Can You Stop Vertigo?

AARP recently released an article written by Barbara Stepko on what to do to help stop vertigo. When the room starts spinning and a wave of nausea hits, there are some things that can lessen this reaction.

When things begin to spin in a circle when staring at them, that is vertigo. Having trouble keeping your balance and walking straight, is vertigo. Nearly 40% of adults in the U.S. will experience this unsettling sensation at one time or another during their lives, according to the University of California San Francisco. Vertigo is defined as an illusion of motion, often that the world is moving about you when it isn’t, said Steven Rauch, a Boston-based ENT otolaryngologist affiliated with Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Vertigo isn’t always a spinning sensation and could be rocking, swaying, tumbling or bouncing feeling. Inner ear infection and some medications that include those used to treat high blood pressure can bring on a bout of vertigo. The most common cause is an inner-ear condition named benign paroxysmal positional vertigo or BPPV. Around 1/2 of those over age 65 will suffer BPPV, according to the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic. Women are particularly prone to vertigo, of which queasiness and vomiting may be part of this package.

BPPV happens when tiny calcium carbonate crystals, normally residing in an inner-ear organ called the utricle that helps you keep your balance, breaks loose and travels into the semicircular canals of the inner ear. This might just simply be part of the normal aging process but it is a degenerative change in the inner ear. Just a bump on the head can dislodge the crystals. Kim Bell, a San Diego based doctor of physical therapy says that BPPV is positionally triggered, so when you move your head in certain ways, you can cause these crystals to move and bring an attack of vertigo.

When you feel fine at bedtime then roll over toward the bad ear to get out of bed in the morning, it can be triggered. Shifting the crystals sends a faulty signal from the inner ear to your brain how you’re moving that leads to the world spinning sensation you get. This normally lasts less than a minute but can return anytime you pitch your head to trigger another attack.

This condition usually goes away on its own but for immediate relief consider the Epley maneuver, typically performed by a vestibular rehabilitation therapist, occupational therapist, audiologist or ENT. This involves moving the head in a series of precise positions to allow the crystals to migrate out of the semicircular canals back to the original vestibular organ they came from.

Even following treatment for BPPV, some people may still have residual symptoms of imbalance or unsteadiness. It isn’t life-threatening but there are times when dizziness can point to more serious disorders. If there are symptoms in any other part of your body, take a trip to your doctor or the ER and have it checked out.

Dr Fredda Branyon