What is Vertigo?
Dizziness is an unpleasant feeling most people have experienced, often causing a spinning sensation, weakness and visual disturbances.
Vertigo is the most common symptom people associate with dizziness, defined as the feeling of your own body or the environment around you swaying or moving.
What is BPPV?
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is the most common type of dizziness or vertigo.
BPPV is a disorder of the inner ear that causes dizziness when a person’s head position changes, such as when moving from sitting to lying.
Patients with BPPV will also often report symptoms only occur in one direction. For example, they may feel dizzy only when looking to the left and not when looking to the right.
BPPV is a common disorder, with approximately 2.4% of people experiencing symptoms at some point in their lifetime. BPPV most commonly affects adults aged 40 to 70 years and can result in an increased risk of falls, depression and impairment of daily activities.
How Can Physiotherapy Help?
Your Physiotherapist will ask you questions about your symptoms and experiences with dizziness to determine whether the cause is BPPV. These questions will also help rule out any other causes of your symptoms.
Once a diagnosis of BPPV has been made, treatment involves a simple technique known as the Epley Manoeuvre. This technique involves your Physiotherapist assisting you into different positions while supporting your head. While it can sometimes cause nausea, it has been found to have an extremely high success rate in treating BPPV symptoms.
A 2001 study of the Epley Manoeuvre found 70% of patients had complete resolution of symptoms within 48 hours of the first treatment session.
Following treatment, your Physiotherapist will provide you with guidelines for managing symptoms over the following week.
Physiotherapy can also help with secondary problems that may be associated with dizziness, such as improving balance and decreasing the risk of falls.
If you’re ready to put a stop to your dizzy spells, contact us on 02 6255 2033 to book a vertigo consultation today!
Citations
1. Ruckenstein, Michael. (2001). Therapeutic Efficacy of the Epley Canalith Repositioning Maneuver. The Laryngoscope. 111. 940-5.
