I have always feared taking flights as I do not want that sick feeling again. Nausea, vomiting, and dizziness, while take-offs and landings are the major turn-downs whenever flying off for a vacation or business, come to my mind. The whole excitement of going for a pleasure trip dies just by the thought of it.
Does it happen to you as well?? “Why does it occur?” “What is it?” “Am I suffering from some disease?” “Does it happen with everyone?”
These questions surrounded me. Last month I had to go for a business trip to Miami, and with all the reluctance, the unwilling me grabbed my laptop and took the early morning flight to Miami. The only motivation I had was the sinful planning I had done for the after-hours. As usual, the symptoms started as soon as the flight took off, and by the time I landed in Miami, I was feeling so sick, I had to take a ride straight to the emergency room and couldn’t attend my meeting. Nor could I enjoy some pleasant sun at the beach.
This got me so irritated that I met my doctor, who assessed me and told me that I was suffering from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). The symptoms of BPPV include dizziness, vertigo, light-headedness, imbalance, and nausea. The aggravating factors may vary.BPPV most commonly causes dizziness
On average, approximately 1.6% of the population has BPPV, as per Neuhauser and Lempert, 2009. About approximately 20% of cases in medical offices are due to BPPV. BPPV is much common in the older population by 50%, as quoted by Froehling et al., 1991.
My doctor referred me to my physical therapist. Many people recover from physical therapy. Manual therapy gives excellent results.
Rarely would a patient require surgical intervention. The recurrence rate of BPPV post-treatment is 40%–50% at five years of average follow-up. There does appear to be a subset of individuals prone to multiple recurrences. (1) However, my personal experience says that if you have any of these symptoms, it is highly likely that you have BPPV. And if you have BPPV, physical therapy is surely the thing you would want to opt for.
REFERENCES
- Hain TC, Helminski JO, Reis IL, Uddin MK. Vibration does not improve the results of the canalith repositioning procedure. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2000;126:617–22. [ PubMed ]
