“It’s February – American Heart Month – a time when the nation spotlights heart disease, the No. 1 killer of Americans. President Lyndon B. Johnson, among the millions of people in the country who’d had heart attacks, issued the first proclamation in 1964. Since then, U.S. presidents have annually declared February American Heart Month. The first Friday of American Heart Month, Feb. 5, is also National Wear Red Day as part of the AHA’s Go Red for Women initiative.

This year, the federally designated event is even more important due to the impact of the coronavirus on the public’s heart health, including potential harmful effects on the heart and vascular system, according to recent research.

Also, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have delayed or avoided going to hospitals for heart attacks and strokes – netting poorer outcomes and prompting the AHA to create “Don’t Die of Doubt,” a national awareness campaign that reminds people that hospitals are the safest place to go when you have symptoms.”

heart.org

“Surgery is a last-resort treatment for BPPV and is reserved for people with disabling symptoms which do not respond to any other form of treatment. Surgery is rarely performed on patients with BPPV and surgical techniques only exist for the posterior semicircular canal. In the rare cases where surgery is performed, one option involves selectively dividing the nerve to the posterior semi-circular canal, so that the signals from the canal do not travel to the brain to produce symptoms. This procedure is not common as it is a difficult technique.  Another surgical method involves mechanically blocking the posterior semicircular canal and is often very successful if utilized in well-selected patients. It is more commonly performed than the aforementioned operation.”

Ear Nose Throat Specialist Sydney – ENT Clinic

“Your doctor can usually do one of two procedures in the office that works for most cases of BPPV. These procedures are called the Epley maneuver and the Semont maneuver. If you don’t want treatment or if treatment doesn’t work, BPPV usually goes away by itself within a few weeks. Over time, your brain will likely get used to the confusing signals it gets from your inner ear. Either way, you can do some simple exercises that train your brain to get used to the confusing vertigo signals.

Medicine may help with severe nausea and vomiting.

Be extra careful so that you don’t hurt yourself or someone else if you have a sudden attack of vertigo (Ex. Don’t drive till resolved, don’t drink till resolved, etc…)”.

University of Michigan Health – Michigan Medicine

“BPPV occurs when tiny calcium crystals called otoconia come loose from their normal location on the utricle, a sensory organ in the inner ear.

If the crystals become detached, they can flow freely in the fluid-filled spaces of the inner ear, including the semicircular canals (SCC) that sense the rotation of the head. Otoconia will occasionally drift into one of the SCCs, usually the posterior SCC given its orientation relative to gravity at the lowest part of the inner ear.”

Johns Hopkins Medicine