Vertigo is a common condition that is found in the majority of people. It is experienced by one and all once in a lifetime irrespective of age and gender. You must be thinking of you have heard a lot about vertigo but exactly what is vertigo and how it hampers one’s daily life? Vertigo is not a disease but a symptom of various ailments. A spinning sensation that makes you feel woozy or off-balance, whether the room seems to spin around or you may experience you are spinning all by yourself when there is no motion, in reality, is termed as vertigo. Vertigo bouts last for minutes to hours to days depending on the cause and severity of the condition. Vertigo is generally referred to as an inflammation or infection in the inner ear, head or vestibular nerve that causes a spinning sensation in a person. BPPV, Meniere’s disease, vestibular migraines, Vestibular neuritis, Labyrinthitis are some of the most common causes of vertigo.
It is quite tough for a person to lead an active life with vertigo. Sudden bouts of vertigo make it difficult for a person to accomplish day to day activities. It causes hindrance in accomplishing daily chores as you may feel the loss of balance all of a sudden as soon as vertigo spells strike you. Daily activities like crossing the road, driving, climbing the stairs or carrying out any physical activities like lifting weights, cycling, mountaineering, etc. become impossible when one is suffering from vertigo. Abnormal Jerking of the eye makes it difficult to maintain balance as eyes are the most effective senses one relies on as compared to other senses.
Mild vertigo spells can be treated well at home with certain vertigo home remedies. If the person is experiencing recurring episodes of vertigo now and then, seeking medical advice is recommended. An expert neurologist will help you in vertigo diagnosis & treatment. Your doctor will advise you on the best vertigo treatment and prescribe right vertigo medicines to treat the underlying cause. Nausea, vomiting, headaches, blurred vision, abnormal eye movement, sweating are some of the common symptoms of vertigo that indicate the onset of such a condition. Immediate medical help is needed as you start discovering the symptoms of vertigo to combat the issue. If vertigo symptoms become severe due to ignorance, visual changes make it difficult for some people to accomplish official roles if they are in the police or army. Consult an expert health care provider on time, as he will help in alleviating symptoms of vertigo. Your doctor will help you to manage vertigo symptoms and guide you with right vertigo treatments like vestibular rehabilitation therapy, repositioning exercises, virtual reality, surgeries, etc.
A lot of speculation has been going around can virtual reality help in treating vertigo? If you have a visual disturbance and want to correct it, virtual reality is the best vertigo treatment suggested by doctors after diagnosing the underlying cause. Let’s understand what virtual reality is and how it works to treat visual disturbances caused due to vertigo.
What is virtual reality and can it help in treating vertigo?
Virtual reality is an innovative technology designed to treat patients experiencing vertigo symptoms. A study reports that virtual reality technology reduces the recovery time for patients who are experiencing bouts of vertigo. Generally, vestibular rehabilitation therapy takes about six months to treat vertigo symptoms whereas the virtual reality cut off the time of treatment to eight weeks. In virtual reality, patients are asked to concentrate on a 3D setting to experience visually stimulating patterns. It is an effective treatment for patients experiencing visual vertigo. It has shown a significant improvement in patient’s overtime.
Recently, virtual reality is used for vertigo diagnosis and treatment by a number of neurologists around the world. Virtual reality can treat patients suffering from repetitive visual patterns, blurred vision, abnormal jerking of the eye, etc. Dizziness and nausea are often accompanied by visual vertigo. Virtual reality helps to give a virtual environment to patients which helps in the diagnosis and rehabilitation from vertigo symptoms.
Visual disturbances make it difficult for a person to even walk as the condition may make you feel dizzy and you may experience nausea along with with visual imbalances all the time.
Virtual reality gives you the flexibility to create a different kind of environment that helps in finding out which condition triggers the patient most and design rehabilitation therapies accordingly.
Virtual reality is considered to be the best treatment for treating balance issues experienced by patients having vertigo. Virtual reality gives patients the sensation of being in motion as due to vision disturbances one may be feeling dizzy for a very long duration.
A study shows that human relies on the vision the most as compared to any other senses and disturbances in vision makes them lose balance. VR helps in treating the same by making the patient experience a stimulating environment.
However, Virtual reality can be an effective tool in rehabilitation therapies. It helps in treating patients suffering from visual vertigo imbalances. It helps in increasing the patient’s ability to rely on other senses to maintain balance. It is one of the most effective techniques to treat patients with motion sickness. Vertigo and motion sickness are different, but motion sickness sometimes comes along with vertigo and can be one of the symptoms of vertigo. When a person experiences repeated motions while traveling in a car or walking on stairs or while using escalators is referred to as motion sickness.
Visual vertigo/dizziness is a chronic condition and a complex form of dizziness which makes the life of a person difficult. A majority of people with balance issues suffer from visual vertigo, which makes it difficult for patients to cope with visually challenging environments. With the advancements in technology, the use of virtual reality (VR) is on a rapid rise. It is used to treat the debilitating condition of patients in a shorter time span.
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