In 2017, while travelling around rural India, Rae Thomas’s adolescent daughter began experiencing dizziness and nausea lasting for several hours. Rae recalled hearing that a head rotation procedure could help with the most common cause of persistent dizziness. Using her mobile phone she found a description of the Epley manoeuvre (or canalith repositioning) on the HANDI (Handbook of NonDrug Interventions) website, watched the linked video a few times, and performed the procedure. Her daughter’s relief was immediate - though it needed repeating over the next few days. Rae was aware of this option only because she worked at the same university as the developers of HANDI.
The Epley manoeuvre is just one of dozens of effective ‘non-drug’ treatments which are under-used by doctors and patients.
Some have substantial, research-supported effects: exercise (as part of “pulmonary rehabilitation”) for patients with chronic airways disease can prevent 70 percent of hospital re-admissions and deaths; daily sunscreen can cut invasive melanoma rates by 50 percent; and ‘external cephalic version’, turning an in-utero baby by pushing on the mother’s abdomen, can avoid 50 percent of dangerous breech births.
