At Island Sports Physical Therapy, our treatment philosophy is individually based with a specific emphasis on our patient’s goals which they want to achieve. We have been providing vestibular treatment on Long Island for years.
Island Sports Physical Therapy has been a source of treatment and education for the North Shore of Long Island for the better part of the last twenty years and has strong ties to the local medical and residential communities. The hallmark of our treatment philosophy is education on how to maintain the goals achieved in our office. We provide a specifically tailored program for each person to continue at home to ensure wellness now and for the future.
When it comes to simple everyday activities, whether walking or going up and down the stairs, having good balance is important. Balancing is a skill, and like any other skill, the more you practice the better you get. You can practice building strength and stability by working with our Vestibular Therapy on Long Island at Island Sports Physical Therapy.
Who is at Risk of Balance Problems?
Suppose you feel unsteady while standing or walking. In that case, you may have a balance problem. If you are on medication, have an infection, are experiencing an inner ear problem, or are recovering from a head injury, you are at risk of balance problems. You may also be at risk if you are 65 years or older and have arthritis or low or high blood pressure. Having an ear infection or traveling on a boat may cause balance issues but usually goes away in time with treatment such as medications. Some balance problems though become long-term, chronic conditions. In these cases, it is good to start working with a physical therapist to improve your balance and get to the root of the problem.
Our Long Island Locations
How Can Physical Therapy Help with Balance Issues?
By performing physical therapy exercises to improve your balance, you can maintain your independence when it comes to walking, standing from a chair, or any other daily activities without risking a fall and getting injured. Our therapists at Vestibular Therapy on Long Island are experts when it comes to movement. They will be able to help you improve your strength and mobility. Your doctor might recommend you start Vestibular Therapy on Long Island if:
- You are having difficulty moving independently and safely
- You have gotten hurt from falling or have a history of falling
- You have had a stroke causing you to have difficulty balancing
- You are an athlete recovering from a sports injury
- You have recently had surgery
- You have vertigo
When you first attend Vestibular Therapy on Long Island, a therapist will likely assess your balance to see which movement, in particular, poses the greatest challenge. Then, they will help you create a routine to enhance your balance, safety, and independence.
Balance Exercises in Physical Therapy
It is important to do these exercises with the help of a physical therapist. Some of these exercises may be too difficult to perform on your own. Having a physical therapist will ensure that you are performing balancing exercises safely and properly. Below are four simple balancing exercises a physical therapist can help you with to help improve your balance.
- Single Leg Stance: A simple leg lift enhances balance by engaging your legs and abdomen muscles. It is important to have this skill because it helps with any movements that involve shifting weight from one leg to another, such as turning a corner or stopping yourself from falling.
- Tandem Walking: This exercise tests your balance and your body’s movement pattern while you are walking. By performing this exercise, you are strengthening your connection between your visual and proprioceptive systems. The ultimate goal in this exercise is to be able to walk without any spaces between each foot.
- Walking with Different Head Motions: This exercise strengthens your connection with all three balance systems. It trains these systems to react quickly when your focus abruptly changes. This is a very beneficial exercise for feeling stable and confident in a crowded environment or busy workplace.
- Walking with a Different Visual Field: This exercise strengthens your connection between the vestibular and proprioceptive systems. Practicing this will help you in cases where your surroundings are disorienting.
Contact Us For Vestibular Therapy on Long Island
At Island Sports Physical Therapy, our staff is committed to helping build strength and mobility by focusing on your specific goals and needs. Our Vestibular Therapy on Long Island ensures that you are receiving treatment in a safe environment. If you want to improve your balance to prevent falls that can be life-threatening, schedule an appointment with us today!
Treatment For Vertigo
Do you experience vertigo? Vertigo is a sensation of dizziness. You may feel like everything around you is spinning in circles and lose your balance. Vertigo can be severe to the point that completing simple tasks can be difficult to manage. Treatment for vertigo depends on several factors. One of the most effective treatment options is physical therapy. At Island Sports Physical Therapy, we provide comprehensive, individualized treatment that can help you treat vertigo you experience. If you’re looking for Vestibular Therapy on Long Island, contact us for a consultation.
Symptoms of Vertigo
People who experience vertigo describe feeling like they are spinning, swaying, or being pulled in one direction. A loss of balance is not uncommon either. Other symptoms of vertigo include:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Headache
- Ringing in the ears or hearing loss
Symptom duration ranges from a few minutes to a few hours. If you experience any of these symptoms or feelings, you may be experiencing vertigo.
Causes of Vertigo
Vertigo typically stems from an inner ear problem. There are a few different syndromes or conditions that can lead to vertigo. Some of these include:
- Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV): Triggered by a change in your head’s position. Leads to calcium deposits being dislodged and collected in your inner ear. The most common cause
- Meniere’s disease: Inner ear disorder that causes a buildup of fluid inside the ear. Can cause vertigo along with ringing in the ears and hearing loss
- Vestibular neuritis or labyrinthitis: Inflammation in the inner ear around nerves that help the body maintain balance
- Cholesteatoma Non-cancerous skin growth that develops in the middle ar
- Migraines
- Head and ear injury
- Certain medications
How to Cure My Vertigo?
