Vertigo
If you’ve ever experienced a feeling of spinning, you’ve experienced vertigo. Vertigo can have a number of underlying causes and can interfere with everyday life. At StopFalls Canada: Hearing and Balance Clinic, we are specialists in the assessment and often the treatment of balance system disorders. We can look at the possible causes and recommend the right course of action for you.
Who hasn’t gotten up quickly from sitting down and felt a little bit dizzy? Or had a stomach virus and things spun a bit? But while dizziness can be a side effect of minor health issues, it can also be a sign of a serious health problem. Dizziness is absolutely not normal; it tells you that something is wrong. It could be something simple and very easy to fix or it could be a sign of something else going on in your body.
Dizziness is a more common complaint among older adults—probably because it’s a side effect of nearly every prescription drug (and many over-the-counter medications), and because age-related changes in your body can cause dizziness.
In many cases, a little self-care can cure dizziness, but you must take dizziness seriously, because even if it is not signaling a serious health condition, it can be the cause of serious health consequence. Dizziness leads the patients to fall. They break a hip or they have head trauma.
The first thing you should do if you feel dizzy is to sit or lie down. The last thing you should do is see the doctor.
In general, dizziness is not an emergency, but it can be. Call 911 if your dizziness is accompanied by any of the following symptoms:
- Black out or loss of memory
- Chest pain
- The worst headache of your life
- If it affects your vision or speech
- If it comes with a sudden loss of hearing
These can be symptoms of a heart attack or stroke, or vestibular neuritis or labyrinthitis, which are viral infections of the inner ear that begin with sudden onset and bring on intense dizziness.
In StopFalls CANADA we do evaluation, investigation, treatment and management of patients with dizziness and balance problems
What causes dizziness?
Dizziness can sometimes be caused by an ear condition.Some causes may include:
The fix: Your doctor may try some head positioning techniques, designed to realign little crystals in your inner ears that are at the root of BPPV. You can also try to follow up with some positioning exercises the doctor can show you that you do on your own.
The fix:Its symptoms can be managed. Your doctor may prescribe a diuretic to help reduce fluid in your body. People with Meniere’s Disease should get enough sleep because fatigue can bring on episodes. Also to be avoided: salt, caffeine, smoking, and alcohol. And if you’re having an attack, do not drive. If you feel yourself getting dizzy while driving, pull over to the side of the road. Call your doctor.
If you’ve been in the heat, been on a long plane ride, done a lot of exercise, spent a cold winter’s day in an overheated house, or just forgotten to eat or drink all day because you’ve been so busy, you can feel dizzy.
The fix: If you feel like the room is spinning, or that your head is spinning, you should have some water or, even better, orange juice (because it will give you a little sugar at the same time), and see if that makes you feel any better. If you are dehydrated or overheated, you may also be experiencing a drop in blood sugar, and the juice (which certainly won’t harm you) contains sugar and will lift your levels if your blood sugar is low. After you have had a drink and a little rest, see if the feeling passes. If not, call your doctor.
If you read the package insert of every prescription medication, dizziness is listed as a possible side effect. So if you’ve recently started a medication—prescription or over-the-counter—it could be the reason you’re feeling dizzy. It may mean that you have to switch medications or stop the one that you are taking.
Blood pressure medication can often cause dizziness. Blood pressure medications need to be closely monitored to make sure that your pressure has not climbed too high or fallen too low.
The fix: If you feel dizzy and are on medication, consult your doctor, enumerating a full list of all medications you are taking, including supplements, herbal remedies and over-the-counter treatments. Supplements can negatively interact with prescription medications so you do need to make sure your physician knows everything that you taking. A simple change of medication or adjustment of dosage may bring you a whole lot of relief.
Low levels of iron in the body are known as anemia and the symptoms associated with this condition are often low energy and feelings of fatigue. But sufferers can also feel dizzy.
The fix: Your doctor will draw blood to determine if you are anemic. If so, you may be prescribed an iron supplement to increase your blood levels. This should make you feel better, and ease your dizzy symptoms.
If you have low blood sugar, you are likely to feel dizzy. Low blood sugar can make you also feel sweaty, clammy, and extremely uncomfortable. Your blood pressure will drop. You may even black out. If you are diabetic, this is a particular danger. In addition to experiencing dizziness from low blood sugar, diabetics can also find themselves dizzy from too much or too little insulin. But even if you’re not diabetic, if you have been overworking or overexerting, and several hours have passed without you taking food or drink, you could be experiencing hypoglycemia—and a dizzy spell.
The fix: Quick sugar. Drink some orange juice. Eat some complex carbohydrates—whole-wheat toast with some jam, for example. Keep some sugar drops handy or even a candy bar. These foods contain a good amount of sugar which can help restore your sugar levels. See the doctor.