VERTIGO TREATMENT
“I turn over in bed, I get a spin, and I’ll have to hold on thinking I’m going to fall out of bed, it’s that bad.” Mary Henderson’s vertigo symptoms were was so bad she couldn’t even get out of bed. “I missed a lot of work. I’ve been out of work for weeks sometimes with vertigo,” she says.
Mary came to Jim Megna, a physical therapist who specializes in the treatment of patients with vertigo. He treated her vertigo by performing a simple procedure of rotating the head back and to the side. It’s designed for patients who have vertigo due to the common inner ear problem called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV.
New research just released shows there is a simple office procedure that can get rid of a common and severe form of dizziness. Around twenty percent of dizzy patients suffer from something called BPPV, a condition where the person has the sensation of spinning. The study found the maneuver, called the Epley maneuver, works in over 90 percent of patients who suffer from vertigo.
Jim Megna says, “Vertigo is probably one of the most disturbing symptoms a person can experience.”
What causes vertigo?
The inner ear consists of three canals filled with fluid. Little hairs respond to the fluid movement and cause the normal sensation of movement and positioning.
BPPV is caused by little calcium crystals that break off a membrane in the base of the inner ear and over-stimulate the hairs, creating a sensation of spinning when in fact there is no movement.
The Epley maneuver, which consists of rotating the head backwards and around, forces the crystals around to the part where they’re normally reabsorbed by the body within a couple of weeks.
Megna says, “Benign positional vertigo is very treatable, often within just one or two office visits.”
That’s what happened with Mary. She says, “No dizzy spells. I feel like a whole new person, it’s like getting your life back.”
After the maneuver is done, patients need to stay upright and sleep in a chair for the first 24 hours so that the crystals don’t float back into the original position, causing the symptoms of vertigo.
For more information on vertigo, click here
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