Gaze Therapy Can Help With Dizziness
- Chris Bakken
- Jan 22, 2022
- 3 min read
BLUF: The Vestibular System is often effected by brain injuries causing dizziness and instability. Gaze therapy is a proven method for TBIs to diminish disability associate with the vestibular system.
In my experience Gaze therapy is and effective treatment for dizziness associated with brain injury. A common debilitating symptom of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is dizziness and balance issues. For me every time I got out of a car or walked up a flight of stairs if felt lightheaded and unstable. As a hammer headed tough guy, I was always able to power through these episodes which would last about 10 minutes, but they were annoying and emotionally debilitating.
The difficulty telling this story and describing it to your doctor is that dizziness, unstable and lightheaded are descriptors that are subjective and differently defined in most people’s mind. When your doctor hears the words coming out of your mouth they can’t really know what you are describing without being inside your head.
To overcome this issue, I will try to thoroughly describe the symptoms that I felt. When I stand up for the first time after sitting for a while, my mind feels like it is no longer fully connected to or properly measuring my location in space. The descriptors that I use are; I felt lightheaded, my head was swimming, I was dizzy, or I felt unstable. These episodes struck me every time I got out of a car got up from my desk, walked up a flight of stair or preformed and equivalent level of exercise. Often, I would have to stabilize myself on a desk, a railing, or car door for a few seconds to get stable and get moving forward again. Now hopefully you can compare my condition to the way you are feeling to decide if anything I say applies to you.
In response to my dizziness complaint Dr Ratcliffe prescribed Gaze Stabilization Exercises therapy using a mobile App PhysiAPP. What it had me do was 15 minutes of exercise where I would focus my eyes on my thumb and move it back and for the up and down and in figure eights while I moved my head in the opposite direction. This finishes with me
walking in a straight line heal to toe across a room while I turn my head from side to side, keeping my eyes focused on an X that I have taped to my wall.
I felt the positive effect on this condition within a week. I was walking up the stairs at the office and I suddenly realized that if felt “normal.” What his meant to me was I was not dizzy not light headed and I did not need to focus on my balance as I moved. This positive effect remains but I it requires that I do the exercise twice a day for around 30 minutes total.
When this Treatment was prescribed my reaction was WTF is this and WTF is it doing. I have done a bit of research but doctor Ratcliffe explained it best. These exercises are strengthening the vestibular system by working and cleaning up the connections with between the sensors in your inner ear and your brain. I have discovered more complicated explanations but this one works for me.
I found substantial evidence on the web confirming that Gaze therapy is effective therapy for debilitating dizziness associated with TBI. In Vestibular Rehabilitation After Traumatic Brain Injury: Case Series https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26586860/. Four people with debilitating dizziness underwent Gaze therapy and three of them reported substantial improvement to their condition. Observation: although Gaze therapy was the focus of the study it was accompanied by group support, journal tracking, exercise and counseling. It would be hard for me to conclude that those aspects of the study did not have as much effect on the outcome as the Gaze therapy did.
Conclusion: My experience and scientific studies indicate that Gaze type vestibular stabilization exercises diminish dizziness and instability symptoms associated with TBI. That said they are likely only one part of a rehabilitation program and should be supplemented by other activities for maximum effect.
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