If you have ever experienced real vertigo, then you’ll know it’s no laughing matter. Not only can this make you feel very unsettled on your feet and potentially put you at risk of falling, but it can also make you feel sick and nauseous. In some cases, it might even trigger actual bouts of vomiting.
The reason for this is that vertigo can confuse the body. When the alignment of the input coming from the ears doesn’t line up with the input coming from the eyes this tells the body: something is wrong. It then suspects poison and thus you can find yourself feeling sick.
You know when the room spins because you’ve had too much alcohol? That’s what your body thinks is happening and thus you feel unwell as well as unsteady.
So where does this come from, to begin with? There are actually a number of different causes for vertigo but generally, it’s to do with that ‘mixed input’. Normally, the body relies on data from multiple senses in order to suggest its orientation, etc. This includes information from the eyes which might help you to find the horizon, for instance, information from your body which can sense gravity and which gives you a connection with the ground and it means the ears which are what provides us with our sense of ‘equilibrioception’. Equilibrioception is handled specifically by the fluids that move inside the ear.
When the fluid sits at the bottom of the canal and doesn’t move, the brain can infer that we are the right way up and still. Thus, thin hair cells are used to detect the movement of fluid and this helps us to know which way up we are.
So, vertigo is caused when an incorrect signal is coming from somewhere. These 15 remedies to treat vertigo can help you to find the cause and address it.
1. The Epley Manoeuver
The Epley Maneuver involves moving the head in a very specific way to treat a specific type of vertigo called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (AKA BPPV). This form of vertigo is the result of small calcium crystals that may have become loose in the middle ear. As this move, they then send incorrect information through their interaction with the hairs inside the ears.
The Epley Maneuver aims to fix this and involves sitting on the edge of the bed, turning your head 45 degrees toward the problem ear, and then quickly lying down onto a pillow turning the head to face upward. You wait thirty seconds as vertigo subsides, turn your head 90 degrees and wait 30 more seconds. Finally, turn to look at the floor and then slowly sit up.
For better instruction, I recommend watching someone perform the movement. YouTube will do the trick!
