Dizziness is a term used to describe a range of sensations, like feeling faint, woozy, weak or unstable. Dizziness that creates the false sense that you or your surroundings are spinning or moving is known as vertigo.
Dizziness is one of the more general reasons adults visit their doctors. Often dizzy spells or constant dizziness can seriously affect your life. But dizziness rarely signals a life-threatening condition.
Symptoms
People undergo dizziness may describe it as any of a number of sensations, like:
A false sense of motion or spinning (vertigo),
Lightheadedness or feeling faint,
unstableness or a loss of balance,
A feeling of floating, wooziness or heavy-headedness.
These feelings can be activated or worsened by walking, standing up or moving your head. Your dizziness can be go with by nausea or be so sudden or serious that you need to sit or lie down. The episode can last seconds or days and can reoccur.
Causes
Dizziness has many possible causes, involving inner ear disturbance, motion sickness and medication effects. Some of the times it is caused by an underlying health condition, like poor circulation, infection or injury.
The way dizziness makes you feel and your activator provide clues for possible causes. How long the dizziness stay and any other symptoms you have also help pinpoint the cause.
Inner ear problems that cause dizziness (vertigo)
Your sense of balance depends on the combined input from the various parts of your sensory system. These involve your:
Eyes - which help you find out where your body is in space and how is it moving.
Sensory nerves - which send messages to your brain about your body movements and positions.
Inner ear - which houses sensors that help find gravity and back-and-forth motion
Vertigo is the false sense that your surroundings are spinning or moving. With inner ear disorders, your brain get's signals from the inner ear that are not consistent with what your eyes and sensory nerves are getting. Vertigo is what results as your brain works to sort out the confusion.
Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). This condition causes an extreme and brief but false sense that you are spinning or moving. These episodes are activated by a rapid change in head movement, like when you turn over in bed, sit up or undergo a blow to the head. BPPV is the most common cause of vertigo.
Infection. A viral infection of the vestibular nerve, known as vestibular neuritis, can cause extreme, constant vertigo. If you also have sudden hearing loss, you can have labyrinthitis.
Meniere's disease. This disease include the excessive buildup of fluid in your inner ear. It is distinguish by sudden episodes of vertigo lasting as long as several hours. You can also undergo fluctuating hearing loss, ringing in the ear and the feeling of a plugged ear.
Migraine. People who undergo migraines can have episodes of vertigo or other types of dizziness even when they are not having a critical headache. Such vertigo episodes can stat minutes to hours and can be linked with headache as well as light and noise sensitivity.
Circulation problems that cause dizziness
You may feel dizzy, faint or off balance if your heart is not pumping sufficient blood to your brain. Causes involved:
Drop in blood pressure. A dramatic drop in your systolic blood pressure. The higher number in your blood pressure reading can result in brief lightheadedness or a feeling of faintness. It can happen after sitting up or standing too quickly. This condition is also known as orthostatic hypotension.
Poor blood circulation. Conditions like cardiomyopathy, heart attack, heart arrhythmia and transient ischemic attack could lead to dizziness. And a decrease in blood volume can give rise to inadequate blood flow to your brain or inner ear.
Other causes of dizziness
Neurological conditions. Some neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis can give rise to progressive loss of balance.
Medications. Dizziness can be a side effect of particular medications such as anti-seizure drugs, antidepressants, sedatives and tranquilizers. In particular, blood pressure lowering medications can lead to faintness if they lower your blood pressure too much.
Anxiety disorders. Certain anxiety disorders may cause lightheadedness or a woozy feeling frequently referred to as dizziness. These involve panic attacks and a fear of leaving home or being in large, open spaces (agoraphobia).
Low iron levels (anemia). Other signs and symptoms that can happen along with dizziness if you have anemia include fatigue, weakness and pale skin.
Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). This condition normally happens in people with diabetes who use insulin. Dizziness (lightheadedness) can be accompanied by sweating and anxiety.
Carbon monoxide poisoning. Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are frequently described as "flu-like" and include headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain and confusion.
Overheating and dehydration. If you are active in hot weather or if you do not drink sufficient fluids, you can feel dizzy from overheating (hyperthermia) or from dehydration. This is mostly true if you take certain heart medications.