Vertigo

Research suggests that up to one-third of all U.S. adults age 50+ experience occasional dizziness or imbalance, aka vertigo. For those people, the chance of falling is much greater than for the general population. A common cause of dizziness is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). 

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HOW DO WE GET OUR SENSE OF BALANCE?

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Your sense of position in space and relationship with gravity involves the coordination of three information sources:

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1. Your eyes, which tell your brain where the horizon is. 

2. Nerve endings concentrated in your joints, called proprioceptors, that tell your brain how your joints are positioned. 

3. Your vestibular system, which consists of nerve endings suspended in fluid inside your inner ear. Whenever you tilt your head in any direction, the nerve endings of your vestibular system move and sway within their fluid, sending information to your brain about your position in space.   

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If the information from these three sources, for whatever reason, doesn't make sense to your brain, then your brain interprets this as being off-balance. Think of amusement park rides where you're sitting still inside a "spaceship" in front of a giant screen showing images of stars and asteroids flying by. Your eyes are telling your brain that you're moving, but your proprioceptors and vestibular system are telling your brain that you aren't moving. This mismatch tends to result in dizziness and sometimes nausea. 

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SOME DIFFERENT BALANCE DISORDERS

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Here, we will discuss a fairly common cause of vertigo known as BPPV. But before we get into that, let's briefly go over some other causes of disequilibrium that you might want to ask your doctor about: 

 

Labyrinthitis

 

 

Acute Vestibular Neuropathy

 

 

Meniere Disease

 

 

Head Injury

 

 

CAUSES & SYMPTOMS OF BBPV​

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TREATMENT OPTIONS

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HOW STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION CAN HELP

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