Dizziness – Causes of Dizziness

Dizziness is a common description for many different feelings. The feeling of dizziness may be very familiar to you, yet difficult to describe.

Vertigo is a medical term to describe the feeling of spinning, whirling, or motion either of yourself or your surroundings. This is the same feeling you might have after getting off a merry-go-round or after a child's game of spinning in place. Several diseases of the balance organs of the inner ear can cause vertigo, or it may be a symptom of a tumor or stroke.

Dizziness may be experienced as lightheadedness, feeling like you might faint, being unsteady, loss of balance, or vertigo (a feeling that you or the room is spinning or moving).

Dizziness is the distortion of the perception of space; vertigo is a special type of dizziness, which induces a sensation of spinning around. Dizziness is a symptom of a variety of diseases that can cause imbalance or even falls, among other things. Thus it may frequently be a serious health hazard, especially in the aging,

Dizziness is one of the most common reasons older adults visit their doctors. Aging increases the risk of developing any of several conditions that may cause dizziness. Although it may be disabling and incapacitating, dizziness rarely signals a serious, life-threatening condition. Treatment of dizziness depends on the cause and your symptoms.

Causes of Dizziness

Inner ear: The organ of balance in your inner ear is the vestibular labyrinth. It includes loop-shaped structures (semicircular canals) that contain fluid and fine, hair-like sensors that monitor the rotation of your head. Near the semicircular canals are the utricle and saccule, which contain tiny particles called otoconia (o-toe-KOE-nee-uh). These particles are attached to sensors that help detect gravity and back-and-forth motion.

Dizziness may be attributed broadly to a number of things. Sometimes, doctors find no specific cause, but dangerous causes always need to be excluded.

Much less commonly, vertigo or feeling unsteady is a sign of stroke, multiple sclerosis, seizures, a brain tumor, or a bleed in your brain. In such conditions, other symptoms usually accompany the vertigo or imbalance.

More serious conditions that can lead to lightheadedness include heart problems (such as abnormal heart rhythm or heart attack ), stroke , and severe drop in blood pressure ( shock ). If any of these serious disorders is present, you will usually have additional symptoms like chest pain, a feeling of a racing heart, loss of speech, change in vision, or other symptoms.

Dizziness and vertigo very frequently are symptoms of multiple sclerosis in young persons. With multiple sclerosis the vertigo is associated with signs such as problems with eye movements or speech and it almost always occurs episodically and goes away. Only rarely will a brain tumor cause vertigo although this can happen in young children with brainstem or cerebellar tumors.
Anxiety or panic attacks are usually accompanied by a bout of dizziness. The room may begin to feel as if it is spinning when a panic attack occurs. This may be because breathing quickens and too much oxygen reaches the brain.

Dizziness can also be caused by disorders of the central nervous system, such as multiple sclerosis; circulatory system diseases such as hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis); motion sickness; insufficient blood supply to the brain, as occurs with transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke; exposure to toxic substances; diet; and food allergies.

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