Why am i constantly feeling dizzy

Why Am I Dizzy? 7 Possible Causes of Dizziness and How To Treat It

Written by Stephanie Langmaid

Is It Vertigo?

Does it feel like you're spinning or the room is moving around you? That's a classic sign of a particular type of dizziness called vertigo. It's more than feeling off-kilter and usually gets worse when you move your head. This is a symptom that there is an issue in the inner ear or part of the brainstem governing balance. The most common kind is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV.

Your inner ear is a complicated system of canals filled with fluid. These let your brain know how your head is moving. With BPPV, tiny bits of calcium in part of your inner ear get loose and move to places they don't belong. The system doesn't work the way it should and sends your brain the wrong signals.

It's often caused by the natural breakdown of cells that happens with age. A head injury can cause it, too.

You'll feel it briefly when you tilt or turn your head, and especially when you roll over in bed or sit up. BPPV isn't serious and usually goes away on its own. If not -- or you'd like to help it along -- it can be treated with special head exercises ("particle repositioning exercises") called the Epley maneuver to get the pieces of calcium back in place. Most people feel better after one to three treatments.

There are other causes of vertigo both in and outside the brain. You can have Meniere disease (described below), labyrinthitis (described below), a tumor called an acoustic neuroma or side effects from some antibiotics. In the brain, it can be caused by a vestibular migraine, multiple sclerosis, malformations of brain structures or a stroke from lack of blood flow or bleed (hemorrhage) in the cerebellum.

Is It an Infection?

Inflammation of the nerves in your ears also can cause vertigo. It can be either vestibular neuritis or labyrinthitis. Vestibular neuritis refers to inflammation of your vestibular nerve only while labyrinthitis involved both your vestibular nerve and your cochlear nerve. Both conditions are caused by an infection. Usually, a virus is to blame. But bacteria from a middle ear infection or meningitis can make their way into your inner ear as well.

In this case, dizziness usually comes on suddenly. Your ears may ring, and it may be hard to hear. You also may be nauseated and have a fever and ear pain. Symptoms can last several weeks.

If it's caused by a virus and can't be treated with antibiotics, medication can help make you feel better as the infection runs its course.

Is It Meniere's Disease?

This condition brings on intense periods of vertigo that can last hours. You may feel fullness or pressure in one ear. Other symptoms include ringing in your ears, hearing loss, and nausea. You may feel exhausted after the attack passes.

People with Meniere's disease have too much fluid in their inner ear. Doctors don't know what causes it, and there's no cure for it. It's usually treated with diet changes (a low-salt diet) and medicine to control the dizziness.

Is It Your Circulation?

Dizziness can be a sign of a problem with your blood flow. Your brain needs a steady supply of oxygen-rich blood. Otherwise, you can become lightheaded and even faint.

Some causes of low blood flow to the brain include blood clots, clogged arteries, heart failure, and an irregular heartbeat. For many older people, standing suddenly can cause a sharp drop in blood pressure.

It's important to get medical help immediately if you're dizzy and faint or lose consciousness.

Is It Your Medication?

Several drugs list dizziness as a possible side effect. Check with your doctor if you take:

Antibiotics, including gentamicin and streptomycin
Anti-depressants
Anti-seizure medications
Blood pressure medicine
Sedatives

Is It Dehydration?

Many people don't drink enough fluids to replace the liquid they lose every day when they sweat, breathe, and pee. It's particularly a problem for older people and people with diabetes.

When you're severely dehydrated, your blood pressure can drop, your brain may not get enough oxygen, and you'll feel dizzy. Other symptoms of dehydration include thirstiness, tiredness, and dark urine.

To help with dehydration, drink plenty of water or diluted fruit juice, and limit coffee, tea, and soda.

Is It Low Blood Sugar?

People with diabetes need to check the amount of sugar (glucose) in their blood often. You can get dizzy if it drops too low. That also can cause hunger, shakiness, sweating, and confusion. Some people without diabetes also have trouble with low blood sugar, but that's rare.

A quick fix is to eat or drink something with sugar, like juice or a hard candy.

Is It Something Else?

Dizziness can be a sign of many other illnesses, including:

Migraines, even if you don't feel pain
Stress or anxiety
Nervous-system problems like peripheral neuropathy and multiple sclerosis
Tumor in the brain or inner ear

You may have other symptoms besides dizziness with any of these conditions. If your dizziness won’t go away or impacts your ability to function, make sure to discuss it with your doctor to find out the cause and treat it.

Why Am I Dizzy? 7 Possible Causes of Dizziness and How To Treat It

Written by Stephanie Langmaid

Is It Vertigo?

It's often caused by the natural breakdown of cells that happens with age. A head injury can cause it, too.

Is It an Infection?

In this case, dizziness usually comes on suddenly. Your ears may ring, and it may be hard to hear. You also may be nauseated and have a fever and ear pain. Symptoms can last several weeks.

