Herbal Health

This extreme dizzy sensation is famously associated with a phobic fear of heights. While an attack of vertigo can indeed be triggered by the fear of falling from a high place, vertigo itself is usually the symptom of one of a number of disorders affecting the inner ear. An attack of vertigo usually involves the sensation of the head spinning around and around, and a loss of balance: the patient may suddenly fall right over. Sweating, nausea and vomiting may also occur.

The most common condition behind attacks of vertigo is Meniere’s disease, a degenerative condition of the middle ear usually affecting people for the first time in their fifties. Apart from the dizzy spells and periodic loss of balance, a person with Meniere’s disease (sometimes known as Meniere’s syndrome) may experience ongoing ringing in the ears (called tinnitus), and gradual hearing impairment. The cause of Meniere’s disease is little understood but believed by some medical practitioners to be caused by congestion of the lymphatic system. While medications such as Dramamine help manage the vertigo, they will not cure the disease and will not prevent the loss of hearing.

Simple motion sickness can lead to vertigo as can bacterial infections of the inner ear and viral infections such as influenza. The sensations may continue even after the patient appears to have recovered from the more acute symptoms of the ‘flu. See separate entries in this book for the treatment of these conditions.

Recurrent attacks of vertigo may also be caused by the pressure of a tumour or non-cancerous growth on the auditory or acoustic nerve. High blood pressure or hardening of the arteries may also be responsible and strokes can bring on vertigo in the elderly. If attacks of vertigo are unexplained and recurrent, you should seek medical advice. Some health practitioners recommend acupuncture with moxibustion for the management of dizziness and vertigo.

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How can you monitor your progress on St John’s Wort? The answer to this might seem obvious. Surely the medication either works or it doesn’t. What is there to monitor, you might ask. Well, it is not always so clear-cut when a problem is relatively subtle to start with or when the response is modest or partial. I always find it useful to keep an eye on what are known as the target symptoms – those presenting problems that are part of the reason why someone is seeking help in the first place. We measure whether an anti-depressant is working or not by focusing on changes in the target symptoms. In the case of someone with mild symptoms of depression or stress, such target symptoms might be lack of one’s usual enjoyment or enthusiasm for life, decreased energy, anxiety or sleep difficulties. It is worth listing these target symptoms and observing each week whether you can observe any improvement in them.

I have been impressed with the highly variable time course of response to St John’s Wort. Some people report feeling better within days of beginning the herbal remedy, whereas for others the response is far slower and more subtle. A proper trial takes at least five to six weeks. If you are still feeling down in the dumps or overstressed at that point, I suggest that you take some further step, such as consulting a GP or therapist. If you are feeling better and are not suffering any significant side-effects, you may wish to stay on the St John’s Wort regimen for a further three months before thinking of tapering it and determining whether you can maintain the gains without any further help from the herbal remedy. If you experience unacceptable side-effects, feel free to lower the dosage and see whether you still feel better. You can always raise it again later if you need to.

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