Dizziness or Vertigo due to Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo is fairly common but can feel debilitating.  It can be difficult to walk, stand or sit without dizziness or sometimes nausea.  It is caused by a piece of crystal in your inner ear coming loose and positioning itself incorrectly.  The good news is that it is a relatively harmless safe condition and it can be effectively treated with certain exercises.

The first step to treatment is a visit to your doctor to diagnose the condition.  Your doctor may even be able to treat you by performing the Epley Maneuvre or Canalith Repositioning Maneuvre.  If you doctor can’t perform the maneuvre, be sure that they diagnose which ear is affected and visit a physiotherapist that can perform the maneuvre for you.

 The Epley Maneuvre or Canalith Repositioning Maneuvre

The Epley Maneuvre or Canalith Repositioning Maneuvre puts the patient in a series of positions in order to encourage the crystal to float back to its normal place in the inner ear.  It  is quite slow and gentle as you can see in the following video:

Brandt-Daroff Repositioning/Habituation Exercises

After you are treated, you can do the Brandt-Daroff Repositioning/Habituation Exercises at home on your own. The following video explains the Brandt-Daroff Exercises:

Hopefully these exercises will help you get your life back to normal.  A word of caution: This condition often reoccurs after a few years and treatment may need to be repeated.

The average person that comes in to see me is not an athlete, does not lift heavy objects, and cannot, for the life of them, understand why they are in so much pain. Truth is that you are more likely to suffer from that cushy desk job than from anything else.

Simply sitting in front of a computer for hours on end day after day slowly but surely does some serious damage to the body.  Here is how:

Headaches

Look at the last picture of the evolution of posture.  Notice how forward the person’s head is; how his neck sort of sticks out; and how he seems to be reaching further towards the screen.  That head position that everyone uses today puts a huge load of stress on those teeny tiny suboccipital muscles that lie at the base of the skull.  These suboccipital muscles when they are irritated for too long respond by sending headache signals to the temples, the side of the head, the base of the skull.  It can almost feel like someone tightening a band around your head.  Ouch!

Solution:

1. Learn how to sit properly using basic ergonomic principles
2. Keep your chin tucked in and stop inching your head toward the screen.  Perhaps it’s time to get a new glasses prescription or get a larger screen.

Pain Between Your Shoulder Blades

Notice how stretched forward his shoulders are?  How they kind of hunch forward and slouch?  This position keeps your chest muscles in a shortened, tight position, while stretching out the muscles in your upper back.  Yes, those rhomboid and trapezius muscles are being forced to work in a weakened, stretched out position.  They are also fighting a losing battle against tight, strong chest muscles.  The result is that the muscles between your shoulder blades will feel achy all the time.

Solution:

1. Stretch out your chest muscles, or try these chest stretches
2. Strengthen your Upper Back Muscles with lat pulldowns, use a rowing machine, do any kind of lats workout

Lower Back Pain

Notice how the lower back is missing any kind of natural arch in this position?  See how it rounds forward?  This is reversing the natural lordotic curve of the lower back and puts extra pressure on the nerve and blood supply in the lower back.  Basically, pressure is being put on your discs (herniated disc, anyone?), nerves are starting to be pinched, and your lower back is starting to feel achy all over.

Solution:

1. Sit with your hips against the back of the seat and get a lumbar support

Hip Pain

All that constant sitting can be a pain in the butt.  The constant pressure compresses nerves and blood vessels.  It acts like a choke hold, preventing blood from flowing freely to the gluteal muscles.  A reduced blood supply means less nutrients and oxygen being pumped into your hip and leg muscles.  It also means that waste products are not being removed very effectively from your hips.

Solution:

1. Stretch out your hip muscles
2. Learn these simple sitting exercises

What is the TMJ?

“TMJ” stands for Temporo Mandibular Joint.  Your TMJ  is basically your jaw joint that joins and hinges the jaw (mandible) onto the skull (temporal plate of the skull).

Signs and Symptoms of TMJ Disorder

TMJ Dysfunction or TMJ Disorder refers to irritation or improper functioning of the TMJ jaw joint.  Typical symptoms of TMJ Disorder are:

• jaw pain
• clicking in the jaw
• difficulty opening or closing the jaw
• locking of the jaw
• grinding the teeth at night
• headache
• neck pain

How to Relieve TMJ Pain

To treat TMJ Pain effectively it is important to do more that treat only the TMJ joint.  One must take into account many of the surrounding structures:

• The treatment should treat the structures most directly related to the joint such as: medial pterygoid, lateral pterygoid, masseter, and temporal muscles
• The fascia around this area is all very connected and interrelated.  The SCM muscle, for example weaves into the fascia of the TMJ joint as well as the fascia of the face.  Releasing the SCM can thus partially relieve the TMJ joint.
• The hyoid muscles should also be treated as they can deviate the mandible/jaw laterally
• Cranial work to rebalance the skull plates can also help relieve tension
• The suboccipital muscles and other neck muscles can all pull on the fascia of the TMJ causing tension on the joint and should therefore be relieved.

My Approach to treating TMJ Pain

My TMJ treatments typically cover the areas I just mentioned by incorporating a combination of massage, acupuncture, mobilizations, reflexive techniques, stretches, and fascial techniques.

For best results it is recommended to receive treatment once a week for 4 to 6 weeks.

Here is a selection of research on the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating headaches.

In a 2005 randomized trial, Linde et al studied the effects of acupuncture, sham acupuncture and a control on 302 patients with migraine headaches. The study found the acupuncture and sham acupuncture produced a greater reduction in moderate to severe headaches.

A study by Hansen & Hansen in 1985 showed that classical Chinese acupuncture was more effective than the sham acupuncture placebo in relieving headaches.

A study by Vincent in 1989 found that acupuncture was more effective than the sham acupuncture placebo in treating chronic migraine headaches.

A systematic review by Melchart et al in 2001 included, among others, 16 trials comparing acupuncture to sham acupuncture. The review found that true acupuncture was reported to be significantly superior to sham acupuncture.