Located in your inner ear, the vestibular system is responsible to help you to maintain balance and spatial orientation, and to coordinate eye movement. It provides feedback to your brain about head position, allowing you to stand upright, move steadily, and stay focused while you are in motion.
When the vestibular system is not working as it should, your balance is disrupted. Symptoms of this dysfunction may present as dizziness, vertigo, unsteady walking, sudden blurry vision, headaches, nausea and even vomiting. Consequently, you are left feeling disoriented and scared. Imagine not being able to get up or drive to work because it feels like the world keeps spinning non-stop.
Many physiotherapists have training to provide Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT). VRT helps patients who suffer from conditions like benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), Ménière’s disease, labyrinthitis, vestibular neuritis, and cervicogenic dizziness. The goal of VRT is to retrain the brain to compensate for vestibular dysfunction.
Depending on the assessment findings, your physiotherapist will teach you customized exercises to retrain how you respond to disorienting stimuli from the inner ear. These exercises are the cornerstone of VRT. Adaptation exercises teach the brain to adapt to new input through repeated head and eye movements, and restore gaze stability. Habituation exercises use gradual exposure to desensitize the brain to movements that trigger symptoms. Finally, balance retraining improves stability and coordination by challenging your balance in standing, walking and while turning. Your physiotherapist will also screen for and treat any neck and upper back issues which can contribute to dizziness and headaches.
In Vancouver, you can see physiotherapist Jason Tong at our clinic who is trained in VRT. Schedule an appointment with him to get help for your dizziness and vertigo symptoms.