Dizziness and Balance

You have the wobbles. Feel unsteady. A bit woozy and fuzzy. You’re exhausted and your brain won’t kick into gear. It’s been too long. You’re sick of feeling this way.

Or maybe it’s just started. The room won’t stop spinning. You can’t sleep. Scared it’ll start back up again. Too afraid to roll over, bend down or look up.

You aren’t confident to move. What happens if you fall. It’s easier to stay at home. What’s the next Netflix series you can get stuck into?

You can’t live like this anymore.

You’ve been to the doctor. Yet you feel helpless. What exactly did they say you’ve got?

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)
Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD)
Ménière’s Disease

Vestibular migraine
Vestibular neuronitis
Labyrinthitis

Cervicogenic dizziness
Post concussive syndrome
Hypertension

The words are big. The acronyms are confusing. And you still don’t have what you are looking for-- a solution.

“Why is this happening to me?” or “How can I get rid of it?”

We understand you may feel frustrated, hopeless, or confused by now.

Well please know that you are not alone. Here at Body and Brain Centre, we hear this a lot. It’s great that you’ve tried a few things to get rid of your dizziness. You now know what doesn’t work. So you’re a step closer to finding out what does work.

Ways we can help you manage your dizziness

The solution may be simple - and your dizziness might be fixed in a session or two. Or if you’ve been suffering for a long time, it’s more likely it’ll take a bit longer to recover trying a range of different approaches.

People find relief from dizziness through a range of ways, depending on preference and their needs:

Vestibular and Neurological Rehabilitation
Biofeedback
Chiropractic

Acupuncture
Counselling

You don’t need to worry about which service suits - we’ll point you in the right direction. However, you may like to understand how a few of these services can help:

Vestibular rehabilitation for dizziness

Vestibular rehabilitation is specific exercises to help reduce dizzy and off-balance feelings _{(Hillier & McDonnell
2007)}.

How does it work?

The inner ears send messages to the brain. “I’m moving to the left. Now up. Down. Around.” These signals get muffled and mixed up in dizzy patients.

We can retrain the inner ears - also known as the ‘vestibular system’. You may be given simple yet powerful exercises such as eye tracking exercises. Walking about in funny patterns. And balance challenges.

Neurological rehabilitation for dizziness

The brain is always learning. Adapting. Trying to improve and streamline. This is what’s known as neuroplasticity. However, sometimes the brain gets overwhelmed and confused. The wires get crossed.

Neuro-rehabilitation aims to untangle the wires. To reset the brain and strengthen fatigued areas. Calm down the crazy parts.

Visualisations, coordination exercises, and mirrors are just a few types of exercises that can help people with dizziness _{(Moseley 2004)}.

Neuro Rehabilitation at Body and Brain Centre

Biofeedback for dizziness

The brain sends electrical signals - called brainwaves. These are messages that help us move, think and digest. To function in every way.

We can train brainwaves and help you learn to ‘control’ them using computerised training - called neurofeedback (or biofeedback). It’s pain-free, fun - and backed by NASA science _{(Pope & Palsson n.d.) (Levine 2018)}.

For instance, the heart beats rhythmically and quickly when we are stressed _{(Kim et al. 2018)}. With practice a relaxed, slow and off-tempo heartbeat can help calm down our stress response.

Biofeedback may help with some dizziness cases - but not all. It’s frequently used with other therapies like vestibular rehabilitation or counselling to create a holistic appropriate to ongoing dizziness.

Biofeedback at Body and Brain Centre

Computerised Balance Assessment for dizziness

You know you sway but how much? Do you have the ‘balance age’ of a 79 year old when you are only 39 years old?

Computerised assessments allow for more detailed understanding of what’s going on. This can help us give you more targeted treatment to help with your recovery.

Computerised Balance Assessments at Body and Brain Centre

Chiropractic for dizziness

Sometimes dizziness is caused by a tight and jammed up neck or jaw _{(Bronford 2010) (Knapstad
et al. 2019)}. Your muscles and joints might spasm. Leading to pain among your other complaints.

Maybe you already had migraines and headaches. The dizziness is another woe to add to your ongoing list.

Chiropractic frees up joints and surrounding muscles through gentle manipulation, cranial therapy, laser, massage, or even what’s known as Epley’s manoeuvre for Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) _{(Hillier & McDonnell 2007)}.

Chiropractic at Body and Brain Centre

Counselling & hypnotherapy for dizziness

It’s estimated that 50% of chronically dizzy patients have anxiety or depression _{(Staab &
Ruckenstein 2007)}. It’s been reported as high as 93% in certain conditions _{(Staab & Ruckenstein 2007)}.

