The feelings of lightheadedness, floating, wooziness, feeling giddy, confused, helpless, or fuzziness are collectively termed as dizziness. Doctors generally use the terms as Vertigo, disequilibrium, and pre-syncope.

The term vertigo is generally attached with the condition of dizziness. The word "vertigo" comes from the Latin “vertere”(to turn), and “-igo”(a condition). Therefore it is a condition of turning about.

In vertigo, the room or the place around the person seems to turn around and spin, which is very disturbing. A feeling of nausea follows this.

Otherwise, dizziness can be a result of various other medical problems.

Everything from feeling faint or lightheaded to feeling weak or unsteady is described by the word dizziness.

Our sense of balance depends on our brain that processes a variety of information from our eyes, our nervous system, and our inner ears. But if the brain can't process signals from all of these sensory locations, or if the messages that are processed are contradictory, one might experience dizziness and loss of balance.

Causes of Dizziness

There can be various causes for dizziness. Some of the more general causes are as follows:

Viral infections

Disequilibrium or loss of balance

Disruption of the inner ear

Menier’s disease

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)

Low blood pressure

Postural or orthostatic hypotension or momentary drop in the blood pressure by sudden movement

Strong medicines

Vertebrobasilar insufficiency in the aged caused by arthritis of spine in the neck

Transient ischaemic attack or stroke

Anxiety

Panic attacks

Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)

Drug treatments

Migraine

Abnormal heart rhythms

Stress and tiredness

Anaemia

Acute intoxication

Acoustic neuroma

Carbon monoxide poisoning

Dizziness Symptoms

Since most of us go through the suffering of dizziness sometime in our life, we are well aware of most of the symptoms of dizziness. Some of them are as follows:

Light-headedness

Feel wobbly on their feet

A feeling that the room is whirling around

Nausea

Vomiting

Intense headache

Memory changes

Odd behavior

Loss of consciousness

Dizziness Treatment

The treatment of dizziness depends on the cause and the symptoms as detected by the doctors. They are as follows:

BPPV

Canalith repositioning, a simple procedure that involves your doctor or physical therapist maneuvering the position of your head is used for treating BPPV. This is done to move the loose pieces inside the ear to place them at their position so as to stop causing dizziness. This process has a success rate of about 90%, but might need repetition.

Inner ear conditions

The use of balance retraining exercises (vestibular rehabilitation) is used to treat acute vestibular neuronitis. This is also called as the labyrinthitis. A physiotherapist teaches these exercises, and can be practiced at home.

Meniere's disease

Reducing your body’s fluid retention through diuretics or dietary changes is the treatment for Meniere’s disease. This includes low-salt diet. At certain cases, surgery is advised.

Vestibular migraine

If vertigo is associated with a vestibular migraine, the doctor will likely try to help you determine and avoid the cause that triggers off the attacks. This includes:

Avoiding certain foods

Reducing stress

Developing a regular sleep pattern

Aerobic exercises

Vestibular rehabilitation

Medicines

Anxiety disorders

This being a psychological trouble, counseling is advised.

Other conditions

The medical practitioner will be the best person to detect the actual cause of dizziness and render the necessary treatment.

Advice

The measures that can be adopted to avoid dizziness are as follows:

Regular health check ups

Regular exercise to keep the body fit

Good and healthy diet

Reduction of stress, etc

It must also be remembered that while the cause of dizziness can be harmless and temporary at times, at other times it might be a signal for some fatal disease like heart attack, cerebral stoke, etc.

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