigo, motion intolerance, and spatial disequilibrium, occurring with or without significant headache pain.
View Condition Guide →The conscious perception of sound—such as ringing, buzzing, clicking, or hissing—in one or both ears in the absence of an external acoustic stimulus.
View Condition Guide →Persistent unsteadiness, disequilibrium, or impaired spatial orientation that makes walking, turning, or navigating uneven ground challenging and increases fall risk.
View Condition Guide →An umbrella term describing disorders involving dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates involuntary body functions including heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, digestion, and pupil response.
View Condition Guide →A form of dysautonomia characterized by an excessive heart rate increase of 30+ bpm (or exceeding 120 bpm) within 10 minutes of standing upright, in the absence of orthostatic hypotension.
View Condition Guide →A condition in which an individual develops symptoms—including lightheadedness, fatigue, cognitive fog, visual dimming, and weakness—while standing upright that are relieved by sitting or lying down.
View Condition Guide →A subjective cognitive impairment characterized by mental cloudiness, sluggish information processing, forgetfulness, and impaired concentration and executive functioning.
View Condition Guide →Unrelenting physical and mental exhaustion that lasts for weeks or months, is not substantially alleviated by rest, and significantly reduces participation in work and family activities.
View Condition Guide →Difficulty initiating sleep, frequent nocturnal awakenings, early morning waking, or achieving non-restorative sleep, compromising daytime physiological and psychological functioning.
View Condition Guide →The physiological balance between sympathetic ("fight-or-flight") and parasympathetic ("rest, digest, and heal") branches of the autonomic nervous system.
View Condition Guide →Persistent physiological activation or difficulty returning to a calm baseline following physical, mental, or emotional stressors, resulting in systemic allostatic overload.
View Condition Guide →The physiological variation in time intervals between consecutive heartbeats (R-R intervals), reflecting the dynamic balance and adaptability of the autonomic nervous system.
View Condition Guide →A non-diagnostic functional framework for active adults, athletes, and executives seeking to maximize nervous system efficiency, biomechanical symmetry, and systemic resilience.
View Condition Guide →Pathological changes, dehydration, degeneration, bulging, or herniation involving one or more intervertebral fibrocartilage discs in the cervical spine (most commonly C5-C6 or C6-C7).
View Condition Guide →A neurological condition caused by compression, inflammation, or irritation of a cervical nerve root as it exits the neuroforamen, producing radiating pain, numbness, and motor weakness.
View Condition Guide →Persistent or recurrent discomfort, aching, tightness, or restricted mobility in the cervical spine lasting longer than three months, resistant to conventional conservative treatments.
View Condition Guide →Persistent traumatic neck pain and biomechanical instability following rapid cervical hyperextension and hyperflexion, commonly accompanied by facet sprains and muscular guarding.
View Condition Guide →Explore plain-language descriptions and questions matching what you physically feel
You completed your initial medical rest, stayed off screens, and were told your brain has recovered. Yet weeks or months later, you know deep down you are not yourself. You feel fatigued by midday, your head feels heavy and tight, and everyday tasks require double the mental effort.
Since your car accident, you wake up with a dull ache at the back of your head that spreads into your temples. Sudden movements make you dizzy or off-balance, and riding in a car makes you nauseous.
Your thoughts feel slow, searching for words is frustrating, and reading more than a few pages leaves you exhausted. It feels like a thick haze sits between you and the rest of the world.
Your neck feels tight, sore, and locked up ever since your head injury. Turning your head triggers a catching pain, and the base of your skull feels constantly bruised or tender to the touch.
You were told concussions heal in two weeks. But you are at month three, six, or twelve, and you are still struggling with daily headaches, light sensitivity, and exhaustion.
Your headaches almost always begin as tightness or an ache at the base of your neck. Over the next hour, that ache creeps up the back of your head, over your crown, and lodges behind one of your eyes.
It’s not necessarily a sharp throbbing pain, but an unrelenting sensation of heaviness and pressure, as if your head is trapped in a tight helmet or swollen from the inside out.
You constantly find yourself rubbing the two hard knobs at the base of your skull. The area feels sore, tight, and tender, making resting your head on a pillow or looking down at a phone painful.
Without warning, sudden electric shocks or jabbing stabs of intense pain shoot from your upper neck up into your scalp. The attacks last only seconds, but they make you flinch in agony.
When your headaches hit, normal conversation sounds like shouting and supermarket fluorescent lights feel blinding. You find yourself retreating into dark, silent rooms wearing sunglasses indoors.
You take ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or prescription triptans, and the pain fades for a few hours. But by the next morning or afternoon, the headache returns with a vengeance.