Maybe the anxiety is caused by your fear of falling. Maybe you had anxiety beforehand. What’s worrying is that you may lose faith in your body and stop doing the things you love. The mundane everyday tasks may seem overwhelming. And this fear can make your dizziness worse.

Counselling can help you deal with your underlying fears and anxieties, which may help ease your dizziness _{(Edelman et al. 2011)}.

Counselling at Body and Brain Centre
Hypnotherapy at Body & Brain Centre

Nutrition for dizziness

Can dehydration cause dizziness? Can food help you lower your blood pressure?

Yes.

Dietitians and naturopaths will assess your diet and give you easy to follow and achievable advice. Not only can they help with your dizziness but also your weight management, diabetes and gut health all at the same time.

Naturopathy and Dietetics at Body and Brain Centre

Let us help you

Not sure which service to start with?

No worries. Book your free phone consultation and we’ll point you in the right direction. Medical rebates may be available. From here we can start an open, and honest conversation about your dizziness and balance worries - just to make sure we’re the right fit for you.

Book your free phone consultation now.

Research references

Bronfort G, Haas M, Evans R, Leininger B, Triano J (2010). Effectiveness of manual therapies: the UK evidence report. Chiropr Osteopat. 2010 Feb 25;18:3. doi: 10.1186/1746-1340-18-3.
Buccelletti E, Gilardi E, Scaini E, et al. (2009). Heart rate variability and myocardial infarction: systematic literature review and metanalysis. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2009;13(4):299‐307. This study found that disrupted HRV dynamics correlated with higher death rates after a heart attack. They did also point out that it should be taken on a case by case basis.
Edelman S, Mahoney AE & Cremer PD (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy for chronic subjective dizziness: a randomized, controlled trial. Am J Otolaryngol. 2012;33(4):395‐401. doi:10.1016/j.amjoto.2011.10.009. Three sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) produced significant positive outcomes in chronic subjective dizziness. This was however a small study with only 41 participants.
Hussain K, Murdin L, Schilder AG. Restriction of salt, caffeine and alcohol intake for the treatment of Ménière's disease or syndrome. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018;12(12):CD012173. Published 2018 Dec 31. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD012173.pub2. No high quality research was found to be included in this review hence it’s assumed that diet doesn’t affect Meniere’s disease.
Hillier SL & McDonnell M (2007). Vestibular rehabilitation for unilateral peripheral vestibular dysfunction. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD005397. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005397.pub2. 1668 participants were included in this review of the research. Vestibular rehabilitation was found to be safe and effective for one-sided peripheral vestibular disorders (like BPPV) with moderate to strong supporting evidence. There’s insufficient evidence to support different types of vestibular rehabilitation over another.
Hou Z, Xu S, Li Q, Cai L, Wu W, Yu H, Chen H (2017). The efficacy of acupuncture for the treatment of cervical vertigo: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2017;2017. Low or very low quality research suggests that acupuncture may be helpful for neck related (cervical) vertigo. This study only had 914 participants.
Kim HG, Cheon EJ, Bai DS, Lee YH, Koo BH (2018). Stress and Heart Rate Variability: A Meta-Analysis and Review of the Literature. Psychiatry Investig. 2018;15(3):235‐245. doi:10.30773/pi.2017.08.17
Levine C (2018). Neurofeedback. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Published November 16, 2018. Accessed on May 20, 2020 via https://www.britannica.com/science/neurofeedback.
Moseley GL (2004). Graded motor imagery is effective for long-standing complex regional pain syndrome: a randomised controlled trial. Pain. 2004 Mar 1;108(1-2):192-8.
Pope AT & Palsson OS (n.d.). ‘Helping Video Games “Rewire Our Minds”’. NASA Technical Reports Services. Accessed on 05/08/3019 via https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20040086464.pdf
Staab JP, Ruckenstein MJ. Expanding the differential of chronic dizziness. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007;133(2):170-176. doi: 10.1001/archotol.133.2.170. This research described that up to 93% of patients with chronic subjective dizziness have psychological disorders of which 59.7% had an anxiety disorder.
Tramontano M, Consorti G, Morone G, Lunghi C. Vertigo and balance disorders–the role of osteopathic manipulative treatment: a systematic review. Complementary Medicine Research. 2021;28(4):368-77.

Dizziness and Balance

Dizziness and Balance

“Why is this happening to me?” or “How can I get rid of it?”