If you've ever had an attack of vertigo, you may have noticed that it's quite an unnerving feeling — no pun intended.
You aren't alone though — benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) affects millions of Americans every year. In fact, there are entire sub-specialties of medicine and physical therapy dedicated to helping patients overcome dizziness.
BPPV is the single most common cause of all dizziness routinely screened by physicians each year. If you're older than 50, there's more than a 50 percent chance that your dizziness is a simple case of BPPV.
Hallmarked by lightheadedness, imbalance, dizziness and occasionally nausea, BPPV can range in severity from mild and inconveniencing to completely disabling. Regardless of severity, cases of BPPV are generally resolvable within a few sessions of physical therapy.
While clinicians often find similarities between cases of BPPV, numerous disorders present with dizziness as a symptom, like low blood pressure, for example, and must be ruled out before proceeding with treatment.
Signs of neurologic distress encompass many of the symptoms that present in instances of BPPV. If you suspect that you may have BPPV, you should be examined by a clinician who deals directly with this type of problem on a regular basis to ensure nothing is missed.
The diagnosis of BPPV is generally made by a physical therapist and physician team together. A complex battery of head and neck movements combined with deliberate patient positioning to elicit symptoms is necessary to establish a treatment regimen. So, don't be alarmed if you experience symptoms during your evaluation — it's a normal part of the process.
Classically, BPPV has little to no response to standard anti-nausea medication prescribed by your doctor. Because BPPV is characterized as a physical problem within the canals of your inner ear, you may find that no medication is effective in alleviating your symptoms.
But as its name suggests, BPPV is benign in nature and rarely associated with problems of a more serious nature And fortunately, there are plenty of treatment strategies available to reduce and eliminate your symptoms.
Skilled physical therapy will restore to you back to baseline through a series of exercises designed to resolve the problem in the inner ear. These exercises can be continued at home for maintenance if needed, but most patients see near-full resolution within a couple of visits to a therapist.
If you're tried of being dizzy, make an appointment to be seen in physical therapy — we'll help you put a positive spin on your vertigo.
Joe DiVincenzo is a physical therapist and clinical specialist in manual therapy. He writes "On the Mend" weekly. Questions may be submitted to Joe by email joedivincenzo@comcast.net.
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