How to Get Rid of Vertigo

Room spinning dizziness is scary and miserable, but learning a physical maneuver and taking vitamin supplements can help. Here's how to get rid of vertigo.

What is vertigo?

The alarm clock rings, you roll over to turn it off and try to get out of bed, but the room seems to spin. Or you look up to see a bird flying overhead and suddenly feel as if the ground beneath you is moving. You might look quickly over your shoulder while driving, then back at the road, and suddenly realize you are so dizzy you’d better pull over.

If you experience dizzy sensations that quickly pass but recur sometimes when you change your head position, the odds are you have the most common cause of vertigo, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). A mechanical problem in your inner ear is often the cause.

This kind of vertigo is usually not difficult to diagnose or treat. Research also suggests vitamin D supplements may play a role in keeping it at bay.

How vertigo occurs

Tiny calcium carbonate crystals normally embedded in the utricle (one of the inner ear sensory organs) can become loose and migrate into three fluid-filled semicircular canals, parts of your ear that sense when you are rotating.

If enough of the crystals accumulate in one or more of the canals, they interfere with fluid movement that normally helps you sense whether your head is still or moving. The result is your brain falsely registers movement, triggering vertigo, according to the Vestibular Disorders Association.

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How is vertigo diagnosed?

The symptoms usually don’t last long, but it’s not unusual to feel as if your balance is out of whack for a couple of hours. Vertigo sometimes goes away without any treatment. If it recurs, your doctor can diagnose the problem with the Dix-Hallpike test.

During the non-invasive test, your doctor will gently rotate your head while you sit and then quickly lie backwards. The process usually causes rapid eye movements and vertigo if you have BPPV.

How to get rid of vertigo

Meclizine is an antihistamine that can relieve the symptoms, but it doesn’t solve the cause of BPPV.

The Epley maneuver, which repositions the calcium crystals in your ear, can often treat and cure the condition. A doctor or physical therapist guides you through a series of specific movements that cause the crystals to move back into the utricle where they originated – much like tilting and rotating a puzzle until little balls fall into holes. Sometimes the Epley maneuver needs to be repeated, but it results in an instant fix for many vertigo sufferers.

"If you know what you are doing, you can treat a person one time and the BPPV is gone," said Lisa Heusel-Gillig, a physical therapist at the Emory Dizziness and Balance Center. Heusel-Gillig also provides BPPV patients with specific head movements they can do at home to reposition crystals causing the dizziness.

Studies have suggested vitamin D may play a role in both preventing vertigo and reducing the odds it will recur. Researchers have discovered a possible link between vitamin D deficiency and BPPV. Your inner ear’s calcium channel transport systems have vitamin D receptors — and vitamin D is known to help regulate calcium.

Other research shows the Epley maneuver is equally effective in BPPV patients whether they receive vitamin D supplements or not. But the condition may be far less likely to return in people who do take vitamin D supplements.

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