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I Suffer From Vertigo

Vestibular Migraine Treatment in Sydney

Vestibular migraines are a unique and often misunderstood type of migraine that affect the balance centres of the brain, causing intense symptoms like vertigo, dizziness, nausea, and unsteadiness – often without any head pain at all. These symptoms can be sudden, overwhelming, and severely disruptive to daily life. Fortunately, effective treatment for vertigo and vestibular migraine is possible.

At Sydney Headache and Migraine Clinic™, we provide a non-invasive, medication-free approach to the treatment of vestibular migraine and vertigo. Our personalised care focuses on treating vestibular migraine at the root cause without relying on medication or surgery. Through our targeted, brainstem-based method, we help patients manage vestibular migraine symptoms and reduce the frequency of vestibular migraine attacks, restoring confidence and quality of life.

Vertigo pain

Understanding Their Differences

What are Vestibular Migraines?

Vestibular migraine – also known as migrainous vertigo or migraine-related vertigo – is a type of migraine that affects the balance centres of the brain. It causes a range of debilitating symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo, nausea, visual disturbance, and balance problems.

While the exact mechanism behind vestibular migraine is still being studied, it is believed to result from abnormal sensory processing in the brainstem and vestibular system, which disrupts communication between the inner ear, eyes, and brain. Unlike some other vestibular disorders, many people with vestibular migraine do not experience head pain during episodes.

Importantly, vestibular migraine is different from other causes of vertigo like BPPV or Ménière’s disease, and may not involve structural problems in the ear. That’s why accurate diagnosis is key – and why many patients benefit from a targeted, brainstem-focused treatment approach.

Man with Vertigo

Vestibular Migraine Symptoms

How to Define Your Vertigo

Vestibular migraine can include a number of debilitating symptoms affecting  balance, ears and vision. Approximately 55% of all migraine patients will experience vestibular symptoms in their lifetime. The symptom set experienced in cases of vestibular migraine varies widely between cases. 

A large majority of people with vestibular migraine often have no accompanying migraine headache, with vertigo or migraine related dizziness being their predominant symptom – this can make vestibular migraine diagnosis quite difficult for healthcare professionals, sometimes prompting investigative tests to rule out other balance disorders.

Other symptoms include:

  • Dizziness
  • Unsteadiness
  • Nausea & Vomiting
  • Nystagmus
  • Visual aura / visual disturbance
  • Blurred or distorted vision
  • Upset stomach
  • Sensitivity to light, sound or smell
  • Constipation or Diarrhoea
  • Migraine headaches
  • Motion sickness
  • Pins & needles in an arm or leg
  • Difficulty speaking
  • Difficulty swallowing
  • Fatigue
  • Poor memory
  • Disturbed concentration
  • Irritability
  • Difficulty sleeping

About The Assessment Stage

What To Expect During The Assessment


1. Comprehensive and in-depth examination

We instigate an in-depth assessment to identify all possible related factors that could be causing your headaches or migraines. The upper cervical spine, in particular, is thoroughly examined to identify possible issues.



2. Ligamental stability and vertebral arterial tests

We undertake careful examination of neck ligaments and vertebral arteries, ensuring only the highest standards of patient safety and comfort.


3. Temporarily reproduce your headache and migraine symptoms

As a part of the treatment process, we apply gentle and selective stress to the upper cervical spine in order to reproduce headache symptoms, which subside after 20-30 seconds. This helps to identify and treat the cause of your headaches.

Common Headache Types

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)

BPPV is characterised by periods of vertigo and dizziness, brought on by head movements. The severe nature of the symptoms, and the ease of which they are brought on, makes it a very debilitating condition for sufferers.

Physical tests and a subjective history are generally all that is needed in order to identify BPPV as the cause of your vertigo. These tests are designed to assess structures in the inner-ear, which is known to be the underlying cause and mechanism of BPPV.

In cases where these tests are unable to identify the true cause, or if conventional BPPV treatment isn’t effective, there is another option.

Hypertension Headache

Headache is a commonly described symptom of hypertension, or high blood pressure, but the link between the two has not been accurately established. GP guidelines still encourage a headache history to be used as an assessment tool for hypertension, even though it has only been confirmed that headaches are commonly present in patients who reach ‘hypertensive crisis’ (Assarzadegan, Asadollahi, Hesami, Aryani, Mansouri, & Beladi Moghadam, 2013).

Blood pressure readings of 140-160/90-99 mmHg indicate a diagnosis of ‘mild hypertension’ and there has been a reported link to headache symptoms in this population (Hannson, Smith, & Reeves, 2000). 10% of the Sydney population have hypertension, with more prevalence in people aged over 75 (Statistics, 2018).

Vertigo Cervical Headache

Vertigo Cervical Headaches, commonly known as Vestibular Migraines, are often overlooked as a cause of dizziness, loss of balance and vertigo. Patients who experience these symptoms are often misdiagnosed with BPPV, however when treatment is ineffective, Vertigo Cervical Headache is a likely diagnosis. As well as dizziness and vertigo symptoms, patients may experience the classic migraine symptoms.

Soreness or stiffness in the neck is commonly described by patients and can be an indicator of more severe symptoms. Attacks are often triggered by changes in visual inputs, like; bright lights, flickering lights, or visual disturbances.

As opposed to the secondary causes of vertigo symptoms, like BPPV or Meniere’s disease, vertigo cervical headaches are thought to be caused by sensitivities in the brainstem.

Managing and Treating Vestibular Migraine Without Medication

Effective treatment of vestibular migraine involves more than temporary symptom relief. Many patients experience vestibular migraine attacks that aren’t fully controlled by medication – and in some cases, drugs like preventive medications, SSRIs, or calcium channel blockers cause unwanted side effects.

That’s why Sydney Headache and Migraine Clinic™ offers a natural, hands-on approach to treating vestibular migraine. Our care focuses on identifying and resolving the root cause of your condition. Through tailored assessment, manual therapy, education, and vestibular rehabilitation, we help patients manage vestibular migraine, reduce the severity of vertigo attacks, and reclaim their quality of life.

Why Clients Come To Us

Our Vestibular Migraine Treatment Plan

We only treat those vertigo or vestibular migraine sufferers who have gone through our unique physical examination procedure, and who we determine are suitable for treatment – approximately 85-90% of those we assess. This approach ascertains a high likelihood of success.

Your first 6 sessions of vertigo treatment is all that it takes to notice a significant change in your vertigo or vestibular migraine condition.

Our Prevent Headaches4Life Treatment Plan involves a unique assessment procedure, vertigo treatment and ongoing support strategies, such as vestibular rehabilitation therapy and vestibular physiotherapy to treat your vertigo or vestibular migraine condition and assist you to significantly reduce the risk of recurrence.

Tools for managing migraines.