If you experience bouts of dizziness when the world around you keeps revolving, whether sitting, standing, or lying down, you are likely suffering from vertigo. The feeling might be mild or intense, but you will feel highly uncomfortable as everything seems topsy-turvy. Vertigo is not a condition but a symptom that can develop suddenly, but nobody knows how long it will last. From a few seconds to several minutes or even hours, vertigo can create a debilitating condition when you feel helpless. Besides dizziness, losing balance is often associated with vertigo, which might even make you feel sick. Vertigo is seldom long-lasting, and having the patience to bear with it for a few days can help mild symptoms disappear. You can also try out any home remedy for vertigo under the guidance of some ENT specialist.
Home remedy for vertigo
Medicines hardly help to get relief from vertigo. Instead, different kinds of therapies are effective in controlling and curing vertigo. The best is vestibular therapy, and some other exercises or ways of maneuvering the head and neck are effective, too, in treating vertigo. Instead of wondering how to get rid of vertigo, you should seek advice from an ENT doctor who can suggest some natural cure for vertigo. The doctor will show you how to perform the exercises so you can return home and start doing them independently. Avoid any kind of self-treatment based on knowledge gathered from the internet, as it can do more harm than good.
Causes of vertigo
Knowing the causes of vertigo should help you understand why an ENT doctor is the go-to person for those seeking remedies. Moreover, it will clear your doubts about why home remedy works best instead of any other type of medicinal treatment.
- Inflammation of the vestibular nerves that runs from the inner ear to the brain creates a condition known as Vestibular Neuritis, which results in spinning your head.
- Crystals within the inner ear chambers are responsible for sensing motion and often get dislodged from their original position and float around, leading to Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV).
- Vertigo can also happen due to a disorder of the ear known as Meniere’s disease, which also causes hearing loss and tinnitus. The symptoms develop due to the accumulation of fluid in the ear. Medication is partly effective in treating the disease.
Here are some simple exercises that your doctor will show you that can help to correct your symptoms of vertigo.
Epley Maneuver
Epley maneuver is one of the most common therapies for managing vertigo. The technique consists of the following steps.
- Sit on the edge of the bed and turn your head 45 degrees to the left.
- Lie down quickly with your face up and raise your head at an angle of 45 degrees while staying in the position for 30 seconds.
- Lie on the bed, turn your head 90 degrees toward the right side without raising your head, and stay in that position for 30 seconds.
- While lying down, turn the head and the body to the right side while looking downward. Stay in this position for 30 seconds.
- Sit up slowly and remain seated in one position for a few minutes.
The above exercises are for vertigo that starts on the left side of the left ear, and doing the reverse directions should work well for vertigo that starts on the right side of the right ear.
Semont Maneuver
The therapist or doctor must first demonstrate The Semont maneuver, another common home remedy for vertigo, so you can copy the moves and do it at home.
- The doctor will ask you to sit straight and turn your head so that it’s midway between looking directly and turning entirely to the side, causing the worst vertigo.
- The doctor will then ask you to lie down quickly on the side that causes the worst vertigo and turn your face toward the ceiling for 30 seconds.
- Next, the doctor will quickly move you to the other side of the table so that you face downward and lie in that position for 30 seconds.
- Finally, the doctor will ask you to sit up.
This exercise is most effective in getting rid of vertigo due to BPPV.