Inside each canal where you would normally find the cheese in your elbow-shaped mac n cheese meal , is two layers of thick gelatinous fluid. Scientists call them endolymph and cupula. As you move around, these fluids slosh inside the ear canals. That sloshing hits those itty bitty strands of hair, making them move back and forth. Those hair movements are key. The ear picks up on what direction the hair cells are moving and uses nerve cells to send a signal to the brain with all of that information.
Once you stop moving, the fluids stop sloshing and the hairs no longer pick up movement and that alert signal to the brain halts. However, that process is far from perfect. When you move really fast, like if you spin around in circles a bunch of times or spend far too long on a merry-go-round with your friends, that fluid in your ears swishes around at an even more rapid speed.
That makes sense because you are spinning really quickly. The problem comes when you stop. And the elderly are more prone to dizziness than younger people. Vertigo is typically associated with the vestibular system, a part of the inner ear used for balance and spatial orientation. In BPPV, microscopic crystals in the inner ear get loose and float in the fluid of the inner ear canal. Changing the position of your head or body causes the crystals to swirl around, stimulating the hair cells in the inner ear and sending a false message to the brain that the body is moving, even though it is not.
Michael Byrd, MD. An antinausea medication, like Antivert meclizine , relieves the symptoms in some people but causes drowsiness. The standard treatment for BPPV is a maneuver intended to move the crystals to a less sensitive part of the ear canal. Sometimes patients can perform exercises at home to gradually reposition the crystals over several weeks. In other cases, the patients are referred to specially trained physical therapists for vestibular rehabilitation, which helps train the balance system in the brain to function better.
Even without treatment BPPV is a self-limiting disorder. The three small looping semicircular canals that sit above the cochlea , and like it, are filled with liquid and have thousands of microscopic hairs.
When you move your head, the liquid in the semicircular canals moves, too. The liquid moves the tiny hairs, which the cochlea translates into a nerve message to your brain, about the position of your head. In less than a second, your brain sends messages to the right muscles so that you move to keep your balance. Sometimes the liquid in your semicircular canals keeps moving after you have stopped moving, for example, after spinning around.
The hairs inside the canals are sensing movement even though you are standing still. That is why you might feel dizzy; your brain is getting two different messages and is confused about the position of your head. Once the fluid in the semicircular canals stops moving, your brain gets the right message and you regain your balance. Per Group or Student Pair: spinning platform or office chair cup water. Why is a sense of balance important? Which parts of the body contribute to the vestibular system?
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