By: Terry Abrams
Oftentimes when a patient is struggling with vertigo, dizziness, or feeling “off-balance”, vestibular rehabilitation with a vertigo Physical Therapist or Occupational Therapist can greatly help the patient to alleviate or mostly minimize the symptoms. Patients have a hard time connecting some of these sensations into the same category, whether it be feeling like they are on a boat, losing their balance if they move their head rapidly or change positions quickly, or feeling like they are about to “pass out”. Dizziness and vertigo can be similar feelings, with different degrees of spinning, objects appearing to “move around”, or general off-balance sensations that can cause patients to stumble and sometimes even fall down.
Losing balance and risk of falling is a huge problem with the elderly that can lead to hospitalization, severe injuries, and even death in head trauma cases. Strategies for falling should always be implemented, as well as techniques for getting up off the ground after falls, which unfortunately needs to be addressed before seniors get into a situation that is tricky to get out of. For balance and vertigo issues that are caused by “central” problems, these conditions are more difficult to treat because they are caused by disorders affecting the brain and spinal cord.
Diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA or Stroke), Brain lesions (white matter), and many more can cause these types of central vertigo and balance conditions that are treatable, but not necessarily 100% curable. Other Central Vertigo diagnoses would be Brain Tumors, Hydrocephalus, and many other conditions.
If the patient’s issues are not caused by central problems, then it’s likely that the vertigo or dizziness is caused by peripheral disorders. Meniere’s Disease, Vestibular Weaknesses, and BPPV (Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) are all peripheral vertigo diagnoses. Peripheral Vestibular disorders can be treated very successfully and fully using Vertigo PT, which means the same thing as Vestibular Rehabilitation (or rehab), since the issue is in the inner ear. Chronic conditions like Meniere’s Disease may have intermittent success, but may be recurrent in the future due to the chronic nature of the condition. But BPPV conditions are completely treatable, and can be often eradicated in under a week, which is a tremendous relief to a patient.
Balance disorders can take longer to get rid of, or to minimize, because of the multiple systems that can be involved in such deficits. Patients have to be prepared to work very hard in Vertigo PT to help to improve their balance. Dizziness is really just related to Vertigo, or a symptom of Vertigo. And feeling off-balance is connected to vertigo, proprioception, central conditions, or orthopedic issues as well. Improper foot-ware, decreased sensation in the feet or legs, arthritis in leg joints, and may other orthopedic deficiencies can cause balance disorders that should be treated, before a patient’s balance continues to decline.
If a patient isn’t sure what to do to treat their problem, it’s always best to start with a visit to a Dr. and start with a diagnosis to get the condition properly classified. Then after the visit to the Dr., the patient can then come to Physical Therapy for Vertigo PT, so that the problem can be eliminated or improved.
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