Three reasons to consider physical therapy for your vertigo

The room feels like it’s spinning around you, and it feels like you can’t keep your balance. These sensations are related to an issue called vertigo, and it can make doing normal daily activities much more difficult. There are many treatment options you can try for vertigo, but one option you may not have considered is physical therapy. Here are three reasons you should consider physical therapy for vertigo: 

1.    Helps you learn vertigo-reducing movements

One of the most common causes of vertigo is a condition called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). This issue occurs when the calcium carbonate crystals in your inner ear break loose from their normal position. When these crystals start floating around in your inner ear fluid, the brain thinks you’re moving very fast. Vertigo is the result of your brain receiving these false signals. 

Using vertigo physical therapy movements like the Epley maneuver, physical therapists can help reposition the loose crystals. In turn, this can help reduce the symptoms of vertigo, and your therapist can teach you how to do these movements on your own. This way you can do them if your vertigo comes back in the future. 

2.   Helps retrain your vestibular nerves

Another reason to seek physical therapy for vertigo is it can help retrain vestibular nerves. With certain vertigo-causing conditions, the root cause may not be treatable. One example is if you have some form of vestibular nerve damage from a car accident or sports injury. However, this doesn’t mean there’s no hope for your condition. 

In fact, physical therapists can help your body find ways to compensate for vestibular system damage. Compensation is something your body can slowly do over time, and it involves training the brain to use vision and other senses instead of the vestibular system. Physical therapy helps promote compensation with habituation, gaze stabilization and balance training exercises. These exercises are combined into a personalized program to fit the needs of an individual patient. 

3.   Helps improve your quality of life

One of the worst things about conditions that cause vertigo is that they make normal daily activities more difficult. After all, it’s hard to walk or even stand up when the room feels like it’s spinning. For instance, you have to be able to balance yourself in a standing position in order to cook meals. If you can’t, you could drop the meal on the floor or injure yourself. Vertigo can also make it much harder to take even short trips outside your home, and this can lead to feelings of isolation and depression. You may even feel like you’ve lost your independence because of vertigo. By helping you learn helpful movements and retrain your brain, vertigo physical therapy can restore your ability to do normal daily activities and improve your quality of life. 

You can find vertigo physical therapy at Advent Physical Therapy

At Advent Physical Therapy, our team can help you treat vertigo and other balance issues. We offer personalized vestibular rehabilitation plans designed to treat vertigo. We can also help you build a balance training program if you have osteoarthritis or other conditions affecting your balance. 

Take the next step to find out how we can help you. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.