My rocks are loose, lost my marbles, few ball bearings are loose, there’s something wrong with the crystals in my head…... These sayings are just a few of the things my patients have told me as a way to describe their dizziness during their course of treatment for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo aka BPPV.

BPPV usually just happens without any specific injury or activity that causes it, but rarely can occur after a bump to the head. Most of my patients tell me they just woke up with it or they moved and all of a sudden, the world started spinning.  The spinning sensation, termed vertigo, is usually sudden and short lasting (<60 seconds) and will slowly subside and then stop. It is provoked with changes in positions such as lying down or sitting up in bed, rolling over in bed, bending over, looking up or down, turning their head, or any other position change.

The inner ear is about the size of a dime located in your temple bone. We have small hair cells located in the cochlea with tiny little “crystals” called otoconia located on the end of each hair cell. Whenever we move our heads the hair cells will move and send a signal back to the brain so the brain knows where the head is at in relation to the body; the crystals job is to just weight the hair cell.

What happens during BPPV, is the crystals will “fall off” the hair cells and get stuck in one of the three semicircular canals with the most common being the posterior canal. So now when you change positions, there is a normal signal to the brain depending on how you move and a second signal from the crystals dragging on the side of the canal. The brain takes those two signals and makes it into a spinning sensation. Once the crystals stop moving the spinning stops, but patients usually don’t feel the best and may have nausea or vomiting.

Physical therapists are trained to identify which ear and which canal the crystals are stuck in and then perform maneuvers that will reposition the crystals back to where they belong. The treatment for BPPV is very effective and about 85% of patients are better with only one treatment. After each treatment, patients are asked to maintain a level head position for up to two hours and instructed they may feel more off-balance afterwards.

If you are experiencing any of symptoms of BPPV and are interested in treatment or want to learn more, don’t hesitate to call/text me at 701-318-4731 or email me at alison@pinnalcetherapywellness.com and don’t forget to follow on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on the happenings at Pinnacle Therapy & Wellness.