Treating Vertigo

One of the most important aspects of vertigo treatment lies in the complete history and the events that proceeded before the vertigo occurred.
The doctor would require details such as the sensation you felt, whether nausea was present and other sensation defects such as weakness of limbs or poor vision.
Details will help the doctor get the correct diagnosis. Most simple vertigo go off on their own but if there were specific diseases causing it, a complete investigation and treatment is warranted.
There are few medications that help in relieving vertigo. Most anti-vertiginous medication have a sedative effect on the brain, which should not be taken for too long as the brain is required to align back.
Vertigo symptoms would then slowly decrease. Betahistine Dihydrocloride is a proven medication, which increases blood supply to the inner ear and stabilises the firing effect of the vestibular nuclei in the brain stem. It also has no sedative effect.
However, it has to be taken for a long period under doctor’s supervision and also does not help in acute attacks.
Vertigo is common in all populations but its management is tricky at times.
It is essential that patients with vertigo seek early treatment to rule out other more dangerous causes. In most cases, the condition is self-limiting, but they show encouraging results.

Motion Sickness

Motion Sickness: Physiological Vertigo
Vertigo while in moving vehicles particularly is known as motion sickness. This is due to a "sensory conflict" between one’s vision and the actual movement sensation. In motion sickness, it is caused by multi-sensory motions that do not correlate to the expected pattern of movement.
Many feel better sitting in the front seat of the car or bus as it gives them more visual input than at the back seat.
These individuals are encouraged to keep their eyes open as this will let the brain gain more information of the movement of the vehicle and decrease the vertigo.

• Hereditary vertigo, geriatric vertigo, drug induced vertigo, psychogenic vertigo

• Hereditary vertigo, geriatric vertigo, drug induced vertigo, psychogenic vertigo
These are rare but are diagnosed when common causes cannot be identified.
More than 30 per cent of individuals aged 65 and above have shown to experience dizziness in a study done by Sloane in 1989. It is important to understand that aged folk have multi-factorial causes of vertigo. Management of vertigo in elderly is important as falls due to vertigo could lead to other severe multi-morbidity conditions, such as head injury, hip and spine trauma.
Geriatric causes would be due to poor vision, deteriorating sensation of the nervous system and general disability to maintain a balance.
Medications for various ailments, such as anti-hypertensive, anti-depressants, muscle relaxants, non-steroids anti-inflammatory drugs, hormonal products, certain antibiotics, etc have some effect on the inner ear and can thus cause vertigo.
The effect of these medicaments is individual specific, as vertigo will not be present in all the patients who take them.
Psychological and psychiatric ailments can contribute to persistent vertigo sensation. It is seen in those who are anxious, depressed or suffer from panic disorders or fear of heights (acrophobia).

2 more vertigos

Vascular vertigo
Vascular vertigo is mostly associated with the lack of blood supply to certain areas in the brain, which causes various vestibular syndromes.
These syndromes are usually associated with vertigo and may sometimes be misdiagnosed as pre-stroke symptoms and sometimes as migraine.
Decompression sickness in deep-sea divers sometimes has symptoms of vascular vertigo syndrome. Confusion and vertigo during diving trips could be a result of this.
• Traumatic vertigo
Head injuries from motor vehicle accidents or any other kind of trauma would result in traumatic vertigo. The site of injury is in the inner ear, including damage to the balance nerve. Divers and mountain climbers suffer this kind of vertigo due to barotraumas, which is a result of pressure change.
In both high and low-pressure environment, the inner ear can be damaged due to sudden rupture of the inner membranes.

2 more types of vertigo

• Central vestibular vertigo
Central vertigo means there is a lesion within the brainstem or brain and very often, the patient has specific eye symptoms and also tendencies of balance loss. The doctor will be able to differentiate these finer points with the aid of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or CT scans.
• Positional or positioning vertigo
This is a condition where vertigo is only experienced in specific head positioning. It can occurs suddenly while the sleeping person gets into a particular position. It is episodic but disappears soon after. However, the after effects is even more disturbing than the real thing. There is often a feeling of uneasiness and unsteadiness after one specific episode.
Diagnosis of this condition is simple. Usually, after an in-depth consultation, the treating physician will perform a simple manoeuvre called the Dix Hallpike, to ascertain the condition.
Once vertigo is proven, the follow-through procedure would be an Epley, Semonts or Brandt Daroff manoeuvres. The reasons for these are to displace abnormal calcium deposits within the inner ear to an area which prevents it from stimulating the nerve cells, which caused vertigo.

Vestibular Vertigo

• Vestibular vertigo
Vestibules are two paired organs within the ear. They are sensitive to the movement of our head. Any type of irritation or damage to the vestibules may cause confusion in the brain, resulting in vertigo. Common cause may be vestibular nerve (balance nerve) inflammation, which is predominantly viral in nature. It is self-limiting and almost always resolves by itself.
Less common in Asia is Meniere’s disease where patients experience vertigo with hearing loss and ringing sounds within the affected ear. The cause of this condition is unknown.
Leaking inner ear fluid (perilymph fistulas), vestibular failure, infection of the vestibule and tumours are known causes of vestibular vertigo.

Vertigo is a symptom

YOU have lead a healthy life all this while, with no indication of any disease or ailment. But then, within seconds, you experience an awful sensation, as if the entire environment has begun to spin or that you are spinning against a stationary environment.
This scenario likely makes you one among five to 10 per cent of individuals who is suffering from vertigo.
Vertigo is a symptom and not necessarily a disease, but it is an outcome of a physiological or pathological processes.
Vertigo occurs when sensation from the inner ear, eyes and sensation throughout the body (somatosensory) are mismatched. Humans need all three to get their balance through co-ordination of the brain. Any abnormality in one or more of these will trigger vertigo. A simple sign of vertigo is nystagmus, which is involuntary movement of the eyeballs. Of course, you will not see it in the mirror because when we fix our vision in the mirror, nystagmus disappears.
Sometimes, we feel dizzy or light-headed but it may not be vertigo. This is common when you suddenly stand up from a lying or seated position, when experiencing panic disorders, have low blood sugar count or when intoxicated with either drugs or alcohol.

Vertigo Etymology

ver·ti·go (vûrt-g) KEY NOUN: pl. ver·ti·goes or ver·ti·gos
The sensation of dizziness.
An instance of such a sensation.
A confused, disoriented state of mind.

ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Latin vertg, from vertere, to turn; see wer- 2 in Indo-European roots

Vertigo Exercises

The inner-ear form of vertigo affects about 64 people in every 100,000. It is most common in people over age 50 and occurs twice as often in women. Simple exercises performed at home may help patients with vertigo find relief, say researchers according to a new study.

Researchers studied 70 patients who had a form of vertigo caused by loose particles floating in the inner ear canal. Participants reported experiencing episodes of nausea or a feeling of spinning when they moved their heads a certain way. Their vertigo symptoms lasted an average of eight weeks.Patients were instructed to perform exercises at home three times a day. Half of the participants performed an exercise called the modified Epley’s procedure, while the other half performed the modified Semont maneuver. Both exercises require patients to perform head and body movements to clear particles from the ear canal. The latter requires more extreme whole body movement.Results reviewed, after one week showed, 95 percent of patients who performed the modified Epley’s procedure reported no symptoms of vertigo. Nearly 60 percent of those who performed the modified Semont maneuver said they were symptom-free. Specialists conclude saying that, BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) is caused by loose particles derived from the utricular macula that are free-floating ... Until recurrences can be prevented, self-treatment for BPPV using particle repositioning is likely to become part of the routine management for this condition.