Vestibular & Dizziness Rehab
FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers Proprietary Balance & Dizziness Program
At some point in life, most people will experience dizziness; a very scary and disorientating experience. There are many causes for dizziness, but it’s often due to a problem with the vestibular system (located in the inner ear) which is responsible for helping you balance.
Dizziness from inner ear problems can be treated without medication or surgery. Balance and vestibular physical therapy can help you recover the weakened vestibular system and use your other senses, such as vision and touch, to compensate for the loss of balance. In simple terms, the brain reeducates itself.
FYZICAL is the most qualified clinic in the area in treating dizziness and vestibular disorders allowing you to return to your normal activities.
What is Dizziness?
While this seems like a simple question, dizziness as a symptom can be much more complex. So, if you went to a doctor and said that you felt pain, what would the doctor ask? In most cases he would say to describe your pain. Is it sharp, dull, aching, burning, radiating, etc.? You see, with pain, the pattern or description of it often helps the doctor determine the cause of it and the likely treatment. With dizziness, it is the same.
Common Dizziness Symptoms
For most, the most common dizziness symptom is vertigo. Vertigo is a feeling like you are turning or moving in a rotational manner. It is often caused by an imbalance between your right and left ears. It is similar to the feeling after you have purposefully spun in a chair and played that funny game you see at the baseball games where they turn quickly around a baseball bat 10-15 times and attempt to stand. With vertigo, there are two types: subjective and objective. Subjective vertigo is felt inside you body, while objective is seen with your eyes and movement.
The second type of dizziness symptom is imbalance. This is a feeling like you are tilting or going to even fall. Like vertigo, the subjective form is when you feel it inside and the objective is when you are losing your balance.
The third type of dizziness symptom is vaguer and is called lightheadedness. This is also described by patients as a wooziness or even a feeling of fogginess. In many cases, this is caused by a issue with blood flow to the head, but it also comes on with inner ear issues. Like the others, the subjective form is felt within while an objective form can be seen with a change in your heart rate and even blood pressure.
Next is motion sickness as a form of dizziness. This is a feel of an irritated stomach like you might experience as a passenger in a car or after coming off a boat. Subjectively, it is felt inside and objectively, well, it can be experienced as actual vomiting.
The last form of dizziness is also vague and sometimes hard to understand. When you feel dizziness, your behavior can sometimes make it worse or it can increase your dizziness symptoms. Imagine the last time you were on a boat and you got dizziness and then you are told you are going to go on it again. This can start to make you feel dizziness symptoms. Anxiety or fear can also make the dizziness symptoms feel more intense.
How Does the Vestibular System Work?
The vestibular system is a main contributor to physical balance. Located in the inner ear, the system senses motion when small hairs, called cilia, are moved by microscopic calcium crystals. When we sit, stand, move, or experience motions (such as in a car) the crystals move the hairs. The brain receives the signals from the hairs, along with information from the eyes and your sense of touch to interpret motion, equilibrium, and orientation in space.
In order to understand how Vestibular Rehabilitation works and the underlying corrective mechanisms, it is important to remember that the primary role of the vestibular system is to tell the brain where the head is in space. Quite simply, the vestibular system is our internal reference telling the brain how our head is orientated - up, down, tilt, etc. The visual and somatosensory (touch, pressure, pain) systems, on the other hand, are external references, providing our brain with information about the movement and stability of the world around us. Working together and when the systems agree, it is the integration of these sensory modalities that provides us with normal equilibrium.
How Vestibular Rehabilitation Can Help You?
Vestibular Rehabilitation is a form of Balance Retraining Therapy. It has emerged over the past several years as an alternative treatment for patients with chronic non-resolved motion intolerance, visual sensitivity, and imbalance problems. At FYZICAL, we have a comprehensive balance program that includes assessment and evaluation programs, balance retraining, and vestibular rehabilitation. With balance retraining and vestibular rehabilitation, our goal is to improve balance function and visual motor control, increase general activity levels, and help your body compensate for inner ear disorders.
FYZICAL is the ONLY therapy clinic in the area to utilize a conceptualized framework of balance exercises called the FYZICAL Balance Paradigm. It was developed by using NASA-based force plates and is designed specifically to identify your balance or dizziness deficit and our balance therapy programs have a 99% balance improvement success rate.
Who Could Benefit & Common Disorders Treated
|
 |
Speaking to your Doctor About Dizziness
When you are speaking with a healthcare practitioner and you feel dizziness symptoms, know explaining it this way will help them understand better your condition.
FYZICAL’s treatment and recovery protocols include utilizing cutting-edge diagnostic and exercise equipment which isn’t available at any other outpatient physical therapy or treatment center in the area. For example, FYZICAL’s balance program incorporates a Safety Overhead Support (SOS) system. This system utilizes a harness and ceiling-mounted rails making it is impossible for you to fall and hit the ground, allowing you to exercise safely without the fear of falling!
We offer FREE Assessments to diagnose dizziness dysfunctions and identify individuals of all ages and conditions at risk of falling. By identifying risk, future injuries can be prevented. Our skilled physical therapists will create a program specifically tailored to your needs, so you can begin your quest to regain your footing, your confidence, and your freedom.