hey everybody it's doctor Jo and today
I'm going to show you some gaze
stabilization exercises for vertigo
let's get started
vertigo is a very general term it's
usually diagnosed a lot you have vertigo
but vertigo is a symptom it's not really
a diagnosis you can have positional
vertigo you can have centralized vertigo
you can have vestibular loss so it's
really just a symptom of many things
so these gaze stabilization exercises
are really for like a chronic dizziness
type of vertigo some people say that the
positional vertigo this doesn't really
help but in my opinion I think is worth
doing when you're doing your other
exercises with it as well so just to
know that when someone says vertigo is
not necessarily a specific diagnosis
it's just something a symptom that you
have and it could be something else so
with that said for these exercises it's
just like it sounds you are gazing upon
something and stabilizing your eyes so
what you want to do is make a target you
can put an X on a sticky note and put it
on a wall or you can just use your
finger but you want to keep your eyes on
the target
whatever you're looking at so when I do
it I'm going to do it at a slight angle
so you can see what I'm doing but when
you're doing it at home
you want it to be right in front of you
so you don't want your body or your head
to be an angle you want to be straight
in front of you but I feel like if I do
it I'm going to be looking at the camera
instead of my fingers so I'm gonna do it
at a slight angle also be aware that
while you're doing these it might
reproduce some of those Dizzy's so
thumbs you might start feeling a little
sick or nauseated getting that spinny
feeling so make sure you're in a safe
environment when you do it and make sure
that you don't have to go anywhere right
after you do these and then eventually
it will get better so I'm gonna just use
my finger to look at and keep my gaze on
my finger and then just move my head
side to side while I'm looking at my
finger so I'm trying to keep my eyes
there the whole time which sounds pretty
easy but if you have chronic dizziness
sometimes this is pretty hard to do so
just start off with
10 to 15 seconds of this eventually you
can work your way up to 30 seconds or a
minute but in the beginning you don't
want to do a whole lot because it might
reproduce some symptoms of dizziness so
after you go side to side then you're
gonna go up and down but same thing try
and keep your eyes on the target the
whole time which again is sometimes
harder than it sounds so just looking up
and down keeping those eyes on the
finger and moving the head so then after
you do that then you're gonna go at an
angle so I'm just gonna bring my head
one way and then down so again trying to
keep my eyes on my finger the whole time
it might look kind of funny because I'm
focusing very hard on that finger but
keeping that gaze in one spot and then
doing the other ankle so going up and
down so really just trying to retrain
your vision and so you don't have that
dizziness so it's it's an exercise
you're exercising those eyes trying to
get that stabilization back so as simple
as that and so it's just retraining your
eyes because a lot of times with that
dizziness you have what we call a
nystagmus which is that shifting of the
eyes and a lot of times if you're
getting tested by your doctor or your
physical therapist that's what they look
for they bring your head down and they
look to see if your eyes are bouncing
back and forth and so this is just a
great way to help strengthen that so you
don't have that dizziness or spinning
feeling all the time so if you have any
questions leave them in the comment
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remember be safe have fun and I hope you
feel better soon