Vestibular/Balance Rehabilitation
If you or a loved one is experiencing dizziness/vertigo, or is concerned about balance abilities during everyday activities, you may benefit from this program. By developing a customized rehabilitation program, focusing on improving balance, decreasing dizziness and preventing falls, the disability associated with vestibular/balance problems may be lessoned or eradicated.
Solving Your Balance Problems
Our trained therapists will take you through a series of evaluations
to help determine the nature of your balance disorder. Through a
variety of specially-designed rehabilitation techniques, Palmetto
Therapy Services can help you improve your balance system, allowing
you to improve your confidence in returning to normal daily activities
without fear of falling.
Sources of Impaired Balance
As the human body ages, problems may develop in one or more sensory
or motor control systems. These problems may result in impaired
balance. Balance and vertigo problems can stem from many different
sources, such as disorders of the vestibular (inner ear) system,
strokes, joint injuries/damage, head injuries, diabetes or Parkinson's
disease. Neuromuscular problems, inactivity and weakness may also
lead to falls.
Solving Your Balance Problems
Patients with inner ear disorders may be referred to physical therapy
for primary symptoms of balance disorders and movement or visually-related
dizziness. The symptoms result from a problem within the inner ear
that reduces the patient's ability to move about his/her environment
without imbalance, vertigo and/or visual disturbances. Even moderate
dizziness can result in a disabling condition that can diminish
quality of life. The outcome can be medical, economic or social
difficulty. Vestibular rehabilitation is a therapeutic approach
to reducing the effects of impaired equilibrium and dizziness symptoms.
The program involves specific exercises designed to:
- Decrease dizziness
- Increase balance function
- Improve visual motor control
- Increase general activity levels
- Falls are the leading cause of injury in older adults.
- Half of elderly people who fall do so repeatedly.
- Falls account for more than 200,000 hip fractures annually.
- Falls and dizziness cause 60% of emergency room visits in people 65 years and older.
Balance Self Test
- Have you fallen more than once in the past year?
- Do you take medicine for two or more of the following diseases: heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, anxiety/or depression?
- Do you have dizziness or balance problems frequently?
- Have you experienced a stroke or other neurological problem that has affected your balance?
- Do you experience numbness or loss of sensation in your legs and/or feet.
- Are you inactive?
- Do you feel unsteady when you are walking?
If you answered "yes" to one or more of the above questions, you could a have balance problem.
