Ménière’s disease is a chronic disorder of the inner ear that produces a group of recurring symptoms. These include attacks of vertigo, disturbances in balance with feelings of dizziness and light-headedness, hearing loss, sensitivity to sound, headaches and increased pressure within the ear.
There is no cure for Ménière’s disease so treatment is, most usually, to relieve the symptoms with prescription medication to help control the build-up of endolymph fluid within the inner ear. In some cases, changing to a low sodium diet and taking prescribed diuretics can also bring relief of symptoms for some patients.
Chiswick Chiropractor, Johan C. Jeronimus offers a third treatment option at his Neuroworks practice, Vestibular Rehabilitation. This is an exercise-based program, designed to improve balance and to reduce the problems associated with dizziness in Ménière’s disease and other conditions affecting the inner ear (the Vestibular region).
The holistic approach at Neuroworks is to tailor any treatment program to the specific needs of the individual and aims to produce the best possible results for each patient. The benefits of this, individual approach, are borne out by the Ménière’s Society, who say on their website that with regard to Vestibular rehabilitation,
“The more customised this balance training is to the individual, the better the results.” (1)
Johan also strongly agrees with his statement that:
“Although the medication is essential in treating acute episodes of vertigo, they are not for long term use.” (1)
To find out more about Vestibular rehabilitation and to make an initial appointment, please call your Chiswick Chiropractor at the Neuroworks practice on 020 8566 3757 today.
What Can Vestibular rehabilitation do for me?
Your Chiswick Chiropractor will work with you to create a customized exercise programme. The specific exercises prescribed for each patient are those identified as making them dizzy. By performing these exercises and retraining their balance system, patients are able to cope with these feelings of dizziness.
As the patient improves, the exercises no longer provoke dizziness, so harder exercises will be prescribed to enable further improvement. It has been shown that those who are able to undergo a personally customised Vestibular rehabilitation program, do better than those who undertake more generic exercises.
In a downloadable PDF on Balance Retraining, published by the Ménière’s Society, they state that four out of five people who learned and performed the balance retraining exercises reported they felt better within just a few months. However, by comparison, those who did not learn these exercises did not experience any improvement in their dizziness. (2)
How Can Your Chiswick Chiropractor Help?
It is important to understand that the exercises cannot prevent the attacks of vertigo associated with Ménière’s, but they can help with the long-lasting problems of dizziness and imbalance. Ménière’s disease causes changes in the inner ear that result in vertigo and changes in the signals sent to the brain.
For those with Ménière’s disease, the exercises help the brain to adjust to these changed signals, giving patients confidence that they will be able to recover from attacks of vertigo more quickly by using the exercises to clear up the persisting symptoms of dizziness and imbalance
Vestibular rehabilitation exercises take persistence and dedication to achieve results, your Chiswick Chiropractor can help by teaching you exercises that will be of specific benefit to you, helping you to progress to harder exercises as your dizziness improves and to help you with the motivation you need to achieve the best possible result.
(1) https://www.menieres.org.uk/information-and-support/treatment-and-management/vestibular-rehabilitation
(2) https://www.menieres.org.uk/files/pdfs/balance-retraining-2012.pdf