Understanding Dizziness
Dizziness is common in people over 20, and it can be a big problem in daily life. Feeling unsteady, lightheaded, or like the room is spinning is alarming and makes daily tasks difficult. The good news is that dizziness often has treatable causes, and your physical therapist can be the perfect person to help.
Dizziness isn’t a specific problem – it’s a symptom that can be caused by many different issues. Feeling dizzy most commonly occurs due to problems with the inner ear. Still, it can also be caused by vision, joint or muscle issues in the neck, migraines, changes in blood pressure, head injuries, or other neurological problems.
How Physical Therapists Help
To understand dizziness and how a PT can help, you must know a little about how balance works. Your brain uses information from your inner ears, your vision, and input from your joints about their position and movement to keep you balanced and stable. Typically, all of this information paints the same picture for your brain. If your brain gets conflicting information – say, your inner ear sends different information than vision and your joints – that often results in dizziness, unsteadiness, or vertigo.
Your physical therapist will ask questions about your history and then test all of the systems that help you stay balanced to determine the cause of your dizziness.
Your treatment plan will vary depending on what your PT finds. Some typical examples include:
Exercises
Your PT may prescribe specific exercises to improve your balance, strengthen or stretch specific muscles, or help retrain your brain to interpret sensory information. These can include gaze stabilization exercises to help your eyes and inner ears work better together, habituation exercises to help your brain get used to different input types, and balance training on different surfaces.
Canalith repositioning maneuvers (CRM)
Suppose your dizziness is caused by benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), a specific inner ear problem. In that case, your therapist may perform maneuvers to reposition tiny crystals within your ear canal, alleviating your vertigo. They can also teach you how to do these at home.
Education
Your therapist will educate you about your condition, how to manage dizziness, and exercises you can perform at home. They may also help you modify activities that cause dizziness or train you on ways to work through it.
Dizziness doesn’t have to interfere with life. Physical therapists can help reduce dizziness, improve balance, lower the risk of falls, and increase confidence in daily activities.
If you’re experiencing dizziness, speak with your medical team and see if physical therapy is the right treatment for you. The team at Dosher Physical Therapy will work with you and your physicians to create a care plan tailored to your needs.
