Vestibular Rehab Therapy for Treating Vertigo

HealthBreak, brought to you by CHI Saint Joseph Health.

Vertigo causes brief episodes of severe dizziness. Fortunately, some types of vertigo can be treated with vestibular rehab. Neurological rehab specialist Jennifer Burus explains.

The inner ear is the part of your body that is sensitive to gravity. There's actually a part of it that is kind of weighted down with these little salt crystals. The movement of those things as you move against gravity actually lets you know, almost like a plum line, how you're lined up.

When these crystals are displaced, they send incorrect signals to the brain.

We take the person's head and move them through different positions so that gravity can cause those crystals to move. And once we can tell where they are, we take people through a series of movements where they move and turn their bodies and their heads, essentially using gravity and our understanding of the anatomy of the inner ear to roll things around until the crystal falls back into where it should be.

For more information, go to CHISaintJosephHealth.org. I'm Adrianne Flores.