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How to treat dizziness and vertigo

Vertigo is a common condition which affects up to 1 in 2 people. The great news, if you do suffer from vertigo, is physio can help to treat your dizziness and vertigo through a simple manoeuvre and exercises.

What is vertigo

Vertigo is a sensation of movement or spinning, tilting or swaying when your body is not actually moving. It is caused by an inner ear problem with the most common being Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo.

What are the symptoms

Those who have experienced vertigo describe it as though the world around them is spinning which can also cause nausea.

How physio can help

There are multiple possible causes of vertigo, some which need medical investigation. However the most common cause is BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo). This is a non-life threatening condition where certain head positions or movements can trigger sudden, brief spells of the spinning sensation. BPPV is a mechanical problem of the inner ear in which the calcium carbonate crystals becomes dislodged and migrate into one of the three semicircular canals. These crystals interfere with normal fluid movement in the canals and send false messages to the brain about body position and movement.

Physiotherapy can help diagnose and treat BPPV. Physiotherapy for BPPV involves non-invasive techniques which use a sequence of guided head and body positioning techniques. These techniques are tolerated very well by patients and work by assisting the crystals to return to their normal position in the inner ear. In addition we provide advice on sleeping positions and general activity to prevent re-occurrence of this condition.

Hip flexor stretch – Exercise of the Month

With the months getting cooler and shorter it’s harder to stay active. With this sedentary shift we can find our hip flexors start to tighten, particularly with more time sitting such as the commute to work and watching tele or going for a drink at the pub.

The kneeling hip flexor stretch is a great way to open the hips and surrounding muscles which get tight with prolonged sitting.

To stretch:

• Start in a kneeling position with one foot out in front. The back leg is the one you will be stretching.
• Keep your body straight and squeeze your glutes (this will help to keep your pelvis tucked and avoid over extending your back and losing the stretch).
• Maintaining this position lean slightly forwards without arching your back. Hold this for 20 seconds.
• If you could like to feel more stretch you can lift the same arm to the stretched leg (ie kneeling leg) and reach for the ceiling

As always stretches should not cause any pain and if so please stop immediately. If even after this stretch you’re still experiencing tight hips please give us a call and we can add manual treatment to get them sorted.

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How to start running

We have many clients wanting to improve their cardio and ask us how to start running. From a physio point of view it’s important to ensure good leg strength and core stability prior to starting out. Once you’ve established this good platform we often recommend the Couch to 5k program. I’ve used it many times when getting back into running following a hiatus.

Reasons we love and recommend the Couch to 5k program:

1. It’s easy!
   • With only 60 seconds of running followed by 90 seconds of walking for a total workout of 20 minutes it doesn’t feel like hard work. Of course it gets harder throughout the program but by that stage you’ve started to build up your fitness.
2. It’s great to focus on technique.
   • We often see clients who have just gone out for their first ever 5km run and within 1 km of the run are experiencing pain. This can be because they don’t have the endurance and fitness to focus on a great technique. By only starting with 60 seconds of running it allows you to run at a good pace (not a sluggish one which is usually the case by 3km in) and focus on foot placement, glut and core activation and posture.
3. It helps prevent injury.
   • As clients who we recommend this program to are only beginners it is a gentle introduction to running without causing overuse injuries. With the 90 second walk following the 1 minute run it helps to allow the body (and lungs) recover before beginning the next cycle of running.
4. It’s great for injury rehab
   • When coming back from injury it’s important not to overdo it and using the Couch to 5k helps to pace your running. It provides a good warm up, enough time to focus on running technique and recovery time following each run cycle.
5. It’s achievable and successful
   • We’ve had many clients try this program and have had great successes. Clients who never thought they would be able to run 5k or clients who after injury were nervous about running again. Given the slow, paced style of the program (and only 3x per week) it’s a great running program to commit to.

So good luck if you’re going to try this, you’ll be proud of your achievement.