Convergence Insufficiency and Convergence Spasm: Foundational Movements of the Eyes
August 20, 2023
Convergence Insufficiency and Convergence Spasm are major contributors to numerous neurological symptoms such as double vision (diplopia), blurry vision, focus issues, eye tracking issues, fatigue, being overwhelmed in busy environments, driving difficulty, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, and migraines. It is often seen after concussions, but can present from unknown sources. Regardless of the source, it can be fixed and symptoms will disappear.
The ability to bring our eyes closer to together or farther away is a foundational movement for any visual activity, including moving from one target to another, following a target, maintaining our focus on an object, reading, or scrolling. When this is not occurring, we often experience symptoms that occur as headaches and migraines around the eye and strain to the eyes themselves as they struggle to focus properly. This often leads to neck strain as the body compensates.
There usually isn't a problem with the eyes themselves, but in the brain's ability to send signals to the eyes. If you turn the water down at the faucet connected to a hose, less water comes out. There isn't a problem with the hose, just the amount of water available has changed. Similar to the hose analogy, this can be corrected by increasing the water, or signal in this case. Although the eyes seem like the problem, eye movement exercises are often not the cure, which are commonly prescribed. Through a comprehensive evaluation we can locate the source of the brain signal error and create treatments for the brain area that is sending poor signals through functional neurology (neuroplasticity rehabilitation). Simply working the eyes harder is like breaking a bone and standing on it more. We need to treat the source, which is often witin the vestibular system or proprioceptive systems of the brain that are commonly involved after concussions, illnesses, surgeries, or often unknown.
Functional neurolog treatments focus on the areas of the brain or body that are causing the resulting weak signal (pre-synaptic). By turning up the dial in that region of the brain through neuroplasticity treatments, we can restore communication.
The visual system is highly connected throughout the brain, so when there is a problem, multiple regions are impacted. This causes more symptoms then when we started as areas continue to break down due to poor signaling. Not only that, the compensation that occurs from the original injury may create additional symptoms. It's essential that we locate the source of the convergence insufficiency or spasm, which often resolves all, or most of the symptoms.
If you haven't found anwers to your symptoms, or you've been treating this with eye exercises alone and it's just getting worse, it may be because you're not treating the source, which is funtional communication within the brain. Functional Neurologists at Portland Chiropractic Neurology are highly trained in evaluating and treating the fucntional areas responsible for this. We treat this every day as it is one of the more common reasons people come to our office. Most individuals do not recognize the condition, but the symptoms. If you're still struggling, we may be able to help.
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