Our readers have requested a more in-depth look at vertigo.




Please leave vertigo management to your licensed ear nose and throat surgeon or a neurologist. So, procedures are discussed below that your physician can do to help you diagnose your type of vertigo. Other procedures are discussed or named that will actually treat your type vertigo. Please leave that care up to your physician. This is just a summary for a layman’s educational purposes.




To make it perfectly clear, the best description of vertigo I ever heard was like this. Vertigo: the room is spinning WHILE I AM STILL.


There are many types of vertigo. These are the most common.


Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo:


There are crystals in your inner ear that cause this. So certain medications will help resolve this. But, everyone that reads this site knows how against medications I am (all poisons with favorable side effects). So fortunately, they’re also certain procedures that your doctor can do that you can look up that will help resolve this.


Probably the most famous diagnostic thing a physician can do to diagnose it is called the Dix-Hallpike maneuver.


Probably the most famous procedure the capable doctor can do to treat it is the Epley procedure.


So there is a great way to remember these two. Dix Hallpike: DX, diagnoses it. Epley: ends it.


Ménière’s disease:


Vertigo with tinnitus; gradual hearing loss; PRESSURE in your ear(s). Rx -> Low salt diet; surgical myringotomy.


Vestibular labyrinthitis:


This is hearing loss and vertigo as balanced symptoms.


Vestibular neuronitis:


Only vestibular system (no hearing loss).


Acoustic neuroma: vertigo with gradual hearing loss (tumor from Schwann cells).


Central vertigo: vertical nystagmus.




So hearing loss must be evaluated concurrently with the evaluation of vertigo to determine what kind of vertigo you have.


Most of the forms vertigo are inflammatory. But there are also some non-inflammatory processes.


Stem cells tend to help most inflammatory conditions. And if a condition involves the central or peripheral nervous system, stem cells have also been shown to be of benefit even if there’s no inflammation.


Stay well,

David Allingham, MD