Does head position cause imbalance?
It’s been a beautiful weekend here, and I’ve been enjoying doing lots of things outdoors. I try to spend as much time as possible outside when the weather’s nice, and I’m kind of an outside person by nature.
Most of my time was spent at the beach this weekend, which is certainly one of my favourite places to be. Yet it actually made me notice something about my balance that has really never occurred to me before…
When lying on my stomach and with my head at a 45 degree angle, I often get ‘drop attacks’ or feelings of sudden imbalance. The same goes for when my head is tilted at a 45 degree angle the other way.
Is it the angle that my head is at that is causing the feeling of imbalance? Is that even possible?
I know with some conditions like benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), where your head is at can make all the difference as to how you feel in terms of balance or imbalance.
This makes me wonder even more if I should check out getting some kind of ‘adjustment’ (as is often helpful with BPPV) to see if it improves my balance symptoms, as I think it would be oddly coincidental if sitting straight up just happened to improve my balance symptoms.
But I wonder… is this a common symptom with balance disorders? And is it a good sign that head positions actually change the nature of how I feel? It gives me hope that there is some kind of treatment associated with my condition anyway.
6 Comments, Comment or Ping
Dizzy Dame
I would encourage you to have a physical therapist/rehabilitator to do a few tests. When checking me for BPPV they had me lay back with my head dangling over the side of a table and then get up as fast as I can; they tried this with my head in different positions to see if any caused any nystagmus.
The fact that you are able to aggravate your symptoms just by moving your head is a worthwhile indicator to pay attention to. If it doesn’t confirm your suspicion at least it is one other thing you can be satisfied you’ve looked into.
Good luck!
Jul 7th, 2008
Vertigo Guy
Your comment just reminded me that I need to give my neurotologist’s office a call. They were supposed to book appointments for VRT, but I never heard back… too many things on my to-do list…
Interesting about the BPPV. I had the same tests, but no nystagmus was ever visible. I find it weird that I can aggravate my symptoms, but never present nystagmus. Did you ever end up showing nystagmus?
Thanks for your comment!
Jul 7th, 2008
Dizzy Dame
I did not show nystagmus, and for this reason the “drive thru” physical “therapist” believed I was lying about my dizziness. *eyeroll*
I should win every acting award out there if I can pretend for this amount of time, let alone one single hour. lol.
Jul 12th, 2008
Vertigo Guy
I just returned from a visit to a very nice VRT physiotherapist, and she actually videotaped my nystagmus so I could watch it. It was pretty weird!
So I’m definitely showing nystagmus, which she said is a good sign… I’ll provide more details in a new post.
Jul 30th, 2008
Dizzy Dame
Oh? Did you get to wear those groovy goggles that tape your eye movements?
Jul 30th, 2008
Vertigo Guy
Sure did! I described it a little bit in one of my newer posts.
Aug 1st, 2008
Reply to “Does head position cause imbalance?”