What Can You Do For Vertigo?

December 9, 2021

Vertigo

Vertigo

Vertigo can be treated and many times will go away on its own. Here are some ways you can treat it.

What is Vertigo?

Vertigo is a feeling of a sudden spinning sensation where you feel like you or the area around you is spinning. The sudden feeling of dizziness often originates from the change of your head position. Vertigo is not a disease and can more than likely be treated. BPPV is a form of vertigo and can be treated. Peripheral vertigo has more to do with your inner ear and central vertigo occurs when there may be an issue with the brain such as a brain tumor or traumatic event.

Symptoms of Vertigo

Typical symptoms may include swaying, tilting, and spinning. Other symptoms may also include nausea, jerking eye movements, headache, hearing loss, and ringing in the ears. Symptoms may come and go or last for a couple of hours.

Read this blog to find out how to treat dizziness.

Causes

Vertigo is often caused by an inner ear problem. Some causes are:

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV): This occurs when small pieces of calcium are dislodged and collected in the inner ear. BPPV can occur for no reason and may be associated with age.

Watch this video to learn techniques to help with BPPV from Preferred Physical Therapy located in Glendale, Arizona.

Meniere’s Disease:

This happens in the inner ear where a buildup of fluid and changing of pressure in the ear. This may cause vertigo along with hearing loss.

Vestibular Neuritis or Labyrinthitis:

This problem is usually related to an infection. This infection can cause inflammation in the inner ear around nerves that are important for your balance.

Treatment

Many times vertigo will go away on its own or some treatment may be needed.

Vestibular Rehabilitation:

This is a type of physical therapy which aims to help strengthen the vestibular system. If vertigo is a recurring issue for you this may be a good route to take. At Preferred Physical Therapy in Glendale, Arizona we take this approach when treating vertigo. We learn about your cause and tailor a plan to specifically treat you.

 Exercises:

  • Sitting down in a chair so that your feet are touching the floor. Place your hand on your thighs or knees. Then round your back towards the chair and you can drop your head down to get a neck stretch as well. Only for 5 to 10 seconds then come out of that in the opposite direction arching your chest forward going back and forth.
  • Another great sitting down exercise is sitting nice and tall keeping your shoulders down. Then drop your ear down to your shoulder holding for about 15-20 seconds. Then switch to the other side. No need to stretch super far to where you are in pain.

To follow along with these exercises watch this video.

Medicine: Some medications may be needed to help relieve nausea or motion sickness related to vertigo. If you have an infection in your ear you may need antibiotics to help relieve that pain. Make sure you consult with your doctor if you think you have an infection.

Surgery: In some more serious cases, surgery is needed for vertigo but not common.

How Do you Get Rid of Vertigo Fast?

The exercises mentioned above are helpful tools one can use to relieve themselves from an attack. Sitting or taking a minute to regather yourself can help to resolve your attack. If you are able to sit in a dark room lying down may also help to get rid of vertigo fast.

How to Prevent Vertigo Attacks

Many times vertigo can not be prevented. Vertigo happens when a fast head movement is performed such as standing up from sitting, turning your head fast, getting out of bed, or getting hit in the head. You can try to prevent attacks by making sure to move your head slowly when changing position or being active.

How Can We Help You?

At Preferred Physical Therapy in Glendale, Arizona where Dr. Nick Hunter owns and operates the clinic, we treat Vertigo all the time. Many patients come to us hoping they will be able to treat it. We learn about their problem and symptoms, get down to the root cause, and make a personalized treatment plan to help our patients reach their goals. At our clinic, we spend one-on-one hands-on time with our patients along with exercises to complete. We want to help our patients see the value of having treatment without surgery, painkillers, and injections even if they have had pain for years. check out our page to learn more about how physical therapy can help you: https://preferredptaz.com/vertigo/

Hear From One Of Our Patients

One of our patients fell down and hit their head causing them to have a very scary accident where she ended up bruising her head. She did not want this to happen ever again and decided to come to physical therapy. She’s been to a few different physical therapy clinics and she said she’s never been to a clinic like this before.

The previous one she went to the doctor barely paid any attention to her and just watched tv. She was very sad she could not swim and go hiking as she enjoyed being very active. Once she came to Preferred Physical Therapy she was surprised at the care we gave her. She was glad we treated her as an individual and took our time getting to know her and her story.

She is very happy she can now go back to swimming and being active and most importantly being independent.

To hear more in-depth about her experience watch this video Balance-Kathryn’s Success Story

 

Nick Hunter, PT, DPT
Latest posts by Nick Hunter, PT, DPT (see all)

You Might Also Like...