@watersugar: my mother who invests a lot of time into herbal alternative health, particularly in TCM and Chinese herbs has often used spirit poria for dizziness, depression, anxiety, insomnia and vertigo. It has worked for a lot of us — me for vertigo, anxiety and depression, and my mother’s anxiety and vertigo, in addition for several of our friends and relatives that my mother introduced spirit poria to.
Not addictive and very fast acting (almost immediately after drinking). Google it and you’ll see it doesn’t have negative side effects, but according to TCM, you should not rely on using it every day or your body adapts and it no longer works as effectively.
You can order online (more expensive) or buy this in Chinese herbal stores in Canada — very common inexpensive herb that sells for about $8 CAD per box (approximately 2 lbs?). Get the off white colour as the pure white ones are usually bleached. The best quality ones would have little wood-like nodes in them (see image). They look like sliced pieces of bark.
Take a piece roughly about 2x3 inches in size, rinse off debris and add two measuring cups water, boil and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Doesn’t taste great, but if you add in soup, it’s pretty much tasteless. Effects last for several weeks to several months before you get another attack again. You can use the same bark over and over again by adding more water to cook until there’s no more taste to it; however, it usually takes only one time to get rid of the issue.
My friend whose sister is a retired TCM doctor also has severe vertigo (Epley maneuver doesn’t work for her). She theorizes that the herb replaces a hormone that is insufficient in the brain thereby resulting in symptoms of depression or vertigo. Just her theory, who knows.
I have used the Epley maneuver which works on me, and I much prefer to use that over taking medication for my vertigo, which BTW is a rare occurrence and not serious. But antidepressants don’t work for my depression (only masks the symptoms), whereas with spirit poria, I don’t have to take it daily — only when the depression sets in. So far, I’ve been using the M1 on the right temporal lobe and haven’t seen any results for my depression. Best wishes to you on the vertigo, either way.