Living With Vertigo After 50: What Yoga Can and Can't Do

I wake up, and before I’m fully awake, I know. I move my head and my eyes take a nanosecond to catch up. There’s a slight feeling of malaise. As I rise to seated, my stomach turns.

Damn. It’s another day with vertigo.

How intense it is will decide how my day goes. My worst episode came after shoulder surgery. The nausea was so bad I barely drank fluids and didn’t eat at all.

It felt like I spent 36 hours curled in the fetal position.

Having something else in control of my mood and my activities leaves me frustrated and sad.

If you’ve had mornings like that, you are not alone. And you are not imagining it.

Why the Room Feels Like It's Spins When You Roll Over in Bed

That off-kilter, spinning feeling is called vertigo. My doctor diagnosed mine as BPPV, short for Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, one of the most common causes. Having a name for it doesn’t make me feel better about it. Deep in the inner ear, tiny calcium crystals help us sense gravity and movement. Sometimes a few come loose and drift where they don’t belong [1]. When we roll over in bed or move our head, our inner ear and our eyes stop agreeing on which way is up.

BPPV is my story, but it’s only one possibility for you. Only about a quarter of dizziness is true vertigo from the balance system [2], which is why this needs a doctor, not a guess.

Can a Stiff Neck Cause Vertigo?

You may have heard of cervical vertigo, also called cervicogenic dizziness. The idea is that a stiff or painful neck confuses the brain about where your head is.

Experts still debate it. An international panel of balance specialists found the evidence is lacking. They say migraine is by far the most common reason neck pain and dizziness show up together [3]. A recent review did find that hands-on neck treatment from a physical therapist eased dizziness, at least short term [4].

Can Menopause Cause Vertigo?

Women are two to three times more likely than men to have vertigo from the balance system [2]. Women around perimenopause seem especially prone to BPPV, and shifting hormones may be part of the picture [5].

There’s an emotional piece too. When I can’t trust the floor under me, it’s hard to feel settled about anything else.

Finding Center When the Room Won’t Hold Still

In yoga, we talk a lot about finding our center. The inner ear is the body’s own version of that. It’s part of what makes Tree Pose possible at all. So when it’s off, it isn’t only physical. It can shake our confidence, our plans, and our mood. That frustration is real, and it deserves care, not judgment.

Help and Solutions: Start With Your Doctor

If you’re dealing with vertigo, dizziness, or changes in your balance, start with your healthcare provider before trying anything new. If symptoms hang around, guidelines call for checking other causes too [1]. And if you ever can’t keep fluids down, the way I couldn’t after my surgery, call your doctor. That is not something to wait out alone. If dizziness comes with sudden, severe neck pain, call 911. A torn neck artery can cause a stroke and can start this way [3].

Questions worth bringing with you:

Could this be BPPV, and would a repositioning maneuver help? For the most common type, guidelines recommend guided head movements done by a trained clinician [1].

Could my neck be part of this? If neck pain comes with your dizziness, ask what could explain both [3, 4].

Would a vestibular therapist help? Balance retraining with a specialist is a recognized option for BPPV [1].

Should my vitamin D be checked? In one large trial, people with BPPV and low vitamin D who took vitamin D with calcium had fewer repeat episodes [6]. Ask before you start anything.

What I Do on a Hard Morning

It depends on the intensity. If I don’t trust that the floor will be there when I step, I call in sick and go back to bed. It becomes another day of listening to Netflix or audiobooks, because I don’t dare look at a screen.

If there’s nausea but my balance holds, I eat crackers, drink lots of water, and do my exercises to get the crystals back into place. Even then, it can take a few hours to a few days to feel right again.

You may hear these named: the Epley, Semont, and Gufoni maneuvers, the Barbecue Roll, and Brandt-Daroff exercises. I am not a doctor, so I am not going to teach you how to do them. The right one depends on which part of your inner ear is involved [7]. Your doctor or vestibular therapist should figure that out and show you.

How Yoga Can Help (Once You’re Cleared)

Yoga won’t put those crystals back, and it isn’t a proven treatment for neck-related dizziness. What it can do is give you a steady place to rebuild trust in your body.

Start seated. For many people with BPPV, lying down, rolling over, looking up, or bending forward can set off a spin [1]. Even Legs Up the Wall involves lying back, so check with your provider first.

Slow your transitions. One small study found BPPV more often in people who practiced yoga [8]. That doesn’t prove yoga causes it, but if you already have BPPV, quick moves up and down can bring on a spin [1]. Pause between poses, let your head catch up, and skip fast head rolls.

Let your breath lead. Slow belly breathing may help lower stress [9]. A few minutes of slow, easy breathing, seated, is a gentle way to start a hard morning.

Practice balance by a wall. Once you’re cleared, Tree Pose with one hand on the wall builds steadiness without the fear of falling. Research on yoga and balance in older adults is encouraging but still early [10, 11].

Hold off on inversions and deep forward folds until your doctor or therapist gives you the green light.

The Reframe

Some mornings, vertigo still gets a vote in how my day goes. I don’t love that. But the mat has taught me to meet my body where it is, not where I think it should be.

The mat is a place to listen. Your inner ear has been helping you find your center this whole time. With the right care and a steady practice, we can help it keep doing just that.

About Vikky Santana

Vikky Santana is a yoga teacher with 38 years of practice, 16 years of teaching, and over 13,000 teaching hours. She specializes in yoga for women over 50 with chronic pain, physical limitations, and injury histories. She is the founder of Vikky Santana Yoga at vikkysantana.com.

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References

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8. Koçak İ, Gökler O, Aydoğan E, Karanfil I, Ünal ÖF. Can yoga cause benign paroxysmal positional vertigo? Turkish Journal of Ear Nose and Throat. 2017;27(4):159-163. https://doi.org/10.5606/kbbihtisas.2017.22844

9. Hopper SI, Murray SL, Ferrara LR, Singleton JK. Effectiveness of diaphragmatic breathing for reducing physiological and psychological stress in adults: a quantitative systematic review. JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports. 2019;17(9):1855-1876. https://doi.org/10.11124/JBISRIR-2017-003848

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