What Is Vestibular Rehabilitation?
Vestibular rehabilitation (VR) therapy addresses imbalance issues that are usually caused by nervous system disorders, like dizziness, vertigo, and labyrinthitis. Vestibular disorders affect the inner ear and brain, which are responsible for controlling balance and eye movements, and they can result from age, disease, or injury.
Vestibular rehabilitation therapy helps control symptoms like dizziness, visual disturbances, and related hearing and psychological changes, improving quality of life, especially for patients living with vestibular disorders. When you undergo rehabilitation, you can expect less dizziness and improved balance, reducing the risk of injury from falls.
Common Symptoms
If you've been diagnosed with imbalance, vertigo, or dizziness, you're dealing with a vestibular disorder. Other symptoms you may experience include blurry vision, frequent falls, headaches, stiffness, and neck pain. Consult your doctor or physical therapist if you experience one or more of these symptoms, they may recommend vestibular rehabilitation to help alleviate them.
The Initial Assessment
Before starting vestibular rehabilitation therapy, you'll be screened by a therapist for your visual and vestibular system, observing your eye movement and balance. The assessment also includes testing your sensation, muscle strength, spine range of motion, coordination, and posture. Based on these results, you'll receive a customized program.
What Vestibular Rehabilitation Involves
Once you have your tailored program, your physical therapist will guide you through specific exercises you can do in the comfort of your home. These typically include:
Habituation exercises, used to treat symptoms of increased dizziness when moving the head or encountering visually stimulating environments. Repeated exposure to the movements or visual stimuli that trigger dizziness helps train the brain to ignore those triggers over time, reducing the intensity of the response.
Gaze stabilization exercises, help improve control of eye movements during head movement, and are especially useful for patients whose vision seems to bounce or jump when reading or identifying objects in their environment.
Balance training exercises, intended to improve balance and steadiness for daily activities. These exercises promote changes in balance that should feel challenging, while remaining safe enough to avoid falls during practice.
Consistency Is Key
These exercises are generally easy to learn but can be hard to execute consistently, your commitment and perseverance matter for the program to be fully effective. Building them into your regular schedule helps you stay consistent, which makes a real difference in your recovery. A sedentary lifestyle, emotional stress, and pain can all limit your progress; if you notice these factors holding you back, talk to your physical therapist about how to stay motivated.