If it's caused by a virus and can't be treated with antibiotics, medication can help make you feel better as the infection runs its course.

Is It Meniere's Disease?

Is It Your Circulation?

Dizziness can be a sign of a problem with your blood flow. Your brain needs a steady supply of oxygen-rich blood. Otherwise, you can become lightheaded and even faint.

It's important to get medical help immediately if you're dizzy and faint or lose consciousness.

Is It Your Medication?

Several drugs list dizziness as a possible side effect. Check with your doctor if you take:

Antibiotics, including gentamicin and streptomycin
Anti-depressants
Anti-seizure medications
Blood pressure medicine
Sedatives

Is It Dehydration?

Many people don't drink enough fluids to replace the liquid they lose every day when they sweat, breathe, and pee. It's particularly a problem for older people and people with diabetes.

To help with dehydration, drink plenty of water or diluted fruit juice, and limit coffee, tea, and soda.

Is It Low Blood Sugar?

A quick fix is to eat or drink something with sugar, like juice or a hard candy.

Is It Something Else?

Dizziness can be a sign of many other illnesses, including:

Migraines, even if you don't feel pain
Stress or anxiety
Nervous-system problems like peripheral neuropathy and multiple sclerosis
Tumor in the brain or inner ear

causes, symptoms and diagnosis, indications for visiting a doctor

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There is nothing pleasant about being dizzy - we feel anxiety, we can get hurt. What is dizziness and how can it be caused? Should I ignore it, as is often the case with dizziness in men, drink self-chosen pills, as women often do with dizziness, or immediately go to the doctor? How to help yourself during an attack? Let's consider these and other questions in more detail.

Symptoms of dizziness

Vertigo (medical term vertigo) is disorientation in space. It seems to a person that he is rotating, moving, although in fact he is motionless. It happens the other way around - there is a feeling that everything around is spinning and moving - objects, trees, the ground under your feet.

Sensations can be different - from rotational movements to the impression of instability, when everything around (or yourself) trembles, staggers, moves. The body or parts of it may appear to be moving. Describing their condition, many say that they feel like with a strong sea roll, riding on a swing.

Additional symptoms of dizziness:

Dizziness.
An illusion of mobility of your body or surrounding objects is created.
There is nausea, weakness, up to fainting.
Cold sweat breaks out.
Increased heart rate.
Fear, panic appears.
Numb legs or arms.
Impaired hearing or disturbed by ringing in the ears.

Dizziness can be sharp for a few seconds or longer - up to half an hour, an hour and a constant feeling. The frequency of seizures is also different - someone encounters them regularly under certain conditions, while someone has experienced only a couple of times in their lives. Some patients notice frequent patterns when dizziness appears. It can be trips in transport, experiences.

Causes of dizziness

They can be conditionally divided into physiological - normal, which do not serve as a symptom of diseases, and situations when vertigo signals some kind of illness, failure in the body.

The main causes of dizziness in a healthy person:

Sudden fright, when there is a sharp release of stress hormones.
Unusual and jerky movements, such as skydiving, rides, spinning in circles for a long time.

With dizziness, the body warns us that something is not right with it when:

Strong alcohol intoxication.
Rigid and unbalanced diets.
Dehydration, heat stroke.
Excessive exercise.
Decreased sugar levels.
Low blood pressure.
Taking certain medications (this side effect is indicated in the instructions).

Among the causes of dizziness in women may be pregnancy and heavy menstruation.

But not everything is so harmless with vertigo. This symptom can be in a variety of diseases. There are about eighty of them in total.

The main diseases, conditions that cause dizziness:

Pathologies of the ENT organs that affect the inner ear (it serves as an element of the vestibular apparatus) - otitis media, Meniere's disease and others.
Circulatory disorders of the brain, vascular pathologies - aneurysms, VSD, stroke.
Tumors of any nature in the brain, neck, cranial structures.
Degenerative changes in the brain - multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and others.
Inflammatory and other diseases of the central nervous system - meningitis, encephalomyelitis and others.
Cardiovascular diseases - infarction, cardiac arrhythmias, arterial hypertension and hypotension.
Mental illness - phobias, neurotic syndrome.
Osteochondrosis of the cervical spine.

What to do if you feel dizzy

During an attack, it is advisable not to turn your head to the side, not to make sudden movements, for example, try to lie down immediately. You can sit down, lie down gradually, focus on deep breathing. You can wash your face, make a cold compress on your face.

If the vertigo recurs, the attacks become more severe, there are additional symptoms - it is necessary to take measures and consult a doctor

It is necessary to understand what disease the vertigo is a symptom of. A neurologist or a therapist will help in this, who, according to the patient's complaints, makes a presumptive diagnosis. If necessary, other specialists are involved in the diagnosis and treatment - an otolaryngologist, a cardiologist and others.

