1. Vertigo symptoms & dizziness
   

2. BPPV
   

3. Loss of balance
   

4. Spinning
   

5. Headaches

Your balance systems are complex and intricate.  They involve coordination of information coming from the eyes, middle ear, and information from the joints in your neck, body, and legs.  Your brain makes sense of the incoming signals and paints a picture of where your head and body are in space at all times.  When these signals get confused such as for example on a boat with the swaying back and forth of your body, but your eyes seeing different movement, the result is dizziness, nausea, and poor balance. 

If the brain cannot rely on the information it receives from the vestibular system, a person's ability to maintain posture and coordinate balance can become overly dependent on vision or on the information received from the muscles and joints (proprioception).

This can lead to developing new patterns of movement to compensate for the change and to avoid head movements that are apt to create symptoms of dizziness, vertigo, and nausea.  For example, a person might adopt an exaggerated hip sway as a method of balancing, swivel the entire body rather than just the head when turning to look at something, or always look down at the floor to avoid what appears as a confusing swirl of activity.

Unfortunately, these types of adaptation can result in dizziness headaches, neckache, muscle stiffness, general fatigue, and a decrease in the ability to retrain the brain to adjust to the vestibular problem, hence making the symptoms much worse.  At A.I.M. Physical Therapy the goal of Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy is to retrain the brain to recognize and process signals from the vestibular system in coordination with information from vision and proprioception.  This often involves desensitizing the balance system to movements that provoke symptoms.  During the evaluation, our therapists will observe posture, balance, movement, and compensatory strategies.  Using the result of this evaluation, the therapist will develop an individualized treatment plan that may include the epley maneuver and specific head, body, and eye exercises to be performed both in the therapy setting and at home.  Many times, treatment may also include increasing activities and exercise in order to strengthen muscles and increase tolerance for symptom-provoking stimuli.

Why is AIM Physical Therapy so important in helping patients with dizziness and vertigo?

Physical Therapy is extremely important in helping people recover from the debilitating effects of dizziness and vertigo.  It takes an expert evaluation to look at all the different systems in your body.  At AIM  Physical Therapy  we check your eye tracking ability, positions of the head, and the way your neck and body moves.  We help to reduce your symptoms based on addressing the root cause of your dizziness or loss of balance which is assessed during your evaluation. 

Specialized body and head positioning maneuvers can be done gently to alleviate BPPV vertigo symptoms.  In addition, if there are problems with neck strength, movement, or problems with your balance, a comprehensive plan of treatment with manual therapy and specific exercises will be compiled to help you.

We work with your doctor and ENT’s to help get to the root cause of your problem and treat it, helping you to decrease your symptoms and get back to enjoying your life.