Most people have never heard of the vestibular system even though it’s the most important system in your body for controlling balance.
It consists of your inner ear which detects head position and movement, as well as other parts of our brain that communicate together to tell our body where we are in space.
Even your vision, auditory system (ear), and facial muscles are a part of your vestibular system.
The vestibular system is critical for controlling balance, posture and movement when walking.
When your brain is not receiving the correct information from the vestibular system, it throws off your balance and ability to hold your posture.
With vestibular issues, people will have difficulty distinguishing movements with their neck from movements with their eyes. Patients will have to move their entire body just to look at something instead of turning their head.
This can cause stiffness in the neck and trunk muscles, constant fatigue, neck pains, headaches, and body aches.
That’s where Vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT) can help.
VRT is a specialized form of therapy to help relieve the symptoms caused by vestibular disorders. This therapy helps your brain compensate for disorienting signals coming from the vestibular system by relying on other signals from other systems in your body to maintain balance.
It’s done by using specific VRT exercises to help your brain relearn to recognize the correct signals from other systems of your body.
Does vestibular rehabilitation work?
In fact, 39 studies involving 2442 patients show that those with vestibular problems experience significant relief from their symptoms after VRT therapy.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5954334/