“Exercises for Vertigo: Effective Treatment for Dizziness Now Available Online”

1 in 4 people experience dizziness at some point. This is even more than half for people over the age of 85. It is therefore one of the most common complaints with which people go to the doctor. Exercises have been proven effective. From Tuesday 1 May 2023, these exercises will also be available online. Doctor Ted van Essen explains how it works.

Usually quite innocent

Dizziness is very common and in most cases it is not serious. That does not exclude the possibility that it can of course also be something serious like a stroke. Then there are more complaints such as double vision, difficulty talking or swallowing and less strength in arms and legs. In that case, do not hesitate and contact your doctor immediately.

Causes dizziness

Fortunately, in general, vertigo is a fairly harmless condition. It is caused by a disturbance in our balance organ. This organ is located in our inner ear and contains 3 semicircular tubes with fluid. When we move our head, the fluid starts to flow and moves tiny hairs. These hairs transmit signals to the brain so that we know exactly how our head moves and in what position it is. If something is wrong with these tubes, our brains receive incorrect information, which leads to dizziness.

Spinal and positional vertigo

Those who feel that the whole world is moving around them suffer from vertigo. A variant of this is positional vertigo. Then you get dizzy as soon as you move your head suddenly. The latter form occurs when small lime grit moves in the fluid tubes and ends up in the wrong place. The cause of this is still not clear.

In many cases, dizziness goes away on its own. Just take it easy and it will usually go away on its own. It may be that you suffer from it for several weeks in a row and then it disappears again. This is often the case with positional vertigo. You will usually get rid of that within a week or 4. Then the lime crystals are back in the right place.” In Meniere’s disease, the attacks of vertigo come on suddenly and violently and can last for some time. Such an attack can recur even after a year or years.

Causes

Determining the cause of vertigo is not easy. Sometimes it can also have multiple causes. For example, low blood pressure, then it mainly occurs when lying down to standing, which is also called orthostatic hypotension. It can also be a side effect of certain medications. “If you are taking medication and you suddenly feel dizzy, read the package leaflet first.” But in many cases it is not easy to determine the exact cause. And for people who suffer from dizziness almost constantly, that is quite drastic. Older people in particular become afraid of falling, which can lead to isolation and depression. In some cases, GPs sometimes want to prescribe medication. “It concerns the substance betahistine, but there is actually no scientific basis for this. It has not been proven effective.”

Exercises against dizziness

Proven to be effective against dizziness is doing exercises. So far, no real effort has been put into this. This was partly due to the fact that the exercises had to be supervised by a physiotherapist or general practitioner. People have to go out for that and that is often already a problem. That is why online exercises have been devised that anyone can do at home. “Researchers at the Amsterdam UMC, in collaboration with the National Association of General Practitioners and the patient organization Hoormij, have developed a number of exercises that can help people and that they can do at home. In a nice word, these exercises are called vestibular rehabilitation or Vertigo Training.” Watch the videos on Thuisarts.nl.

During the training you make movements with your head that make you dizzy. In this way you teach your brain to deal better with dizziness. You learn to deal with incorrect information from the eyes, the sensors in the body and from the balance organ. By deliberately causing dizziness, the brain starts to reprogram itself. This allows them to better deal with dizziness when it comes on unintentionally. The exercises go in steps. Whenever a certain exercise stops making you dizzy, move on to the next exercise to further train your body. Always do the training in a place where you can sit comfortably.

“It is a 6-week treatment and as many as 4 out of 5 people are less dizzy within a few months. After a year, participants were even less dizzy. So the exercises can really keep vertigo away.”

Doctor Ted van Essen will discuss this topic on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 Time for MAX.