Ever felt that the room suddenly starts to spin and you need to hold on to something to stop yourself from falling down?
Maybe you blamed it on the weekday morning rush, not eating enough and running out. In reality, vertigo can be a medical condition triggered by some other health issue.
What is vertigo?
Vertigo is a situation where you feel you are in motion and things around you are moving, when actually you, and everything around you, is standing still. While it may initially seem like you’re dizzy because you skipped your breakfast, vertigo could be a symptom of some problem related to the vestibular system of your inner ear. This is the part of your body which helps maintain balance and tells your body which way is up and which way is down. It helps your body to be in alignment with your head’s position. In all, vertigo means a condition where your body is not able to maintain its regular balance.
Causes
1. Moving your head fast in a certain manner – The most common type of vertigo happens when you move your head in such a way that the crystals in your inner ear move to a different part in your ear canal. The crystals help your brain to control gravity, but when they move out of place, your brain feels you are moving, even when you are not. As a result, the balance is disrupted and you feel dizzy.
2. Injuries – If you ever suffered a head or neck injury, it is possible that the arteries in your neck get compressed by your vertebrae. It could also disrupt the sensory and vibration messages your brain gets from the concerned nerves.
3. Other causes – Severe migraine attacks, inner ear infection and inflammation in the vestibular nerve could also lead to vertigo.
Treating it
Vertigo often will not require treatment, but if you experience it repeatedly, here are a few things your doctor may suggest:
• Medications
• Specific exercises, known as vestibular rehabilitation training (VRT) to improve balance.
• Specific head movements, known as Epley maneuver.
6 tips to ease vertigo
1. Keep your head a little raised while sleeping
2. Move your head slowly and avoid sudden jerks
3. Get up slowly from sleeping to sitting and sitting to standing position
4. Do not bend down too much or extend your neck too high
5. Reduce and quit coffee for some time as it may help significantly
6. Have less sugar and salt
Vertigo is most often a temporary problem that will go off once you sit down and rest. In case you feel it too often, or feel the problem persists and does not get better even with rest, do speak to your doctor.
Fun fact: While many people refer to vertigo as a fear of heights, the term for fear of heights is actually acrophobia (acron meaning height in Greek).
