What is your Vestibular System?
Your vestibular system is hidden deep within your inner ear and is a sensory system that plays a crucial role in your ability to balance. It works very closely with your vision and proprioceptive systems (input receptors within your skin, muscles and joints). Your vestibular system helps your body maintain equilibrium and spatial awareness.
When there is a discrepancy between these 3 balance systems; conflicting messages to your brain cause you to become disorientated resulting in vertigo or dizziness. Other symptoms may include nausea, significant loss of balance, hearing changes, vision disturbances and lack of spatial awareness.
How can we help?
Our Physiotherapists can assess and diagnose Vertigo allowing us to give you the best Education and Treatment. This will involve testing your vision, neck movements and the function of your vestibular system. Loyola and Bess have completed comprehensive Vestibular Rehabilitation training. This allows Bess and Loyola to explain your condition and treat your symptoms using recent Evidence Based Practice.
Vestibular rehabilitation is a group of specific exercises that are used to reduce problems in relation to dizziness, vertigo and balance. Vestibular exercises merely stimulate the Vestibular apparatus. This stimulation produces information to be processed by the brain. The goal in repeating these exercises is for the brain to learn to tolerate and accurately interpret this type of stimulation. By doing these exercises repetitively; one can teach the brain to adapt to an abnormal stimulus.
Conditions that may benefit from treatment include BPPV (positional vertigo which is most common), labrynthitis, vestibular neuronitis, Menieres, and other balance issues.
