Vertigo causes an unpleasant and frightening feeling that you’re spinning or the room is moving around you. At San Antonio Premier Internal Medicine in Texas, the highly skilled clinicians expertly diagnose your vertigo and offer effective treatments to help you regain your balance. To find the cause of your vertigo and its solution, call one of the practice’s three San Antonio offices or book an appointment online today.
Vertigo is being off-balance or dizzy and feeling like the room is spinning around you. Occasional sensations like these aren’t uncommon, but when you have vertigo, you experience such symptoms regularly.
Trying to lead a normal life when you have vertigo can be quite a challenge. You might feel like you’re moving when you’re not and need to hold onto something because you think you’re likely to fall. You might feel nauseous, exhausted, and get frequent headaches.
Vertigo is typically a symptom of inner ear problems. The vestibular system in your inner ear plays a vital role in balance, so if anything affects it, you might develop dizziness and vertigo. Conditions that can cause vertigo include:
BPPV develops when canaliths (deposits of calcium particles) form in your inner ear. It’s unclear why canaliths form, but they’re more common in older people.
Meniere’s disease results from a fluid buildup that puts pressure on the structures in your inner ear. It causes hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing or other odd sounds in your ears) as well as vertigo.
Labyrinthitis or vestibular neuritis develops when an ear infection causes inflammation in the inner ear. The inflammation affects the nerves in your ears that help you balance.
Other possible causes of vertigo the doctors at San Antonio Premier Internal Medicine see sometimes include migraines, head and neck injuries, strokes, and medication side effects.
If a bacterial infection is causing vertigo, your doctor might prescribe antibiotics. When the infection clears, your vertigo should disappear. Other medications can also help. Anti-inflammatories like steroids reduce the inflammation in your inner ear, and if you have Meniere’s disease, diuretics (water pills) lower the fluid levels in your ears.
In some cases, your brain adapts to the problem, and vertigo clears up without treatment. If you’re not having any success with these options, San Antonio Premier Internal Medicine offers other vertigo treatments, including:
The vestibular system delivers messages to your brain about your head and body movements and their relationship to the force of gravity. These signals help you balance, so if anything disrupts them, vertigo can set in. Vestibular rehabilitation is a specialized physical therapy that improves your vestibular system and restores proper communication.
Canalith repositioning maneuvers are controlled head and body movements that help with BPPV. The movements shift the calcium deposits from your inner ear canal to the ear’s inner chamber. Your body can then absorb the calcium, which resolves your vertigo.
For expert diagnosis and treatment of troubling vertigo, call San Antonio Premier Internal Medicine today or book an appointment online.