Vestibular Archives

Life during lockdown is certainly a massive change from our normal life. Maybe you would normally attend an exercise class, go to the gym or for a swim as a way to keep fit and active. It may be that you also have a specific programme of exercises recommended by your physiotherapist to work on at home.

As therapists we often see that patient’s general fitness, muscle strength and endurance can diminish over the winter months as we are generally not as active. Therefore, it is even more important during lockdown to keep as active as possible and work on those home exercises and maybe that regular walk.

Motivating yourself to exercise regularly is for many people an ongoing challenge.

Here are a few top tips to help you to keep motivated. Through lockdown …and beyond!

If it is a daily exercise programme try and do this at the same time every day so that it becomes part of your daily routine. If it’s a programme several times a week, allocate a day and time and add in to your calendar for the week ahead and try to stick to it.
Break it up into bitesize chunks. Some people prefer to do their full programme in one go. For others this is too much so you could break it up into 2-3 10-minute sessions. Do what works best for you but try to keep to the same routine.
Record your exercise for a while on a chart or tick it off on your calendar until it is established part of your daily/weekly routine.
Reflect on how you feel when you have completed your exercises. How did your body feel? How was your mood? Did you enjoy the sense of achievement?
Set goals for yourself. If you can link doing exercise to achieving what is important to you it can boost you to keep going. Discuss your goals with your physiotherapist.
Anything is better than nothing. If for whatever reason (and this happens!) you don’t do so well one day, don’t beat yourself up. Get back on track as soon as you can. Start afresh the next day.

You can do it!

And remember that at Heads Up we are here to guide, support, and encourage you to achieve your goals.

We also have a new online exercise group for patients that have been assessed by us. It is a weekly class in standing and sitting aimed at improving general mobility, strength and balance.

Please speak to your physiotherapist or give us a call on 01306 888171 if this interests you and you would like to find out more. We would love you to join us.

Did you know there are 190,000 migraine attacks every day in the UK! It’s the most common and disabling neurological disorder in the UK. It affects 1 in 7 people making it more prevalent than diabetes, asthma and epilepsy combined (www.migrainetrust.org).

But what is migraine, according to Professor Peter Goadsby, professor in neurology at Kings Collect Hospital “Migraine is an inherited tendency to have headaches with sensory disturbance. It’s an instability in the way the brain deals with incoming sensory information, and that instability can become influenced by physiological changes like sleep, exercise and hunger.”

We also know that approximately 40% of migraine sufferers can have vestibular symptoms as part of their migraine causing problems with balance, visual disturbances or episodes of dizziness. You may also only have symptoms of dizziness or decreased balance with your migraine, not everyone has accompanying head pain.

It’s good to know that it can be treated, we know that the best treatment for vestibular migraine involve a combination of medication, life-style modifications and vestibular rehabilitation delivered by a specialist physiotherapist. It is usually better for vestibular migraine patients to begin their treatment with medication and life-style changes prior to starting vestibular rehabilitation. This enables them to better tolerate the exercises without experiencing exacerbations of their symptoms. The exercises are usually progressed very slowly in people to ensure we don’t exacerbate the migraine symptoms. Exercises might involve visual exercises to decrease visual sensitivity (computer screens, busy shopping centers, travelling etc), balance exercises to help you feel steadier, core strengthening exercises and we may assess your neck. Over activity and tension in the neck is often a common problem for people who suffer from migraines and can further exacerbate their symptoms.

So how can you begin the process of improving your symptoms? Often making changes to your lifestyle can lead to a huge improvement in your symptoms, whilst they can seem initially difficult to do once you see an improvement in your symptoms you’ll be very glad you made the change. You could have a go at the following advice:

Keep a diary – This can help in the diagnosis of your migraine and help you to recognise any triggers or warning signs. It will also help you assess if any changes you make are helping, the migraine trust have some good diary layouts you can print out and use – https://www.migrainetrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/FS05aMigraineDiaries.pdf

Exercise – Research shows that exercise can be beneficial in decreasing the frequency of attacks, if you don’t normally exercise make sure you start gradually, perhaps with a walk every day.

Sleep – There is lots of research showing how profoundly sleep can impact on migraine, too much and too little sleep can both be issues and for some people it is the sole trigger. Shift work and jet lag can impact massively. Try the following tips to see if they help:

Go to bed and get up at the same time every day
Spend some time outside every day, natural light helps fine tune our body clocks
Sleep in an environment that is restful
Do any exercises before your evening meal and not before bedtime
Avoid caffeine and alcohol before bed
If you are wide awake in the night don’t stay in bed

Diet – Stay well hydrated and eat at regular intervals though out the day

Stress – Stress can be another big trigger to migraines, although it is easier said then done, looking at ways to manage stress can have a big impact on symptoms.

If you want to read more on the topic of vestibular migraine then follow the links below:

https://www.menieres.org.uk/information-and-support/symptoms-and-conditions/migraine-associated-vertigo

https://vestibular.org/migraine-associated-vertigo-mav

https://www.migrainetrust.org

If you think we may be able to help you in the management of your migraine, then please call us on 01306 888171 or email [email protected]

Exercise

Recognising vestibular migraine and tips on how to manage it.

Heads up! Recent blogs