The Cause – And Cure – For Your Dizziness Problems
Dizziness is a common problem with many different causes. Standing up too fast may cause temporary dizziness. A drop in blood pressure can make you feel like you are falling (vertigo).
But when you experience frequent dizziness, it can pose risks for falling and disrupt your daily activities. Chronic dizziness can be caused by minor issues or more serious problems, including:
- Injury to the inner ear
- Medicine side effects
- Inner ear infection or disorder
- Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (moving your head in certain ways)
- Neck problems
- Stroke
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Brain injury
Working with a physician to find out the cause of your dizziness is important. You might be able to stop feeling dizzy with a simple change in medication.
You may also find relief from dizziness or its side effects by undergoing vestibular rehabilitation with a trained physical therapist.
What is Vestibular Rehabilitation?
Your vestibular system is located within your inner ear. If you are standing upright or lying down, it’s responsible for helping you understand keep your balance and understand how your body is oriented in space.
Your vestibular system can get throw off by many problems, causing dizziness and other symptoms like headache, nausea, neck pain and blurry vision. The goal of vestibular rehabilitation is to ease these symptoms, reduce your fall risk and, if possible, correct issues in the vestibular system.
How Does Vestibular Rehabilitation Work?
During vestibular rehabilitation, your physical therapist will create a personalized treatment plan based on the cause of your dizziness. You may participate in treatments like:
- Adaptation exercises that help your brain adjust to head movements that are causing dizziness
- Vestibular ocular exercises to move your head and eyes in ways that reduce vertigo
- Balance exercises to help retrain your body’s ability to balance
- Cardiovascular exercise to improve heart health and increase endurance
- Fall prevention to help keep you safe when you do feel dizzy
At Bon Secours, our physical therapists offer a customized vestibular rehabilitation program to help you with dizziness and its symptoms. Learn more about our program and find a location near you.