Vestibular Rehab Program
Vestibular rehabilitation (VR) is a form of therapy that helps individuals manage dizziness, balance problems, and vertigo by retraining the brain to compensate for issues with the vestibular system. This system, located in the inner ear, helps us sense head movement and maintain balance. VR aims to reduce the intensity and frequency of these symptoms by teaching the brain to rely on other senses like vision and proprioception (awareness of body position) to compensate for vestibular dysfunction.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
The Vestibular System:
This system, within the inner ear, plays a crucial role in balance, spatial orientation, and maintaining a stable gaze.
Vestibular Rehabilitation:
VR is a specialized type of physical therapy that focuses on improving balance and reducing symptoms associated with vestibular disorders.
How it Works:
VR uses exercises and strategies to help the brain adapt to the changes in the vestibular system. These strategies can include:
- Habituation: Repeated exposure to situations or movements that trigger dizziness to desensitize the brain to these stimuli.
- Gaze Stabilization: Exercises to improve the ability to focus on an object while the head is moving.
- Balance Training: Exercises to challenge and improve balance, such as standing on one leg or using uneven surfaces.
Benefits of VR:
VR can help individuals regain balance, reduce dizziness, and improve their overall quality of life by reducing the impact of vestibular disorders.
Types of Vestibular Disorders:
VR can be helpful for various conditions, including benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), Meniere’s disease, and labyrinthitis.
Individualized Treatment:
VR programs are tailored to the individual’s specific needs and the underlying cause of their vestibular issues.
Therapists:
VR is typically performed by physiotherapists, occupational therapists, or chiropractors with specialized training in vestibular disorders.
How does vestibular rehabilitation therapy work?
Dizziness and balance go hand-in-hand. Vestibular rehabilitation therapy helps you manage dizziness symptoms, including imbalance. To understand how therapy works, it may help to know more about why you may feel very dizzy and how your body manages balance.
Dizziness
Dizziness happens when something affects your sense of spatial orientation. Spatial orientation is your brain calculating the position of your body in relation to your surroundings. When that happens, you may feel woozy or lightheaded. You also may feel unsteady, as if you’ve lost your sense of balance.
Balance
Your sense of balance relies on the relationship between your central nervous system (brain) and your sensory system. Your sensory system includes:
- Your vestibular labyrinth in your inner ear: This includes your semicircular canals (loops), which react when you turn your head, and otolith organs that react to gravity and movement.
- Your vision: Your eyes send your brain impulses that show where your body is in relation to other objects.
- Your skin, joints and muscles: When your body moves, it puts pressure on your tissues. Your tissues send signals to your brain, telling it where your body is in relation to space. For example, if you’re standing up and you lean back, you put pressure on tissues in the back of your foot and lower leg. That pressure lets your brain know you’re leaning instead of standing straight.
Your central nervous system pulls this information together so it can tell your body how to maintain balance. When something interferes with the system’s connection, your central nervous system can’t process information correctly. Vestibular rehabilitation therapy helps restore those connections, ultimately reducing your symptoms of dizziness and imbalance.
What happens before I start vestibular rehabilitation therapy?
You’ll need to have your symptoms evaluated. You may visit an audiologist. There are different tests to evaluate how well the vestibular part of your inner ear is working. A physiotherapist or chiropractor will evaluate your balance, your gait (how you walk), your arm and leg strength, and flexibility.
What happens during therapy?
Balance issues and dizziness may affect you in different ways. Your healthcare provider will tailor vestibular rehabilitation therapy to your specific need. They’ll show you how to do specific exercises so you can exercise at home, at your convenience. Therapy may include these exercises:
- Eye movement control.
- Balance retraining.
- Stretching and strengthening.
How long is a typical vestibular rehabilitation program?
What are the advantages of vestibular rehabilitation therapy?
Studies show vestibular rehabilitation therapy helps:
- Reduce your risk of falling.
- Improve your balance.
- Reduce your dizziness symptoms.
- Improve your ability to stabilize your vision.
- Increase your body strength.
Are there any risks to this therapy?
Vestibular rehabilitation therapy doesn’t cause physical risks. There’s always the chance therapy won’t completely resolve your dizziness or balance issues. This is particularly true if you’re not able to do the prescribed exercises on your own.
What can I expect after having this treatment?
That depends on your situation. In general, most people who continue doing their exercises have significantly fewer issues with dizziness and balance.
What is Vestibular Rehabilitation?
Vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT) is a specialized form of therapy prescribed to treat and improve the symptoms caused by vestibular disorders. It often involves manual head manoeuvres and/or a progressive program of exercises designed to reduce vertigo and dizziness, visual issues, and/or imbalance and falls.
After an injury to the vestibular system occurs, the central nervous system can compensate for reduced function of the inner ears. Essentially, the brain copes with the imbalanced signals coming from the vestibular system by learning to rely more heavily on alternative signals coming from other systems in the body to maintain vestibular balance. This can be achieved through various exercise strategies outlined below. When this central (or brain) compensation occurs, the patient’s symptoms can be alleviated and allows them to return to normal function.
What is the Vestibular System?
Your vestibular system helps you detect head position and motion and it allows you to properly react when it senses changes to it. It is made up of 1) your two inner ear organs 2) the vestibular centres of your midbrain and cerebellum and 3) your peripheral vestibular nerves.
The vestibular organs in your inner ears act like sensors that measure head rotation, forward/back and up/down motions and head tilt. It is often called a labyrinth due to the many loops of the semi-circular canals that is contained within. The vestibular nerve connects your inner ear organ to the midbrain and cerebellum towards the posterior of your brain. These vestibular nerves transmits the motion information from the inner ears to your brain for processing.
Your brain processes information from your inner ear organs but gets backup information from other senses such as your vision, the joints, muscles and tendons throughout your body, from hearing, touch and even functions such as memory and emotion. It then sends outs nerve impulses to the muscles in your eyes, trunk and limbs so that you react appropriately to each situation.
What Types of Problems Benefit From VRT?
Is Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy Right for Me?
If you suffer from one or more of the symptoms noted above, then Vestibular Therapy will likely be helpful. However, it is important to note that many dizziness complaints can also be caused by a large list of other potential factors that do not involve your vestibular system. You must be appropriately assessed in order to determine whether or not you have a vestibular condition and if you will benefit from vestibular rehabilitation.
Based on the findings of your assessment, your therapist will determine if you are an appropriate candidate for vestibular rehabilitation therapy. The goal of your treatment plan will be to improve any deficits that were identified in the assessment. This, in turn, will help to improve your daily symptoms and your ability to function in activities of daily living.