Before I had the MRI findings showing the 8mm herniation, I would often find myself with headaches and dizziness like most of us, along with some tingling in the arms, some weakness, and the other usual items.

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I would often get a massage from my wife that would improve symptoms quickly, along with doing neck exercises (rotation, rolling the next, flex/extend, etc). These would often improve my symptoms as well it seemed.

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Since being diagnosed, I often wondered about the effect of that. Chiari is obviously very person-specific, and we know that some people have CSF blockage on one side but not both, or have issues that others don't, etc.

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Is it possible though, that rotation/flexing/rolling of the neck could actually improve symptoms though? Now, bear in mind I'm absolutely not talking chiropractic adjustment, etc. I'm talking very gentle neck rolls, etc. Very controlled, relaxing, slow movements. Nothing with force.

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Occasionally while doing these I would notice a quick "squishing sound," as if you were forcing saliva through a gap in your teeth or something like that. Very quick, maybe half a second max, and then usually it didn't occur on the next neck movement. Typically always seemingly on the right side of my head/neck (where most of my head pain, eye pain, etc would be).

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It made me think now that I have an MRI finding, that perhaps what that was is the blocked CSF being moved (forced) through the opening as the tonsils and skull move around. Similar to a blockage in a hose holding water back, and then the hose being straightened out or adjusted and having the water then pushing/flowing through.

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I found the following NCBI article that notes that for some patients, flexion and extension moved the tonsils up or down. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26758883 It made me think if the tonsils are moving, perhaps it allows for the flow of CSF.

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So is it possible that these gentle movements are actually what help keep my symptoms largely at bay. Or am I just in a lucky period of remission/improvement? I don't do direct massage anymore on the neck with my wife, but I've done very slow neck movements which seem to keep almost all, if not the worst, of my symptoms from flaring.

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Any thoughts?