Those who suffer from vertigo are all too familiar with the symptoms – dizziness when moving your head, feeling like the room is spinning, or struggling to maintain balance when standing up. This condition can be extremely frustrating and can have a significant impact on daily life.
Vertigo can be caused by a number of possible factors, including inner ear disorders which are most common. But it can also develop if you have a condition that affects your brain, such as a stroke or head injury. When the eyes and brain do not work together properly, symptoms like dizziness can worsen until the condition is treated.
The Connection Between Vision and Balance
Your ability to stay balanced depends on your brain constantly combining information from three different systems: your eyes, your inner ear, and the muscles and joints throughout your body. Your eyes tell your brain where you are in relation to your surroundings, your inner ear senses movement and changes in head position, and your muscles and joints provide feedback about your body’s position.
When all three systems work together, your brain can accurately determine where you are in space, helping you move confidently and maintain your balance. But if your visual system isn’t communicating properly with the rest of your body, those mixed signals can cause your brain to become confused, leading to symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo, motion sensitivity, poor balance, headaches, or nausea.
Vision Issues that Contribute to Vertigo
When the visual system is not functioning properly, it can lead to vertigo. Someone who has trouble tracking or focusing on a moving object, has poor eye teaming skills, has issues with controlling eye movement, or suffers from a binocular vision disorder can suffer from frequent dizziness.
Using Vision Therapy to Treat Vertigo
Vision therapy is a personalized program of visual exercises designed to improve how your eyes and brain work together. Unlike simply prescribing glasses, vision therapy works to strengthen this communication between your eyes and your brain, with treatment customized based on each patient’s specific visual challenges and symptoms.
It can be an effective option for treating vertigo, as it focuses on improving poor visual skills that often lead to dizziness, such as:
- Eye coordination
- Eye tracking
- Ability to focus
- Depth perception
- Visual processing
- Balance-related visual skills
Working with Family Vision Development Center for Effective Vision Therapy
At Family Vision Development Center, we have extensive training in vision therapy and can provide custom treatment plans that target the specific visual skills needed to improve feelings of dizziness. Our knowledge extends to those who have experienced a concussion or traumatic brain injury, stroke or neurological injury, prolonged illness or other neurological conditions – all of which can lead to symptoms of vertigo. If you are experiencing dizziness and have not been able to find relief, we encourage you to visit us for a consultation to see if a vision therapy program might be the right option for you. Contact us at 630-862-2020 to learn more.
Family Vision Development Center is a full-service vision center offering innovative vision therapy services, sports vision therapy services, post-concussive vision rehabilitation, comprehensive vision exams for eyeglasses and contact lenses, management of ocular diseases including glaucoma, diabetes, macular degeneration and cataracts, and a state-of-the-art optical center offering the latest designs in eyewear. We are dedicated to keeping our patients comfortable and well-informed and we will explain every exam and procedure and answer all of your questions. We accept both scheduled and emergency appointments, and offer convenient financing and insurance options to ensure that high-quality vision care is available and affordable to all of our patients.