By ReCPySADmin 31/10/2024 Conditions

Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy

Why dizziness and balance issues shouldn’t stop you living a fulfilled life!

Do you suffer from dizziness symptoms or a balance disorder? Is unsteadiness causing anxiety or lack of confidence? Perhaps you are becoming more inactive as a result, or feel like you are losing your independence?

Almost 1 in 4 adults suffer with vestibular symptoms including dizziness, vertigo, or some type of balance issue. The most common cause of balance disorder is damage or illness affecting the inner ear. Other frequent causes are concussion, strokes, cerebellar degeneration, cardiac problems and excessive anxiety.

Do these dizziness and balance symptoms sound familiar to you?

If they do, then you are far from alone. At Recover Physio we treat people with balance disorders all the time at our clinics in Norwich. People like yourself, who are struggling to live life as fully and as confidently as they once did. We understand exactly what you are going through.

Perhaps you’ve discussed your balance disorder with your GP and little has been done. Or long NHS waiting times mean that your condition won’t get looked at for some time.

Left untreated, balance disorders can become progressively worse, causing reduced quality of life and injuries from falls. They can leave you very reliant on others and left wondering if you will ever get your independence back.

We see many patients in our clinic with these very same symptoms. They have been to see their GP and were told there would be a long wait for a referral. In the meantime, their condition is becoming worse and their quality of life is deteriorating.

Who is at risk from vestibular balance disorder?

The vestibular system is responsible for your sense of balance and spatial orientation, located within the inner ear. The vestibular system contains three semicircular canals in each inner ear, allowing you to detect head movements. Balance issues can arise when these balance organs are not functioning properly.

Balance disorders can affect people of any age, but can become more common among older adults. Some of the common causes of vestibular balance disorders include:

Infections
Poor circulation in the ear or other inner ear problems
Calcium debris in your semicircular canals
Traumatic brain injury
Medicines

What is vestibular rehabilitation therapy?

Vestibular rehabilitation is an exercise-based physiotherapy programme based on head movements, designed to encourage the central nervous system to compensate for your balance disorder so you become more stable or to move debris from the ear’s canals. For the best results, balance exercises are included as part of your rehabilitation programme, tailored to address your individual needs. They focus on retraining your balance system to cope with the movements of your day to day life..

Vestibular rehabilitation can help people with the following conditions:

Vertigo
Labyrinthitis
Ménière’s disease
Strokes
Vestibular neuritis
Migraine headaches
Traumatic brain injury
Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)

Here at Recover Physio, vestibular rehabilitation is led by our qualified and experienced physiotherapists. It begins with an assessment of your balance functions and dizziness, from which a programme is developed, focusing on the re-education of your balance system.

Next, our balance specialists create a personalised exercise-based management plan for you. This can include techniques such as Brandt-Daroff exercises, Canalith repositioning procedures for people with BPPV, Gaze stabilisation exercises and functional rehabilitation.

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy recognises vestibular rehabilitation as an effective method in reducing dizziness, vertigo and associated falls, improving quality of life for people with disorders involving the balance mechanism.

Quality of life

At Recover Physio, our patients’ quality of life is our primary focus and all of our therapies and treatments are designed with this in mind. Our experience in vestibular rehabilitation allows us to help patients with distressing balance disorders, enabling them to enjoy the independence and activity that is so important to them.

If you’re currently living with a balance disorder, here are 6 common experiences that you may be familiar with:

You are affected by dizziness, vertigo, or the feeling of disorientation, which can occur at any time.
You are having to rely on others more and feel that you are losing your independence.
Your condition is affecting your self-confidence and you are unable to enjoy the activities you love to do.
You have been to see your GP, but have a lengthy wait to see a specialist at a local hospital.
You are increasingly worried about falling and suffering an injury.
You don’t know where to turn for qualified professional advice.

We can help

We understand that you have options when it comes to who you see for your healthcare, so we want to make certain that you feel completely comfortable with us and confident about how we will help you.

We always listen to feedback from our patients and the most common thing we hear is that they really liked being able to speak to a Physiotherapist, for free, before their first appointment. It gave them the chance to ask questions about their condition and learn how vestibular rehabilitation could help them to return to a better quality of life. We always take the time to talk through your issues with you and to answer any questions you have.

At Recover Physio, our physiotherapists will work with you to help with your balance disorder, allowing you to return to your favourite activities worry free.

If you suffer from balance problems or feel dizzy and would like to know how the team at Recover Physio can help, why not speak to one of our friendly physios first? Just click below to request a callback from a member of our team!