IF YOU have ever rolled over in bed and felt the room spin wildly you may have met BPPV.
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo is one of the most common causes of dizziness seen in physiotherapy clinics and it is far less sinister than it feels.
Deep inside the inner ear sit tiny calcium crystals which help your body sense movement and balance.
These crystals normally live in a structure called the utricle. Sometimes they escape and drift into one of the semicircular canals.
These canals act like spirit levels for your head. When crystals move through them, the brain receives dramatic but incorrect messages about motion.
This is why people feel sudden spinning when they roll in bed, look up, bend down or tilt the head back.
The sensation lasts seconds but feels alarming; nausea, unsteadiness and anxiety often follow.
The Epley procedure is a clever sequence of head positions which uses gravity to guide the wandering crystals back home.
As physiotherapists we identify which ear and which canal is involved by observing eye movements during testing. We then guide patients through the manoeuvre in a calm controlled way.
Relief is often immediate and many people walk out amazed at how simple the solution feels.
At Scenic Rim Physios we have had many years experience in treating this condition very successfully.
Importantly this condition is harmless though disruptive to daily life. Accurate assessment matters because not all dizziness is BPPV.
Seeing an especially trained physiotherapist ensures correct diagnosis, safe treatment and a fast return to normal, confident movement for most people afterwards.
By Alison Ford
