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Article
Treatment for Vestibular Disorders: How Does Your Physical Therapist Treat Dizziness Related to Vestibular Problems?
Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy
  • Courtney D. Hall, East Tennessee State University
  • Susan J. Herdman, Emory University
  • Susan L. Whitney, University of Pittsburgh
  • Stephen P. Cass, King Saud University
  • Richard A. Clendaniel, University of Colorado School of Medicine
  • Terry D. Fife, Duke University Medical Center
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2016
Description

Dizziness is very common, but it is never normal. Dizziness can make performing daily activities, work, and walking difficult. Many people get dizzy when they turn their head, which can cause problems with walking and makes people more likely to fall. Most of the time dizziness is not from a life-threatening disease. Often dizziness is because of a disorder of the vestibular (or inner ear balance) system. People can get vestibular disorders from infections in the ear, problems with the immune system, medications that harm the inner ear, and rarely from diabetes or stroke because of a lack of blood flow to the inner ear. Stress, poor sleep, migraines, overdoing some activities, and feeling sad can increase symptoms. New guidelines for the treatment of vestibular disorders were published in the April 2016 issue of the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy. The guideline describes which exercises are best to treat the dizziness and balance problems commonly seen with an inner ear disorder.

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Copyright Statement

© 2016 Neurology Section, APTA. This document was originally published in the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy.

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Citation Information
Courtney D. Hall, Susan J. Herdman, Susan L. Whitney, Stephen P. Cass, et al.. "Treatment for Vestibular Disorders: How Does Your Physical Therapist Treat Dizziness Related to Vestibular Problems?" Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy Vol. 40 Iss. 2 (2016) p. 156 ISSN: 1557-0576
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/courtney-hall/6/