Vertigo is a spinning sensation, often experienced as a feeling that your surroundings are moving even when they are perfectly still. Vertigo symptoms usually resolve on their own in most cases, but in some other cases, the patient may require proper vertigo treatment. Although Vertigo isn’t usually serious, it can quickly become annoying & interfere with the patient’s everyday life. Thanks to certain Vertigo home exercises, it’s indeed possible to provide complete vertigo treatment to Vertigo patients.
Your doctor will recommend certain specific exercises for dizziness & vertigo home exercises to help in effective & quick Vertigo treatment. Additionally, your doctor might also recommend certain vertigo home remedies & other dizziness treatment procedures to vertigo patients. Before learning about these different vertigo home exercises, we first need to understand the types of vertigo, & the vertigo treatment that is recommended for each of them.
Types of Vertigo:
Peripheral Vertigo:
is caused by problems in the inner ear or the vestibular nerve, which is responsible for carrying balance information between the brain & the ear. A majority of vertigo patients, about 93%, experience peripheral vertigo. Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is the most common type of peripheral vertigo experienced by people with peripheral vertigo. The causes of peripheral vertigo can be an ear infection, a head injury, trauma, & in some cases it may also be caused by a congenital defect in the inner ear structure. Certain infections like Meniere’s Disease, Vestibular Neuritis, or labyrinthitis can also cause vertigo symptoms in patients.
Central Vertigo: –
Central Vertigo is caused by a problem with the brain, which affects how it receives & responds to the balance signals from the inner ear. Its Central Vertigo causes are often unknown, & this type of vertigo is also chronic.
Vertigo symptoms:
Patients experience a variety of symptoms including, but not limited to:
- Spinning
- Swaying in one direction
- Tilting in one direction
- Headaches of migraine intensity
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Motion sickness
- Dizziness
- Ringing in the ears(tinnitus)
- Hearing loss
These symptoms usually occur along with other symptoms, & may come & go in intervals. They are often triggered by changes in the position of the head, or by certain movements.
Vertigo treatment:
Depending on the exact cause(s) of your Vertigo symptoms, your doctor will specify a particular vertigo treatment regimen for you. Your vertigo treatment may include exercises for dizziness, vertigo home exercises, vertigo home remedies, & vertigo management therapies for chronic cases of vertigo. Certain well-known Vertigo exercises help treat Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo.
These vertigo home exercises help treat the patient’s symptoms by moving the calcium crystals from the semicircular canals inside the ears to their original position, where they don’t interfere with the body’s natural balance system. These vertigo & dizziness treatment exercises are specified by a vertigo specialist, & should be performed a certain number of times in a day for effective results. Below are the various types of Vertigo home exercises:
Brandt-Daroff exercises:
Brandt-Daroff exercises utilize gravity to help dislodge the calcium crystals from the semicircular canal to their original position in the middle ear.
To perform the Brandt-Daroff exercises properly, follow the below-mentioned steps:
- Sit on a bed with your feet touching the floor. Next, turn your head 45 degrees to the right.
- Lie down on your left without moving your head. Wait 30 seconds to let any dizziness pass. If you do not experience dizziness, wait another 30 seconds before returning to the original position.
- Return to the original starting position & pause for about 30 seconds.
- Next, turn your head 45 degrees to the left, & repeat the above steps in the right direction.
- Return to the original starting position & pause for about 30 seconds.
- Perform these exercises in a set of 5 on each side.
Wait for any dizziness to pass before standing up.
You should ideally perform one set in the morning & another set in the night, performing the exercises every day for at least 2 weeks. When done with other vertigo treatment methods & procedures, the Brandt-Daroff exercises seem to give good results within the specified amount of time.
Semont Maneuver:
The Semont Maneuver, also known as the liberatory maneuver, is another exercise for Vertigo that helps relieve the patients of their vertigo symptoms.
It’s slightly easier to perform than the Brandt-Daroff exercises, Semont maneuver performed under the supervision of a trained vertigo specialist.
To perform the Semont Maneuver for left-ear BPPV, follow the instructions below:
- Sit on the edge of a bed in an upright position & turn your head 45 degrees to the right.
- Quickly drop on to the left side until your head is lying on the bed. Hold this position for 1 minute.
- Next, quickly move your body to the right side in just one simple movement, without changing the angle of the head. Note carefully that in this position, you should be facing the floor.
- Hold this position for 1 minute, & then quickly return to the starting position.
In case you have right-ear BPPV, turn your head to the left first & drop to the right.
Sit still for at least 10 minutes after performing this exercise for vertigo, & repeat once a day until your symptoms have shown signs of improvement.
Epley Maneuver:
The Epley Maneuver is by far the most popular exercise for Vertigo treatment. Epley maneuver recommended as the first line of treatment to almost every other BPPV patient, with monumental success rates in vertigo treatment.
The original version of this exercise required the supervision of a vertigo expert. However, the modified Epley Maneuver is an easy-to-do vertigo home exercise.
To perform the Epley Maneuver for left-ear BPPV, follow the below-mentioned steps:
- Sit on the bed in an upright position, with your legs straight ahead & a pillow behind you.
- Turn your head 45 degrees in the left direction.
- Now lie back quickly until your shoulders are on the pillow, & wait for any dizziness to subside, for at least 30 seconds.
- Turn your head 90 degrees in the right direction without lifting it, & hold this position for at least 30 seconds.
- Now turn your body until you’re lying on your right side, & wait at least 30 seconds for any dizziness to pass.
- Now sit on the right edge of the bed in an upright position.
You should always sit in an upright position for at least 15 minutes after performing the Epley Maneuver. Repeat the exercises once every day until you don’t feel any symptoms for at least 24 hours.
All these exercises for Vertigo should be done alongside vertigo medicines & other Vertigo home remedies for effective & long-lasting vertigo treatment.
