Helpful Information & Resources for Vertigo
Occupational Therapy vs. Physical Therapy: What Is the Difference?
I believe it is important to make a distinction between occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT), as it seems that those two professions are sometimes lumped together. Both PT and OT are Rehab Services Physical therapy and occupational therapy are basically...
What Is A Vestibular Physical Therapist?
As a Vestibular Physical Therapist, I am a physical therapist that specializes in helping people with dizziness, vertigo, balance problems, and falls. A Vestibular Physical Therapist Will Look for the Root Cause When I get a dizzy patient, I look at the symptoms and...
Causes of Foot Neuropathy: How To Understand Them
The term neuropathy actually means “nerve disease.” Foot neuropathy is often caused by a reduced blood flow to the feet. This reduced blood flow may be caused by normal aging or there may be other risk factors. I will discuss three of these risk factors and causes of...
How Incontinence Contributes to Falls
It may surprise you to learn that incontinence contributes to falls. As a clinician since 2002 and working in home health since 2004, I have observed quite a few ways this can happen. How Incontinence Contributes to Falls Slip and Fall Accident One way that...
Maintaining Mobility In Retirement
One of the myths people think about retiring is that they are going to get to relax. That is a bit of a myth because although you won’t be working at a full-time job with an employer, your full-time job now is maintaining mobility in retirement, including muscle...
Vision and Fall Risk: How to Reduce Falls
Vision and Fall Risk Normal Aging When we look at vision and fall risk, there are a couple of things to consider. First of all, we have normal aging of the eyes. Normal aging of the eyes is going to affect everybody. No matter if you have an eye problem or not, as you...
Brain Fog: Five Tips for Better Brain Health
Brain fog is a common complaint from my patients with dizziness and vertigo. Very often the brain fog will clear up as I successfully resolve their complaints of dizziness or vertigo with vestibular physical therapy. However, this does not happen in all cases....
Explaining Dizziness & Vertigo to your Doctor
This blog describes how to create your short and concise summary for explaining your dizziness and vertigo to a healthcare provider. I hope this saves you time during your visit! A lot of patients have difficulty describing their symptoms. This leads to confusion for...
The Gut and Vertigo
Did you know that there can be a correlation between dizzy spells and eating? Turns out that the gut and vertigo go hand in hand! There are a few ways that digestion, or your gut, can affect symptoms of dizziness and vertigo. Dizzy spells correlated with eating can be...
Prepare for a Healthcare Visit: What To Know
This blog covers the information that you will need to gather to best prepare for a healthcare visit. Gather all Diagnostic Testing and Lab Work If you have gotten an MRI or a CT scan or any other diagnostic testing, including lab work or vestibular testing, I suggest...
Vestibular Therapy: 7 Reasons It Doesn’t Work
Vestibular Therapy is Effective For people with dizziness, vertigo, imbalance, and falls, I highly recommend Vestibular Therapy, also called VRT, Vestibular Rehab, Vestibular Rehabilitation, and Vestibular Physical Therapy. There is a very large and growing body of...
Help! I Get Dizzy at the Dentist
Are you afraid of getting dizzy at the dentist? I meet a lot of people who have felt dizziness in the dental chair and are now afraid to go back! Dental care is important to maintain healthy teeth and gums. In this blog, I will share three tips to help if you are...
Is Meclizine Dangerous for treating Vertigo?
Meclizine is commonly prescribed for people with dizziness and vertigo, including older adults. In some cases, it may be needed but in other cases it is dangerous. Older adults are often frequently told that there’s nothing they can do about the vertigo because they...
Childhood Vertigo: General Information
I can imagine that it must be very scary to witness your little one having childhood vertigo, especially while searching for answers. This blog is a discussion of childhood vertigo. Most Common Known Causes Five common sources of dizziness in children include:...
What Is Dizziness?
What is dizziness? Dizziness is the general term that most people use for all related symptoms in this category. Dizziness is what you will most commonly hear people call it when they feel "off." People that know what vertigo is are people who have had some further...
Dizzy When Gardening
I have treated a few patients lately who felt dizzy when gardening. Their stories made me realize that many other people likely feel dizzy when gardening, especially when spring and summer roll around. In this blog, I share some common gardening tasks that might make...
Vestibular Rehab: Top Ten Barriers to Vestibular Recovery
Barriers to Vestibular Rehab and Recovery Before getting into the barriers to vestibular recovery we must understand it some more. It starts with central compensation. It is the process of the brain interpreting whatever level of vestibular input is available from the...
Vestibular Decompensation: An Unrecognized Cause of Vertigo
If a person is immobile for even a few days - without head motion, such as during bedrest from a flu, surgery, hospital stay, depressive episode, etc, then they can experience "vestibular decompensation.” This phenomenon occurs when a person with a vestibular...
Can Medication Increase The Risk of Falling?
Did you know that even taking just one medication can increase the risk of falling? How do you ask? In this article, I will discuss some reasons why taking medication for your vertigo can increase your risk of falling. Medication Side Effects Some medications can also...
