The #1 Vitamin Deficiency Behind Vertigo

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Today, we're going to talk about how to figure out if you have this very specific type of vertigo.

[00:00:05]Uh and what to do about it. And it's called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. This is the type of vertigo that will make you feel like you're spinning, okay, when you're not spinning. So, the word benign means uh not dangerous. The word paroxysmal means a sudden increase of a symptom. And the word positional means something related to uh motion of your head. And vertigo means feeling like you're spinning when you're not really spinning. So, in this video, we're just going to name it BPPV.

[00:00:36]And this is the number one cause of dizziness. And what's normally causing this condition is a calcium crystal that has broken off and it's in the um canals of the inner ear, the ones that are controlling equilibrium and keeping things balanced. So, this little piece of calcium crystal is kind of floating in there and it's interfering with the little hairs. It's giving you this sensation that is um not correct. It's like you're moving when you're not moving or you're spinning when there's no spinning going on. So, later in this video, I'm going to talk about why this calcium is there in the first place and how to get rid of it. But first, let's talk about how to figure out if you have this condition.

[00:01:18]And uh what side it's coming from. Is the problem on the left side or the problem on the right side? So, in this first test to determine um if you have it and uh what side it it is, it this is called the Dix-Hallpike test. But you're going to basically do this on maybe on your bed or a table with a pillow, okay? And you're going to quickly um lower your body in a supine position, so you're laying face up. And you're going to have a pillow underneath your upper back, so your head can tilt back because you want your head extended like 30° um backwards over the horizontal. So, you want this pillow underneath your shoulders. So, the first thing you're going to do is you're going to turn your head to the right about 45° okay?

[00:02:02]Now, if you truly have this BPPV um you will experience not just dizziness but you will experience nystagmus.

[00:02:12]Now, that's a condition where your eyes can move back and forth horizontal vertical or they can rotate. But, if you have nystagmus as well as dizziness chances are you have this condition.

[00:02:25]Now, this does help to have someone observing you to tell you if that's happening. But, maybe if there's no one around, maybe you have a a mirror and you're looking at your eyes. But, just realize too before you do any of these tests, check with your doctor. Make sure you don't have some type of cervical spine problem where you can't rotate your neck very much. So, that's my disclaimer. Okay, so once you've done this to the right side then you'll repeat this exact same procedure looking to the left side. And so, you're usually going to find one side that's going to be involved.

[00:02:55]So, let's pretend uh the problem is on going to the right side, okay?

[00:03:01]Then we're going to do the next uh part.

[00:03:03]And this is more of a treatment. So, what we want to do is we want to create different motions to slowly move this little calcium crystal out of this canal, okay? That's the goal of this procedure. It is called the Epley maneuver. And you would do it on whatever side that you have this problem with, okay? So, we're pretending it's the right side. So, first thing you're going to do okay?

[00:03:26]Is you're going to turn the head to the affected side. So, we're going to turn it to the right side, okay? About 45° and extend it about 30° and you're going to hold this position for about 1 minute. Now, chances are you are going to experience symptoms when you're doing this, okay? So, after a minute of holding this position, now you're going to turn your head to the opposite side about 45° and hold that position for 1 minute. Now, what you're doing is you're slowly dislodging this calcium crystal through this canal with the intention of pushing it out to the other end, okay? Now, what you're going to do is you're going to roll on the shoulder and maintain your chin tucked down to your shoulder. And so, you're going to be looking downward at a 45° angle. And you're going to hold this for about 30 seconds. Again, the reason why we're doing this is to allow this little calcium crystal to keep moving through the canal. And the last thing you're going to do is you're going to sit up with your head kept rotated with your chin tucked toward the shoulder.

[00:04:30]And then, you're going to slowly rotate your head back to normal. Now, hopefully this calcium crystal has moved out of this little canal and you feel much better. This particular treatment should only be done once a day.

[00:04:45]And you're going to keep doing it until your symptoms resolve. Okay, so what's really behind these calcium crystals building up? That's the next topic. In a 2020 systematic review and meta-analysis, they found some really interesting association between BPPV and a vitamin D deficiency. In this review, those people that had that condition were twice as deficient in vitamin D as the rest of the group. You see, vitamin D helps in the absorption of calcium.

[00:05:21]And this calcium is dislodged in the lymphatic uh little tubes in the inner ear. So, obviously it didn't get absorbed. So, we have a more concentrated calcium uh in that area. And chances are this is due to a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D also helps in the transportation of calcium as well. In another study, I found there was a 5.5 times more likely risk of developing BPPV.

[00:05:50]And yet another study I found that BPPV was substantially decreased if the person took more vitamin D. Now, in another study, I found BPPV was 23 times more likely to occur if someone was deficient in vitamin D. 23 times, that's crazy. So, apparently vitamin D is the answer for this condition. I will say there were some studies that did not show that this condition had any problem with vitamin D deficiency in the blood.

[00:06:21]And honestly, I think the reason for that is this. Um there is a genetic component to this problem. Many, many people have a problem with uh the vitamin D receptor. Now, a person could have a situation where they have normal vitamin D in the blood, but not in the tissues because of the receptor is downgraded because of some genetic mutation. Just because someone has a normal vitamin D level in their blood doesn't always tell you the whole picture. I mean, this also relates to other things like insulin resistance.

[00:06:56]When some people have insulin resistance, they might have high insulin in the blood, yet very low insulin in the cells. This is why many symptoms of even diabetes are related to a deficiency in insulin, even though they have this massive amount of insulin in the blood. I mean, the same thing goes with cortisol, the stress hormone, too.

[00:07:14]A person can have high level of cortisol in the blood, yet have all the symptoms of a cortisol deficiency. Right? I mean, cortisol is supposed to get rid of inflammation. Why would they end up with this huge amount of inflammation when they have high amounts in the blood?

[00:07:28]Well, now you know. It it the problem is in the receptor. So, the same thing with vitamin D. You can't always go with what's going on in the blood. So, what am I recommending as a solution? I'm recommending you do vitamin D. And I'm also going to recommend you add vitamin K 2 because vitamin K 2 is also involved in transporting calcium out of soft tissue. So, this is what I would do.

[00:07:52]Instead of taking a daily dose of vitamin D3 and K2, I would do this. I would take 5 days of that dosage and take it all at once because both of these vitamins, vitamin K2 and vitamin D are fat soluble. So, they'll get absorbed in the body and they'll get slowly released when your body needs it.

[00:08:12]But, there's some interesting data that shows that if you do sometimes take your vitamin D erratically or not every day consistently, there's a little bit better results. So, what does this mean?

[00:08:22]Well, you would take 50,000 IUs of vitamin D3. So, if you find vitamin D tablets in 10,000 IUs, just take five of those, okay?

[00:08:32]Hopefully, you'll also find one that has the K2 in the right ratio. And the right ratio meaning for every 10,000 IUs of D3, you want 100 micrograms of K2. So, in this situation, you would take 50,000 IUs of vitamin D3 and 500 micrograms of K2. And basically, you just take this dose once a week.

[00:08:56]Now, just because vitamin D is so important, I created another video to show you all of the reasons why you might be deficient and what to do to overcome that. And I put that video up right here. Check it out.