A sudden, searing lightning bolt of pain shoots through your cheek, jaw, or teeth. It takes your breath away and leaves you trembling, wondering when the next unpredictable strike will occur.
One half of your face aches with deep, persistent burning or throbbing that centers around your cheekbone, behind your eye, and along your jawline, leaving you exhausted.
You avoid washing your face, brushing your teeth, or chewing on one side because the slightest physical touch sends shockwaves of pain through your jaw and cheek.
You looked in the mirror and noticed one side of your mouth won’t lift when you smile, your eyelid won’t fully shut, or liquid dribbles from the corner of your lips.
You roll over in bed or turn your head quickly to check your blind spot, and the whole room begins spinning violently around you for 20 to 30 seconds, leaving you nauseated and clutching the wall.
Whenever you rise from a chair or walk across a room, you feel woozy, floaty, or unsteady on your feet. You find yourself looking down at your feet to keep from drifting off course.
Your ENT, neurologist, and MRI results all came back "completely normal," yet you live every day feeling foggy, disoriented, and as if you could tip over at any moment.
One of your ears feels constantly plugged, muffled, or full of pressure, like you just stepped off an airplane. Popping your ears doesn’t help, and a persistent ringing sound fills the silence.
Whenever your neck becomes stiff and painful from working at a desk or driving, a wave of lightheadedness, wooziness, or unsteadiness follows right behind it.
The room isn’t spinning, but your body feels like it is on the deck of a boat in rough water. When you sit or stand still, you feel an internal bobbing, swaying, or floating sensation.
You sit down and your heart rate is 65 bpm. You stand up to walk to the kitchen, and within two minutes your watch shows 110, 120, or 130 bpm. Your chest pounds, and your head feels light.
Whenever you rise from a chair, bed, or the floor, your vision dims, your ears ring, and a wave of lightheadedness washes over you, forcing you to freeze or sit right back down.
Taking a warm shower leaves you exhausted, breathless, and needing to sit on the shower floor. In summer heat, your symptoms flare up instantly, leaving you drained for the rest of the day.
You feel caught in an exhausting trifecta: your heart races over small tasks, your brain feels trapped in thick fog, and you feel profoundly exhausted despite sleeping.
You used to enjoy working out, but now even light walking or basic household chores causes your heart to spike, leaves you dizzy, and triggers a multi-day physical crash.
You go to bed on time, sleep 8 to 9 hours without waking, yet your alarm goes off and you feel as though you haven’t slept a wink. Your limbs feel heavy, your head feels cloudy, and you dread getting out of bed.
You sit down at work to complete a simple email or report, and your brain refuses to engage. You reread the same paragraph four times, struggle to recall common words, and feel constantly spaced out.
You drag yourself through the afternoon barely able to keep your eyes open. But the second your head hits the pillow at 10 PM, an invisible switch flips: your heart beats harder, your thoughts race, and sleep is impossible.
Your alarm goes off, and you feel as though you were physically run over during the night. Your neck and upper back are stiff, your head is heavy, and it takes hours of coffee to become functional.
You aren’t dealing with just one symptom—you face a cluster: a dull headache at the base of your skull, lightheaded unsteadiness when moving, and a persistent fog clouding your thoughts.
Even when there is no danger, deadline, or conflict, your body feels as though it is running from a predator: shallow breathing, clenched jaw, tight stomach, and an internal tremor that never fully settles.
You sit on the couch to watch a movie or try to take a relaxing weekend break, but your body won’t cooperate. You feel an inner motor running, your legs are restless, and you feel guilty for sitting still.
You aren’t feeling nervous or scared, yet your heart suddenly begins pounding in your chest and a strange internal vibration or shakiness spreads through your torso and arms.
You monitor your biometrics with a smart ring or watch. No matter how clean your diet is or how early you go to bed, your HRV numbers stay in the tank and your recovery score is stuck in the red.
It starts as a deep ache in the side of your neck, then shoots like a hot wire down through your trapezius, between your shoulder blades, and into your triceps or forearm.
You wake up in the middle of the night shaking your hand to get feeling back into your fingers. Holding a steering wheel or typing sends pins and needles into your thumb, index, or pinky finger.
You turn your head to back out of the driveway and a sharp, breathtaking pinch catches in your neck, freezing your movement and leaving your muscles locked in a spasm.
Your day starts with a stiff neck, progresses into a tight band around your forehead by 1:00 PM, and leaves you feeling lightheaded, unsteady, and exhausted by the time you drive home.
Dr. Kramer offers a free consultation to review your health history and determine if upper cervical care is right for you.
