Have you or your family/ friends suffered dizziness and been told “its just vertigo”? As a physio its very common for people to list vertigo in their medical history, despite never having it properly diagnosed (or treated!)
Contrary to popular belief the most common types of vertigo are quite treatable – its not something you just have to live with.
What is vertigo?
Vertigo is classified as a sudden spinning or dizzy sensation, on correlation with head movements. The culprit resides in our inner ear, and boils down to a mismatch of information between our inner ear and our other senses ie vision/ body awareness etc. As with most things, this becomes more common as we age (mean age is 55yo), and is more common in ladies.
How does vertigo differ from light headedness?
Vertigo symptoms (any sort of dizziness, spinning, visual disturbance) that occurs in response to head movements could be vertigo. However if you are standing/ sitting relatively still or walking with minimal head movements and you begin to have symptoms, it is unlikely that vertigo is the cause.
What else could it be?
As with any injury, there are often multiple possible causes, and they should always be thoroughly investigated – dizziness is common, but not normal.
Possible causes are blood pressure, dehydration, medications, anxiety, issues with flow through blood vessels, neural changes within the brain, or even brain tumours.
Who do you see if you think you might have vertigo?
If you find you are dizzy with head movements (looking up into cupboards, rolling in bed, shoulder checking while driving, etc) then a physiotherapist is a great place to start.
Jess, one of our physios is able to comprehensively assess your vertigo symptoms, and either treat them or tell you what your next step might be – i.e. referral an audiologist or other appropriate specialists.
If you think you fit any of the above descriptions please call the clinic and we can talk to you about whether physiotherapy would be appropriate for you!
We hope this helps!
Best Wishes