Have you ever felt unable to balance yourself while the room suddenly spins around you? The feeling of unsteadiness accompanied by unexplainable ringing in your ears can really impact your ability to get anything done. If you’re familiar with these symptoms, the chances are likely that you’ve suffered from unusual changes in your eyesight as well. All of these likely indicate Vertigo, a cluster of symptoms caused by other various types of conditions.
Vertigo is reported to be one of the most common health problems Americans face in the United States. In fact, nearly 40 percent of all people over the age of 40 are expected to experience vertigo at least once in their lifetime. It’s more commonly seen in elderly people, but it can affect men and women at any age. Experiencing vertigo may be temporary or permanent depending on the underlying condition, but it’s important to recognize that it is treatable and in many cases, preventable.
What Causes Vertigo
Those who experience vertigo report movement or spinning in the room when there is none. This often results in nausea and disability for patients. Vertigo can develop when there is a problem in your ear, brain, or sensory nerve pathway, but it’s typically a result of abnormal changes in the inner ears. This abnormal change occurs when the sensitive parts of your ears have trouble transporting information to your brain about your position. The inner ear helps keep our visual field balanced on the horizon we see in front of us and plays a major role in our vestibular system, which is responsible for sending information to our brain in the form of nerve impulses from special nerve endings. These special nerve endings are called sensory receptors, which is what our brain receives for interpretation and perception. Injuries, inflammation, ear infections or simply aging can provoke the likelihood for vertigo to develop.
The Human Balance System
Good balance is carried out by a complex set of systems which consists of: the proprioceptive system (responsible for touch), vestibular system (responsible for stability), and sensorimotor control system (controls our senses). A correctly functioning balance system is why we are able to see clearly while moving, determine direction and speed of movement, and make postural adjustments to maintain posture and stability in various conditions and activities. When our balance system is functioning improperly, symptoms like vertigo begin to surface.
How Physical Therapy Can Help Defeat Vertigo
When treating vertigo, identifying the underlying cause is important in order to restore the inner ear. The goal of physical therapy is to retrain these organs to work with your other senses to repair your sense of balance. I treat patients who experience vertigo using CranioSacral Therapy, a therapeutic approach aimed to release tensions in the soft tissue surrounding your central nervous system. Addressing and removing the compensations from your system will encourage fluid movement and drainage, which in turn, will aid and restore the proper functioning of your body. This type of therapy can resolve systemic imbalances in your body which makes it an excellent therapy for vertigo and other chronic conditions.
CranioSacral Therapy is just one part of a unique, personalized approach to Physical Therapy which has been developed over twenty years by Dr. Steve Kravitzof Steve Kravitz Physical Therapy. To learn more about how CranioSacral Therapy can help you, contact us or read more on our blog.
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