Vertigo: A do-it-yourself remedy

I've had vertigo two or three times. It’s frightening. My first bout happened when I got out of bed in the morning. The room was spinning and I could hardly stand up straight. I can’t remember if I laid back down or kept walking around. At any rate, it went away after about five minutes.

At least I didn’t call 911 as one man did. He was afraid he was having a stroke. He spent a day and a night in the hospital undergoing thousands of dollars' worth of tests. They found nothing. He later found out (as I did) that he had a common malady called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. What happens is that the little rocks (calcium carbonate crystals) that live in your inner ear loosen and migrate into one of the fluid-filled semicircular canals where they’re not supposed to be. In this location they send false signals to the brain. The little rocks are part of the elaborate balancing mechanism located in our inner ears.

Apparently vertigo occurs more frequently in older people because the protein coating that covers the crystals weakens with age, making the crystals more apt to move out of place. In my case, in addition to the time I got it when getting out of bed, I also got it while standing at the kitchen counter. I simply moved my head a certain way and got dizzy (I swear that the square patterns in the counter tiles contributed to it). In my case, the episodes always resolved on their own within a few minutes. 

If your vertigo doesn't go away, you can try a couple of maneuvers, one of which is new. The most commonly used one, which has been used for about 20 years, is called the Epley maneuver. It involves turning your head in several positions, first while sitting and then while lying on your side. The newer maneuver is called the half somersault [!], which you do from a kneeling position.

Here are links to videos demonstrating how to do both maneuvers:   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llvUbxEoadQ   (This is just one; there are many more to chose from.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8ucpWIIC3g (I think this is the best one. It’s by the doctor who came up with the somersault maneuver and explains the inner ear business. It’s not a real somersault, by the way, and looks quite simple.)

I haven’t had vertigo for a long time. I kind of wish I would so I could try the somersault.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.