As with most medical conditions, locating a suitable vertigo treatment requires a determination of what is causing the vertigo. Often vertigo is caused by vestibular disorders. In individuals with such disorders the endolymph, the fluid in the inner ear has failed to perform as expected. For such individuals, any benefits from a vertigo treatment require correction of an imbalance in either the motion or composition of the endolymph.
The following article will focus on vertigo treatment that has proven useful for the correction of vestibular disorders. Some treatments, such as a change in the patient’s activity level do not require the hiring of a special health professional. Talk therapy can often work with activity changes to speed the recovery of someone bothered by episodes of vertigo.
Other types of vertigo treatment usually call for employment of a special health professional. Vestibular rehabilitation therapy, for instance, requires the services of a physical therapist. The physical therapist seeks to retrain the patient’s brain.
Sometimes, when individuals experience vertigo, they create new body movements, movements that will not encourage the sensations associated with vertigo. In many cases those new movements can put a strain on certain parts of the body. The physical therapist can help a patient to refrain from creating those new movements. The physical therapist works to improve the patient’s posture, balance and general movement.
Yet physical therapy should not be presented as a vertigo treatment for every vertigo patient. Sometimes debris, a tiny object called a canalith forms in the canal of the inner ear. When that happens, the patient needs to find someone who can administer the canalith repositioning maneuvers.
The correct positioning of the head, a procedure known as the Epley maneuver, encourages movement of the canalith. If done properly, the Epley maneuvers can work the canalith to a point beyond the bounds of the semicircular canal, the canal of the inner ear. Once a patient no longer has a canalith in the inner ear, then he or she no longer suffers episodes of vertigo.
Some patients suffer vertigo due to a problem with their diet. They need a dietary change, in order to give the endolymph its proper chemical mix. Such patients normally benefit from limitations on their salt and sugar intake, elimination from their diet of caffeine and alcohol and their willingness to drink plenty of fluid.
If any of the above vertigo treatments fail to solve the patient’s problems, then doctors need to consider surgery. The proper surgically implanted device could ensure attainment of the proper fluid balance in the inner ear.