Diagnostic methods will differ for different diseases that caused vertigo. There is no single prescription for dizziness. Ear pathologies or heart disease, brain tumors or osteochondrosis - all this is treated in different ways.

To find out why dizziness bothers you, how to get rid of them and maintain health, the doctors of the Kutuzovsky medical center will help. We are waiting for you at the clinic every day by appointment.

The content of this article has been checked and confirmed for compliance with medical standards by the general practitioner Butskikh Yulia Vladimirovna.

Publication checked:

Ayvazyan Linda Volodevna

Experience: 5 years

Dermatovenereologist, mycologist, trichologist

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Why am I dizzy?

2019.11.28

Various organs such as our eyes, brain, inner ear and leg, and spinal nerves are responsible for our ability to maintain balance. When these systems malfunction, dizziness and imbalance can occur. This can be a serious and dangerous sign if it causes imbalance and falls, or if the dizziness makes walking or navigating the environment difficult. Let us resolve the issue immediately and contact your doctor immediately. Specialists will evaluate your complaints, your general health and find out what is happening and how to treat them.
Seek medical attention if dizziness or inability to balance is accompanied by:

Chest pain
Severe headaches
Head injuries
fever
Irregular heart rhythm
seizures
Shortness of breath
"Cuff" neck
Sudden change in speech, vision or hearing
emetic
Facial numbness
Leg or arm weakness

Is it dizzy?

Do you feel that the room is moving or spinning around you? This is a classic sign of dizziness called vertigo. It's more than a talent and it usually gets worse when you move your head. This is a symptom of an imbalance problem in the inner ear or brain stem. The most common type is benign paroxysmal postural head rotation. Your inner ear is a complex system of channels filled with fluid. This lets your brain know how your head is moving. Small parts of the calcium crystal in your inner ear loosen up and move to places where they shouldn't be. The system is not working properly and is sending the wrong signals to your brain. This is often caused by the natural breakdown of cells that occurs with age. It can also be caused by a head injury. You will feel it for a short time when you tilt or turn your head, especially when you roll over or sit down. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is not serious and usually resolves spontaneously. If not - or if you want to help together - it can be treated with specific head exercises ("particle remodeling exercises") called "Epley" maneuvers to put the calcium chips back in place. Most people feel better after one or three treatments.
There are other causes of dizziness both inside and outside the brain. You may have Meniere's disease (described below), labyrinthitis (described below), a tumor called an acoustic neuroma, or side effects caused by certain antibiotics. It can be caused in the brain by vestibular migraine, multiple sclerosis, birth defects of the brain, or stroke due to inadequate blood flow or bleeding in the cerebellum.

Is it an infection?

Nerve inflammation in the ear can also cause dizziness. This is called vestibular neuritis or labyrinthitis and is caused by an infection. A virus is usually to blame. Middle ear infections or meningitis bacteria can also get into your inner ear. In this case, dizziness usually occurs suddenly. Your ears may ring and it may be hard to hear. You may also feel nausea, fever, and ear pain. Symptoms may last for several weeks. If it is caused by a virus and cannot be treated with antibiotics. Helpful foods can help you feel better when the infection clears up.

Is it Meniere's disease?

This condition causes intense periods of dizziness that can last for hours. You may feel fullness or pressure in one ear. Other symptoms include tinnitus, hearing loss, nausea, and restlessness. You may feel exhausted after an attack. People with Meniere's disease have too much fluid in the inner ear. Doctors do not know what causes it, and there is no cure for it. This is usually treated by changing the diet (a low-salt diet) and taking medication to control dizziness.

Is this a circulatory disorder?

Dizziness may be a sign of a circulation problem. Your brain needs constant oxygen-rich blood. Otherwise, you may be sleepy and even weak. Some of the reasons for reduced blood flow to the brain include blood clots, clogged arteries, heart failure, and an irregular heartbeat. For many older people, standing up suddenly can cause a sudden drop in blood pressure. It is important to contact your doctor immediately if you feel dizzy and weak, or if you pass out.

Is this your medicine?

Some medicines prescribe dizziness as a possible side effect. Talk to your doctor if you are taking the following medicines:

Antibiotics, including gentamicin and streptomycin
antidepressants
Anticonvulsants
Blood pressure medicines
sedatives

Is it dehydration (lack of fluid in the body)?

Many people do not drink enough fluids to replace the fluids they lose every day through sweating, breathing and urinating. This is a particularly pressing issue for the elderly and people with diabetes. When you're dehydrated, your blood pressure drops, your brain doesn't get enough oxygen, and you start to feel dizzy. Other symptoms of dehydration include thirst, fatigue, and dark urine. To rehydrate, drink plenty of water or diluted fruit juice, and limit coffee, tea, and soda.

Is your blood sugar too low?

People with diabetes should check their blood sugar frequently.