Vertigo - Ayurvedic Treatment

Introduction

Health complications are increasing day by day. In this modern era diseases are at their peak. When people give a look on newspaper, TV channel and health magazines each day they come to know more new diseases. Vertigo is also health complication of people of all age groups. There are various factors responsible for this problem like head injury, ear infections, and tumor and cut off blood supply to brain. Stress and anxiety due to frictions in relationships, job stress, and society pressure also leads to severe vertigo conditions. Sometimes people are not aware about the symptoms of this disease.

What is Vertigo?

Vertigo is the condition when a person has feeling that all the objects are moving around but in real they are not. Symptoms associated with vertigo are vomiting, nausea, sweating and difficulty in walking, visual complications, weakness, unconsciousness and difficulty in speaking. It becomes severe if there is the spinning of head. Dizziness is the common type of vertigo. Main cause of vertigo is migraine, less supply of blood flow to brain, head injury, infection in ear, hardening of tissues and neck injury. Vertigo can be diagnosed by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Electrocardiogram (ECG), Computed Tomography (CT) and blood tests.

Let's Have a Look on the Types of Vertigo on The Basis of Cause

• Peripheral Vertigo

  It is most common type associated with imbalance mechanism of ear.

  Causes:

  • Head injury : Vertigo can be caused by head injury which results in dizziness.
  • Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BVVP) - It is a common type of vertigo which is caused by ear infection, injury in head, surgery of ear and extended bed rest due to illness. Main reason of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is due to the breaking down of calcium crystals from lining of channel into ear's fluid filled canals. When there is no movement of head, these crystals settle down at the bottom of canal. But during head movement these crystal become tidy along the fluid filled canal which gives the wrong messages to your brain, results in vertigo. This type of problem mostly affects the people more than 50 years of age.
  • Labyrinthitis : It is the infection occurs in the labyrinth (part of ear) which results in the inflammation of labyrinth. Due to the labyrinthitis there is problem in hearing and equilibrium. It is mainly caused by the viral infections like flu or common cold. Sometimes bacterial infections can also result in labyrinthitis.
  • Vestibular neuronitis : Vestibular neuronitis is the complication that is associated with the inflammations of nerves which connect the labyrinth to brain. This problem is caused by viral infections and result in the symptoms like nausea and vomiting.
  • Meniere's disease : Causes of this problem are still unknown. This type of vertigo affects the inner ear which results in hearing problems.

• Central Vertigo

  Central vertigo is the problem in brain parts like cerebellum (located at the bottom of brain) and brainstem (lower part of brain that is in a connection to spinal cord).

  Causes:

  • Migraine : In this condition inexorable pain occur at the one side of head. This problem commonly occurs in the young people.
  • Multiple Sclerosis : It is the condition which affects the spinal cord that results in visual discomfort and balance problems.
  • Benign tumor at the acoustic nerve and tumor at bottom of brain also the cause of central vertigo.
  • A Stroke : When blood supply cut off to parts of brain.
  • Some medications.

Causes of Vertigo in Ayurveda

In Ayurveda, vertigo is called as "brahma". Brahma is a balance disorder which causes head spinning. According to Ayurevda there are three energies - vata, pitta and kapha which are responsible for healthy body. Vertigo (Brahma) is due to aggravation of pitta and kapha dosha which results in the improperfunctioning of equilibrium mechanism in the inner parts of ear. This imbalance results in nausea, vomiting, dizziness, visual complications, difficulty in hearing and walking. There are various herbs are present in Ayurveda such as giloy, sariva, vacha, pitapapda and vacha which are quite effective in the treatment of vertigo (brahma).