ACUPUNCTURE & Chinese Herbal to Help Vertigo 眩暈
By: Dr. Paul Zheng (CMD)
Vertigo is not a disease but a symptom. Behind the symptom, there can be serious problems.
Benign Paroxysmal positional vertigo: This mostly happens among the middle age group. This occurs during the movements of lying down or getting up from bed, or turning during lying position. In some patients, it occurs only in a certain direction, like in turning the head to the left while lying down. This type of vertigo does not have hearing symptoms. Usually it will heal in 2 to 3 weeks, but it may recur after certain period of time. Most people think this problem is caused by the detachment of the otoconia. Drug treatment for this type of vertigo is not effective. Usually physcial therapy is used ,or a patient can wait for it to heal by itself. Acupuncture is effective. See sample of qigong classes.
Meniere's Disease: This is a more common type of vertigo. Often many vertigo cases are incorrectly called Meniere's disease. Meniere's disease shows a classical symptom: the symptom of vertigo is very drastic and continues for long period of time, more than 20 minutes or even up to several hours. Before the attacks the patients have difficulty in hearing, the sensation of plugged-up ears and tinnitus. Lack of sleep, stress, being overly busy, or eating salty food may trigger the problem. Because of the pressure of lymphatic fluid in the inner ears, it is also called edema of the inner ear. The hearing gradually becomes weaker every time this type of vertigo happens. Sometimes, it can heal by themself, Acupuncture is effective.
Circulatory Problems including vestibular artery blockage commonly occur in patients over 50 years old, especially those with high lipid, hypertension or diabetes. Low blood pressure sometime caused by shenyangxu (kidney yang deficient) condition also can cause vertigo. Acupuncture and Chinese herb medicine are effective.
Vestibular Neuronitis: usually happens after influenza infections because the vestibular neurons have been attacked by the virus. The vertigo can happen within one or two days gradually becoming more serious, continuing for a week or so and then gradually subsiding. In older patients it may take a few months to recover. This type of vertigo does not appear very frequently.
Idiopathic utriculus atrophy
Labyrinthine concussion
Chronic otitis media
Sequela of stapedectomy