Vestibular Rehabilitation: A Specialty
Why Vestibular Rehabilitation? Traditional (general) physical therapy will not be very effective for people who need vestibular rehab. Vestibular Rehabilitation is a sub-specialty within the physical therapy profession. Vestibular physical therapy, also called...
Vestibular Neuritis Recovery Tips
Vestibular neuritis is typically a very memorable event in someone’s life with unrelenting horrible vertigo lasting for 2-3 days, possibly requiring emergency care. Once the acute vestibular neuritis event clears up (with or without the use of medications), people...
Traveling with Vertigo and Dizziness: Helpful Strategies
I recently traveled to visit my family in the other part of the USA while I was suffering with dizziness and vertigo. While I was traveling with vertigo, I started making notes on the strategies that I came up with to minimize my discomfort and "get through it." I...
Footwear to Reduce Falling
All can fall! People of any age can fall, especially if they have dizziness or vertigo. Proper footwear is important to prevent falls. Today I am going to answer a question that I frequently hear from my patients, which is: "Is there a type of footwear to reduce...
What Causes Dizziness in the Body?
What Causes Dizziness? Root Cause Evaluation is Key Often times, dizziness can have more than one cause. This blog discusses what causes dizziness, specifically in the head and neck area. The Inner Ear The first thing I do when I evaluate people for vertigo or...
Medication for Dizziness: A Discussion with Dr. Kim Bell, DPT
I still find it shocking that most of the medications for dizziness actually causes dizziness as a side effect! Different medications are prescribed for dizziness and vertigo. The benefits of medication for dizziness are to reduce the symptoms, to allow the person to...
FAQ: Can Exercise Reduce my Risk of Falling?
Exercise is shown to reduce the risk of falling, especially for older adults. Learn how to get started with the tips in this blog.
BPPV Treatment: How Does It Work?
How does BPPV treatment work? Many people are curious as to how BPPV treatment works. The goal of BPPV treatment is like winning a biological pinball game. In handheld pinball games, the player has to tip the game side to side and also tip it in certain other...
Learning to Live with Vertigo
Are you Learning to Live with Vertigo? Many people who have unresolved BPPV for many years, sometimes 20, 30, or 40 years, tend not to complain of dizziness or vertigo when I interview them. This is because these individuals have learned how to change their movement...
BPPV Crystals Cause Dizziness, Falls and Cognitive Problems
BPPV crystals (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo crystals) cause dizziness, vertigo, falls and mild cognitive problems. Many people with BPPV crystals do not even know it! Unfortunately, it often goes undetected by healthcare providers as well, leading to...
Does Alcohol Cause Vertigo and Dizziness?
One thing I see often, especially in older adults, is that when people lose their spouse or have some kind of tragedy in their life, they may begin to turn to drinking alcohol for relief from the feelings that they are experiencing. The consumption of alcohol may be...
Assistive Devices To Stop Falls
Assistive Devices to Stop Falls My grandfather, Bill, is an important figure in my life. He is an electrical engineer who had a very successful career, but he didn’t know anything about fall prevention when he retired. In my observation, that is pretty typical for a...
Root Cause Evaluation – Why It Is Important
Root Cause Evaluation is the Missing Component Many people come to me and say that they have been diagnosed with vertigo. Vertigo is a symptom of something else or a cluster of other things that are going on, but vertigo is not in itself the root of the problem. It is...
Dizziness and Mental Health Issues
Dizziness and Mental Health: What is the Relationship? Today we are going to discuss the interplay of dizziness and mental health. I frequently hear this question from my patients, their concerned friends or their family members: "Does everyone who is suffering with...
Falls: The Hidden Costs
Cost of Falls In the USA, one out of four people over 65 years old report falling every year. Of those, about 50% will fall again within six months. About 20-30% of older people who fall will incur moderate to severe injuries. Many people sustain fractures and require...
Fear of Falling Causes More Falls
Fear of Falling Fear of falling is the most common fear reported in older adults and it causes changes in behavior, as well as four predictable changes in walking pattern. Many people who fall or feel off balance develop the fear of falling. Some people may develop a...
What is The Bell Method?
Do you know someone with dizziness or vertigo who feels discouraged about the possibility of a full recovery or a better life? Or feels misunderstood or disregarded by their healthcare providers? Maybe it's you? If so, you may benefit from The Bell Method®. Do know of...
The Benefits of Music to Support Vestibular Health
I have found music therapy improves vestibular health and I feel better emotionally. While playing music, I move my head around which keeps my vestibular system tuned up!
Dizziness in Exercise Class | What To Do
Have you ever experienced dizziness in exercise class when you lied down, rolled over, turned your head quickly or stood up quickly? Or maybe you have seen someone else in your class complain of dizziness during the class? Did you feel like your instructor knew what to say or do?
Should You Treat Yourself for BPPV? Understanding your Ear Crystals
In a case of BPPV, a person can have misplaced ear crystals floating in any of one or combination of their 6 inner ear canals.
BPPV Prevention: Is it Possible?
BPPV Prevention: A research study found that people with low Vitamin D had a higher frequency of BPPV recurrence.
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