Welcome to Living Healthy Chicago.
I'm Jane Clauss.
We're starting today's show, talking about vertigo.
It's a condition that can have a significant impact
on how you live your everyday life.
So I'm heading to physical therapy and balance centers
to learn more about what can be done to relieve symptoms.
(upbeat music)
If anybody has ever had vertigo,
you know how awful it can be.
But, for those people who have it, explain what vertigo is.
- So, vertigo is essentially a false sensation
of movement or spinning.
It occurs when these crystals in our inner ear
get dislodged.
It's very common
that it gets triggered by positional head movements.
So a lot of times it happens when you're lying down,
maybe looking all the way up
or looking all the way down with your head.
So vertigo itself is technically a symptom
and not a diagnosis.
So, the most common thing that we see is BPPV,
which stands for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.
Positional vertigo happens
when these crystals in our inner ear get dislodged
and they start floating around in these semicircular canals
in our inner ear.
- Do we know what causes it?
- We don't necessarily always know what causes it.
There are instances where there is an inner ear infection
or some head trauma.
And that stuff makes sense, because something like that
has caused those crystals to be dislodged.
But at the same time, there are a lot of instances
where people just come in
and they don't know what triggered it.
It's one of the second most common complaints
heard in doctor's offices.
And positional vertigo is the most common
of those complaints.
- If they're experiencing the unbalance or dizziness,
when should they seek medical attention?
- If they have that sensation of spinning,
I think the sooner the better,
and especially because it can be fixed.
- It's treatable with some different types of movements.
How does that work?
- So essentially what we're doing is,
we are taking you through a series of head movements
to basically bring those crystals back around the canal
and back to their home where they're supposed to be.
It's important to know that
not all vertigo is treated the same,
in the sense of, if it's in a different canal,
we would do a different maneuver to treat it.
And that's why we do kind of recommend seeking
a professional's opinion,
that way we can diagnose which canal it's in.
- Today you've got a couple of exercises to show us
that would then treat positional vertigo
in different parts of the ear.
- Correct. (upbeat music)
So what we're gonna do first,
is we're gonna check for the right posterior canal.
So, I'm gonna turn your head about 45 degrees to the right.
And then on my count we're gonna fall back
and let your head hang off the table, okay?
- Yeah. - All right.
One, two, three, come on back down with me.
Relax your neck.
And right now what I'm doing
is looking for nystagmus in the eyes,
which would be kind of some rapid movement.
And right now everything looks pretty good.
If you'd like next, I could essentially show you
what the maneuver would look like to treat
some of those more common types of vertigo.
- Perfect, let's do it.
- So we're gonna turn your head to the right.
We're gonna fall back.
We're gonna let your head off with me supporting it.
Then the next position I would do,
is while maintaining her in full extension,
I would just rotate her to the left.
You are going to turn onto your left side
and your head's gonna be looking down at my feet.
Ready? - Hmm-hmm.
- Right there, perfect.
It would not be uncommon for there to be dizziness
in this position.
We essentially wait for those symptoms to pass.
And once the eyes and the dizziness has settled down,
that's when we determine when we move to the next position.
- And is there a name for this maneuver?
- It's the Epley maneuver.
- So, those are great exercises to do for a treatment,
but you have some ways to manage symptoms at home.
- Correct.
So, a lot of times you can't always get in right away
for treatment.
And if that's the case, then we don't want you
to just constantly be in a state of dizziness
because it is unsettling.
Back is flat against the chair.
Your arms are on the arm rest,
your feet are flat on the floor.
And then a lot of times
we just do some breathing techniques.
And so you're just trying to kind of ground yourself
by increasing your points of contact
as something that is not moving.
And then the last thing is,
just kind of fixating on a point.
Fixating your gaze on that point,
will actually help kind of calm the symptoms down as well.
- What's the one thing you really want everyone to remember?
- Well, I want people to understand that it is common
and it does affect a lot of people.
And even though it can be super scary when it first happens,
it is treatable.
- Thank you so much.
- Yes, thank you guys for having me.
- Absolutely.
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