Cleburne resident Garland Hunt had been walking into walls for 10 years, suffering from severe dizziness. But he had been walking into walls figuratively, too, as he sought help from doctor after doctor to no avail. Until he found Dr. Benke, ENT.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t drive,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cI was sick as a dog the day I went to see Dr. Benke. In minutes, I walked out fine. Other doctors said to live with it. Dr. Benke gave me a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Benke, a board certified otolaryngologist [Ear, Nose & Throat specialist] in practice in Cleburne since 2000, said Hunt\u2019s dizziness was caused by a relatively common condition called Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV), which affects thousands of people each year.<\/p>\n
He said many patients come in saying they have vertigo or dizziness, but Benke pointed out those<\/em> are symptoms, not a disease.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have to determine is why<\/em> they have it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do a series of tests to make the determination whether the dizziness is coming from an inner ear or a central nervous system abnormality.\u201d<\/p>\n Benke said in most cases, the cause is BPPV\u2014a sensation of unsteadiness or that one\u2019s surroundings are moving. A person may even find it hard to stand or walk without losing his balance. The good thing, Benke said, is that it usually only lasts a minute or two, but he added it can be mild, or it can be bad enough to make you feel sick to your stomach and vomit.<\/p>\n Benke said BPPV can occur when the patient moves his head in a certain direction, lies down from an upright position, turns over in bed or sits up in the morning.<\/p>\n It can also occur when the patient moves his head to look up, such as from reading the paper, or when driving and looking down to change the radio station and then back up again.<\/p>\n \u201cThat can be very dangerous,\u201d Benke said. \u201cI had a patient who said she had that experience while driving 60 m.p.h. on I-20, and she could hardly hold on to the steering wheel to pull over to the side of the road.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough BPPV can be frustrating for patients, it is rarely serious and can often be treated during an office visit,\u201d Benke said. \u201cAnd, for most patients, one treatment session is curative.\u201d<\/p>\n It was for Garland Hunt.<\/p>\n He said that\u2019s because vertigo usually results from a problem with free floating calcium crystals in the ear that move with changes in the position of the head. In certain positions, these crystals can irritate the nerve endings in the inner ear associated with balance, giving a false signal of movement and a brief sensation of spinning.<\/p>\n Most patients are better with head exercises that they do at home. For those who don\u2019t improve, Benke offers the Epley maneuver, which he performs in his office, to help reposition loose calcium crystals in the portion of the inner ear that sends balance information to the brain. During the maneuver, each position is held for about 30 seconds and the Mayo Clinic says the success rate for the Epley maneuver is as high as 90-95 percent.<\/p>\n \u201c Yes, I move crystals around,\u201d Benke said. \u201cIt may sound weird, but it works!\u201d<\/p>\n He said the most common risk factor for BPPV is aging, however, he said it can also occur after a blow to the head.<\/p>\n So if you\u2019re one of the many people who suffers from dizziness or balance problems, it could be BPPV\u2014the number one cause of vertigo.<\/p>\n Call 817-641-3750 for an appointment at the new Hearing & Balance Center at Benke Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic. Their office is located in Cleburne at 203 Walls Dr., suite 101, in the Walls Professional Building, next to the hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cleburne resident Garland Hunt had been walking into walls for 10 years, suffering from severe dizziness. But he had been walking into walls figuratively, too, as he sought help from doctor after doctor to no avail. Until he found Dr. Benke, ENT. \u201cI couldn\u2019t drive,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cI was sick as a dog the day…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"If you\u2019re one of the many people who suffers from dizziness or balance problems, it could be BPPV\u2014the number one cause of vertigo.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testimonials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}