The disorientation caused by vertigo can be a frustrating disruption to your everyday routine. Often, vertigo goes away on its own. However, some cases require more attention to treat. Some common treatments for vertigo are:
- Medication: If infection is behind the vertigo you’re experiencing, antibiotics would be given. Inflammation? Steroids can reduce this. Medications for nausea and motion sickness can also be effective
- Vestibular rehabilitation: This type of physical therapy helps strengthen your other senses so they can compensate for vertigo
- Canalith repositioning maneuvers: If you have BPPV, these maneuvers can help move calcium deposits to an area in the ear where they will be reabsorbed into the body. A physical therapist can guide you through these
- Surgery: In cases where vertigo is due to a serious underlying issue, surgery may be necessary to treat the condition
There are numerous options to deal with vertigo. If you experience constant vertigo, consulting with a physical therapist can help you treat it as quickly as possible. Island Sports Physical Therapy offers excellent Vestibular Therapy on Long Island to cure it swiftly.
Island Sports Physical Therapy
Island Sports Physical Therapy will give you treatment that is personal and attentive. When we work with you, we combine education and exercise to provide the most effective treatment that fits your unique needs. We believe compassion, competence, and hard work will help all patients achieve their physical goals. If you’re experiencing vertigo and seeking Vestibular Therapy on Long Island, reach out to us at Island Sports Physical Therapy today.
Balance disorders are a common occurrence that affects almost 15% of Americans. There are different types of balance disorders that have a wide array of different symptoms. Your whole body is responsible for making the body balanced, from your ears to the blood vessels within the body. Balance disorders affect everyone differently from their point-of-view. If you think you may be dealing with a balance disorder or are looking for vestibular therapy on Long Island, consider contacting Island Sports PT to schedule an appointment or visit their website for more information.
What Are Balance Disorders?
A balance disorder is a condition that makes you feel as though you are unsteady and dizzy and lightheaded. Sometimes you might feel as though the room is spinning and when you are walking down the street you might as though you are going to fall out of nowhere. Some of the main causes of balance disorders are head injuries, medications, ear infection, older ages, intense spinning or motions, being in rough water on a boat. Any type of trouble with your head or ear may cause some type of balance problems. Standing up too quickly with very low pressure may cause someone to become lightheaded with temporary dizziness. Many people diagnosed with balance disorders start suddenly with no clear cause. Some of the signs and symptoms of balance disorders are:
- Sense of spinning or motion
- Feeling tired and lightheaded
- Loss of balance
- Staggering when trying to walk
- Feeling as though you are going to fall or trip
- Floating feeling of dizziness
- Vision changes or blurriness
- Confusion
- Disorientation
Types of Balance Disorders
Many different balance disorders can affect people’s bodies differently. Some examples of balance disorders/problems are:
- Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV): Occurs in the inner part of the ear when calcium crystals, which control the balance and movement of the body, are shifted or dislodged from their normal typical position. BPPV is one of the most common balance disorders that adults encounter. Some of the symptoms include a spinning sensation while you’re in bed or lying down, or when tilting your head in different positions.
- Labyrinthitis: An infection or inflammation of the inner ear that causes balance and dizziness problems. It is often associated with respiratory diseases, such as influenza.
- Ménière’s Disease: A type of vertigo that includes hearing loss, ringing noise in the ear, stuffy, and clogged ears feeling. It is associated with the changes in the fluid within the labyrinth of the body. It is a rare disease that affects people between the ages of 20-40 years old.
- Vestibular Neuritis: An inflammatory disease, usually caused by some type of virus or infection, that affects the nerves that are responsible for balancing part of the ear. Some of the symptoms are nausea or trouble walking. Most of the time one does not have to go to the doctor and symptoms improve over time. This is the second most common type of balance disorder that adults face.
- Perilymph Fistula: A leakage of inner ear fluid into the middle of the ear. It causes the body to become unbalanced, nausea, and dizziness. Occurs usually after some type of head injury or trauma, or sometimes even a change of air pressure. Some people are born with it and live their lives with it.
- Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS): A feeling of continuous swaying back and forth or bobbing up and down. Usually, after you are on some type of sea travel like a boat or cruise. The symptoms usually go away a few hours or days after reaching land. Sometimes the most severe cases last for months and years and the cause remains unknown.
How Balance Disorders Are Diagnosed
To see if you have a balance disorder or temporary dizziness doctors will review your medical records and history. Then they will do a variety of tests, some physical and some neurological. Some of the tests that your doctor may recommend that you take are:
- Hearing Test- Sometimes people that experience hearing problems also experience balance problems because they are often related.
- Posturography Test- while wearing a harness you try to remain standing on a platform that is moving around. This allows the doctor to physically see where you are unbalanced by looking at the body parts you are relying on the most.
- Rotary Chair Test- Examines your eyes and how they move while you are strapped into a computer-controlled chair that moves you in a circular motion.
- Dix-Hallpike Maneuver- The doctor moves and turns your head in different positions while the doctor looks and examines your eyes to determine if you have a false sense of spinning and motion.
- Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potentials Test- Sensory pads are placed on your forehead, neck, and under your eyes to measure tiny changes and muscle contractions to see how your body reacts.
How Vestibular Therapy on Long Island Can Help
Physical therapy is an essential aspect in coping and recovering from various balance disorders. Your physical therapist will create a specific, tailored training program that can help you overcome the balance problems and get you back to the things you love doing. Some things that your physical therapist will help you with are:
- Reduce Your Fall Risk and Fear of Falling- This will begin by locating any risk that you may have in your house and removing it. Somethings that may be a falling risk are slippery rugs, loose handles, items on the floor, etc. You will then be able to navigate your home with ease and limit your concern about falling or tripping on anything.
- Regain Your Strength- During a session of vestibular therapy on Long Island, our team will start by examining which part of the body you rely on more. Then will teach and show you exercise that will increase the strength on the parts of the body you do not rely on. This treatment will rebuild your confidence so that you can walk without the uncertainty of how each step will unfold.
- Improve Your Movement- The physical therapist will then start showing you how to walk properly so that you can move with free will. This will increase the movement you can do. Also, they will target stiff joints that haven’t been used as much and look to loosen them.
- Increase Your Exercise- With more strength and increased movement, your activity level will begin to improve and you will be able to do more difficult advanced exercises. This will hopefully help you lose any unwanted weight and relieve any pressure on your joints and tendons.
Contact Island Sports Vestibular Therapy on Long Island
Here at Island PT, we are here to help with any physical therapy needs or concerns. We offer that range from spinal rehabilitation to sports therapy. Our talented, experienced staff wants to make sure you are comfortable as possible and get back to the passions you love. If you are in need of vestibular therapy on Long Island, consider contacting Island Sports PT to schedule an upcoming appointment.
Vertigo is a sensation of feeling-off balance. One who suffers from vertigo may feel like they are moving or spinning, even when they’re not. It also may feel like your surroundings are in motion when they aren’t. Vertigo is not a disease – it’s a symptom of varying conditions. Vestibular therapy on Long Island can relieve your symptoms and get you on track to enjoying your life.
Types of Vertigo
There are two main types of vertigo:
Peripheral vertigo. A problem causes this in the inner ear or vestibular nerve areas, which connects the inner ear and brain and controls your balance. This is the most common type of vertigo in people. The most common causes of inner ear trouble that lead to peripheral vertigo are benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), vestibular neuronitis, and Meniere’s disease.
Central vertigo. This happens when there is a glitch in the brain, particularly in the cerebellum area. A disease of injury often causes central vertigo to the brain, such as head injuries, some illness, migraines, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, strokes, shingles in or near the ear, ear surgery, prolonged bed rest, diabetes, low blood pressure (orthostatic hypotensions), ataxia, and others.
Symptoms of Vertigo
Vertigo is often triggered by a change in the position of your head. Those who suffer from vertigo often describe the feeling of spinning, tilting, swaying, unbalance, and being pulled to one direction. Some other symptoms may include:
- Feeling nauseated
- Vomiting
- Abnormal or jerking eye movements
- Headaches
- Sweating
- Ringing in the ears and/or hearing loss
Symptoms of vertigo may last for only a few minutes to a few hours or more. Symptoms can be managed and relieved through Vestibular therapy on Long Island with Island Sports Physical Therapy.
Vertigo and dizziness can often be confused. Both dizziness and vertigo are considered to be balance problems, although the two symptoms are different. With dizziness, it is an overall feeling of being unbalanced. For vertigo, it usually has sensations that you are moving or that your surroundings are spinning when they are not. If you are experiencing these symptoms call Vestibular therapy on Long Island.
Treatments for Vestibular therapy on Long Island
Treatment depends on several factors for each individual’s vertigo, including the root of cause. There are a few common vertigo treatments:
- Medication. By treating the root of cause for your vertigo, it can help ease the symptoms. For example, if you are experiencing vertigo due to an infection, you may be prescribed antibiotics. Besides that, there are several other medications to relieve other vertigo symptoms.
- Vestibular rehabilitation. If you experience vertigo due to an inner ear problem, vestibular rehabilitation is a form of vertigo physical therapy near Stony Brook NY that may help reduce your symptoms. This form of PT works to strengthen your other senses so that they can compensate for vertigo episodes.
- Canalith repositioning procedure (CRP). If you suffer from BPPV, this procedure helps move calcium deposits into an inner ear chamber where your body will absorb them. It is a method to remove the crystals trapped in the ear’s semicircular canal. This is used when the cause of vertigo is the displacement of small calcium carbonate crystals within the inner ear.
- Surgery. If vertigo is due to a serious underlying issue, such as a brain tumor, undergoing surgery may be necessary for recovery.
Vestibular Therapy on Long Island
The symptoms of vertigo can be frustrating and uncomfortable for those suffering. Island Sports Physical Therapy, Vestibular therapy on Long Island, offers individualized treatment and personal care for each patient for physical therapy and recovery. Contact us today to request your appointment!
