What is a balance disorder?
A balance disorder is a condition that makes you feel unsteady or dizzy. If you are standing, sitting, or lying down, you might feel as if you are moving, spinning, or floating. If you are walking, you might suddenly feel as if you are tipping over.
Everyone has a dizzy spell now and then, but the term "dizziness" can mean different things to different people. For one person, dizziness might mean a fleeting feeling of faintness, while for another it could be an intense sensation of spinning (vertigo) that lasts a long time.
Experts believe that more than four out of 10 Americans, sometime in their lives, will experience an episode of dizziness significant enough to send them to a doctor. Balance disorders can be caused by certain health conditions, medications, or a problem in the inner ear or the brain. A balance disorder can profoundly impact daily activities and cause psychological and emotional hardship.
What are the symptoms of a balance disorder?
If you have a balance disorder, you may stagger when you try to walk, or teeter or fall when you try to stand up. You might experience other symptoms such as:
- Dizziness or vertigo (a spinning sensation)
- Falling or feeling as if you are going to fall
- Lightheadedness, faintness, or a floating sensation
- Blurred vision
- Confusion or disorientation.
Other symptoms might include nausea and vomiting, changes in heart rate and blood pressure, and fear, anxiety, or panic.
Symptoms may come and go over short time periods or last for a long time, and can lead to fatigue and depression.What causes balance disorders?
There are many causes of balance problems, such as medications, ear infections, a head injury, or anything else that affects the inner ear or brain. Low blood pressure can lead to dizziness when you stand up too quickly. Problems that affect the skeletal or visual systems, such as arthritis or eye muscle imbalance, can also cause balance disorders. Your risk of having balance problems increases as you get older.
Unfortunately, many balance disorders start suddenly and with no obvious cause.
Common Diagnoses We Work With Include:
- Central Nervous System Disorders
- Neuropathy
- Age-Related Balance Dysfunction
- Oculomotor (Visual) Dysfunction
- Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)
- Labyrinthitis
- Ménière's Disease
- Vestibular Neuronitis
- Muscle Atrophy
- Nerve Injuries
How Our Physical Therapists Can Help
Physical therapist directed treatment can assist patients with balance disorders in a number of ways. As experts in the evaluation and treatment of movement, muscle, joint, and nervous system disorders, our physical therapists can prescribe and implement a variety of treatments including:
- Coordination Exercises
- Proprioception Exercises
- Strengthening Exercises
- Stretching and Range of Motion Exercises
- Posture Exercises
- Retraining of the Inner Ear
- Visual Tracking Training
McKenzie Method
What is the McKenzie Method?
Also known as Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT), the McKenzie Method is a philosophy of active patient involvement and education that is trusted and used by practitioners and patients all over the world for back, neck and extremity problems. An evidence based approach, the key distinction of MDT is its initial assessment component -- a safe and reliable means to accurately reach a diagnosis and only then make the appropriate treatment plan. Certified McKenzie clinicians have valid indicators to know right away whether -- and uniquely how -- the method will work for each patient.
The Right Road to Restore Function
For successful treatment, one must first be effectively evaluated. Pain is a symptom -- not a diagnosis. Assessment is the first step!
The evidence has shown that the initial McKenzie assessment procedures preformed by competent MDT clinicians are as reliable as costly diagnostic imaging (i.e., X-rays, MRIs)* to determine the source of the problem and quickly identify those who will or will not respond to the treatment principles of MDT.
Through a series of repeated movements and positions, certified MDT practitioners assess two things as a result of these movements -- symptomatic and mechanical response. Patterns of response can be determined for what makes symptoms better or worse. Patients are classified accordingly and an effective set of exercises is established based on a "directional preference." Typically this is achieved in only 3 -5 visits!
Three Steps to Success
STEP 1: Assessment
MDT provides a safe, logical guide to the most optimal treatment strategy for a specific patient. Unique to the McKenzie Method, the process begins with a thorough history and testing of repteated movements to identify distinct patterns of pain responses that are: objective, reproducible, and reliable.
The most common and meaningful pattern of pain response is Centralization: when pain that has spread from the center of the back or neck down the leg or arm can reverse returning to the center of the back or neck, and eventually cease. Whether the patient's pain is acute or chronic, if Centralization occurs through this logical step-by-step assessment process, treatment is the most successful and lasting.
STEP 2: Treatment
The basis of the McKenzie system is the patient's own ability for movements and forces to abolish the pain and restore function. A series of individualized exercises are prescribed subsequent to the patient's responses during the assessment process and -- most critically -- are based on the identified Directional Preference of movements that will centralize or abolish pain (i.e., extension or flexion, right or left lateral movement, etc.)
Patients who do respond favorably with MDT can successfully treat themselves--and minimize the number of visits to the clinic--when provided the necessary knowledge and tools putting him or her in control of their treatment safely and effectively.
STEP 3: Prevention
Patients who stick to the prescribed treatment protocols are less likely to have persistent problems. Thus, by learning how to self-treat the current problem, patients gain hands-on knowledge on how to minimize the risk of recurrence and how to quickly manage themselves if symptoms do occur.
Need a McKenzie lumbar or cervical roll? Or McKenzie's self-help books, Treat Your Own Back or Treat Your Own Neck? Give us a call.
Creating Independence
McKenzie MDT is a proven methodology:
- Backed by years of research, evidence, and practice
- Low cost, fast and effective, even for chronic pain
- Non-invasive - no needles, no scalpel
- Self-directed - we work with you and teach you
- Be in control of your own symptom management
- Gain life-long pain management and preventive skills
Proven goals of McKenzie MDT are to:
Promote the body's potential to heal itself without medication, heat, cold, ultrasound, needles, surgery or endless visits to the clinic.
