vertigo physiotherapy

What is Vertigo?

There are many causes of vertigo (which is a term describing 'dizziness' or a spinning sensation). All dizziness should be investigated by a medical professional. Our Physiotherapists can diagnose your BPPV and provide immediate treatment.

Benign Paroxysmal positional Vertigo (BPPV) - sudden onset dizziness when moving your head. This can be associated with nausea, but the main symptom is a 'dizzy' or 'spinning' sensation which may feel like you're going to over balance. This sensation can be very strong, but lasts less than a minute. Commonly this will occur when rolling over in bed, sitting up, quickly turning your head or simply looking up or down. In most cases, the onset is 'idiopathic' (meaning of unknown cause). Occasionally BPPV can occur after a head trauma, and in the elderly it may be due to degenerative changes. Untreated, BPPV may resolve on its own in 6 weeks. However, 6 weeks is a long time when you're experiencing vertigo when you move! In most cases we can treat your BPPV and provide you with exercises to resolve your dizziness immediately, or within days.

BPPV is a problem in your Vestibular system. It is caused by crystals in the fluid deep inside the canals in your inner ears. They cannot be seen when a doctor looks in your ear, and are not associated with ear infections. The fluid in our inner ears provides messages for our brain, to help us stay balanced, letting us now the exact movements of our head, in relation to gravity. The crystals floating the fluid exaggerate these usual messages and provide information that the fluid is moving more than it really should be. This results in the brain feeling vertigo, until the fluid quickly settles down, as you stay still.

Physio treatment involves firstly diagnosing which of the semi-circular canals have the crystals inside. These canals are in your head, 3 on each side. The exact treatment is dependant on which canal is housing the misplaced the crystals. Many people try options they've seen on the internet, but they might not work for them if they are not doing the movements correctly, or more importantly, if the movements are not for the correct canal. The treatment is a painless series of head movements which assists the crystals to move out of the fluid in the canals, and back to where they belong. Often, results are immediate!