Getting dizzy is a common symptom that can be due to many things. A common cause of dizziness is that the balance organ in the inner ear does not work properly. Dizziness usually goes over quickly and is harmless even though it is unpleasant while it is going on.
As you get older, the ability to perceive multiple movements is performed simultaneously. Many elderly people have dizziness and a feeling of volatility without an examination to show a clear cause.
If you feel dizzy or unsteady, it may also be due to impaired blood circulation or to medicines you take.
When should I seek care?
Dizziness is usually harmless, but if you get other symptoms at the same time as dizziness, you should seek care quickly.
- has hit your head
- have fever and at the same time ear pain, headache, poor hearing or stiffness in the neck
- have chest pain
- has abnormal heart rhythm
- have respiratory problems
- is generally weak in the body and has altered sensation in the arms and legs
- have fainted
- has become paralyzed on one side of the body or face, or has had speech difficulties
- is very nauseous and vomiting
- have difficulty managing yourself and run the risk of falling and injuring you.
Sometimes it is not as urgent but still important to see a doctor. You can contact a health care center if you
- has got dizziness
- has dizziness before but it has changed character
- has dizziness and hearing effects.
You can seek care at any healthcare center you want throughout the country. You also have the opportunity to have a regular doctor’s contact at the health center.
Common Symptoms – When Should I Seek Care?
Investigations and investigations
Often, the doctor can find out what is causing the dizziness after telling you about your symptoms and having a body examination done. What you tell the doctor about your problems is very important for the doctor to be able to determine what the dizziness is due to. It is good to try to describe the trouble without using the word dizziness and instead talk about how it feels.
Other questions that are important to get answers to understand the dizziness are, for example: When and how did the problems start? Do the problems arise in some special situations? How long do they last? Is it possible to feel before the trouble is on its way? Does posture or movement affect dizziness? Do you have a hearing loss or hearing loss?
Weakness in the arms or legs, loss of sensation, headache or nausea are symptoms that may indicate a more severe dizziness.
Medications and diseases can affect dizziness
If you are using medicines, it is important to tell which ones you are taking, even prescription-free. If you use alcohol or drugs, it can be difficult to tell about it when you seek treatment, but it is important knowledge for the doctor to be able to investigate the problems with the dizziness.
Other diseases you have may also play a role. It is also important to tell if you are feeling anxious, anxious or depressed.
A regular body examination
You will then undergo a body examination . First, the doctor usually listens to the heart and lungs and checks blood pressure, usually when lying down or sitting and sometimes even when you get up. The doctor then monitors reflexes in the arms and legs and how the coordination of movements in the arms and legs works.
Control of the balance sense
To check the balance sense, there are several different tests. The doctor examines eye movements in different directions. To see small involuntary eye movements, the doctor may use a special form of magnifying glasses or video glasses.
A common test is to see if you get dizzy when you quickly lay down with your head turned aside. The doctor notes any symptoms and checks if you get involuntary rapid eye movements. The function of the hearing can be tested using a tuning fork. If the doctor suspects that the hearing is affected, a hearing test is also done.
If you have more severe carousel nerve, you may need to be examined by an ear-nose-throat specialist. A so-called caloric sample is common. Then the doctor examines the reflexes between the balance organ and the eyes by flushing water with different temperatures in the ear canal.
If, after the usual examinations, the doctor has not found the cause of the dizziness, you may need to be referred to a specialized department for the study of balance disorders. Then you have to do several tests to arrive at a diagnosis and the right treatment.
Heart and brain examinations
You can do a computed tomography or magnetic camera examination of the head if the doctor suspects you have any brain disease.
If you have fainting, chest pain or irregular heartbeat it may be due to blood circulation. Then you usually get a so-called ECG . It is a method of measuring the electrical activity of the heart.
Other common investigations for rhythm disorders of the heart or other heart problems are work ECG and tape recorder ECG. At the work ECG, the heart function is recorded while you are allowed to cycle until you get tired. At the tape recorder ECG you have a small box that records your heart rhythm for one or more days.
The treatment of dizziness depends on what caused the trouble. For example, if the trouble is due to a drug, you may consider replacing it with your doctor. If the cause is from the neck muscles, training and treatment by a physiotherapist, naprapat or chiropractor can help.
In all types of dizziness, physical exercise and various forms of balance exercises can often make you better. A physiotherapist can show how the training should be done. Often it takes a few weeks before you get better and it can feel brave. Then it is important that you receive encouragement and support.
In-house training to balance
Many times the trouble is reduced when you find out that it is not dangerous. Moderate physical exercise and simple balance exercises usually reduce the hassle. Advice on exercise can be obtained from a doctor or physiotherapist. It is good not to be afraid of, but to do instead, the movements that can trigger the dizziness. If you trigger the dizziness, the brain gets a chance to re-balance and then the trouble goes over faster.
Walking, preferably in rough terrain such as in the forest, is good for exercising balance. Relaxation exercises can also help. Here are audio recordings that you can try, either in a sitting or lying position.
It is also important to be careful about alcohol. This may sound obvious, but if you have had dizziness it may be very important that you have a good lifestyle to reduce the risk of getting more trouble.
You should take it carefully when you get up if you have a feeling of fainting due to a drop in blood pressure. Physical exercise is good for hypotension.
Simple balance exercises you can do yourself
Here are some exercises you can do to reduce dizziness:
- Sit on a bed or a chair.
- Turn your head back and forth at a fairly slow pace, which you feel you can handle.
- Look at a point far out to the left and right. Repeat the exercise ten to fifteen times.
- Turn your head up and down, and look at a point far up and down.
- Attach the gaze to a point straight ahead, and move the head back and forth to the sides, but keep your gaze.
- In the same way, still with your eyes left, you move your head up and down.
You can also redo all the movements standing. If it feels unstable you can hold onto a table or chair back. It is good if you get dizzy when doing the movements. Then the brain finds out that the signals do not match and can adjust them. With training, the dizziness will eventually decrease.
Treatment of dizziness from the inner ear
The most common form of dizziness from the inner ear is benign position dizziness, which is also called crystal disease . The dizziness gets better by itself even without treatment, but goes over faster if you expose yourself to the movements that trigger the dizziness. There is also special treatment that you can get from some ear doctors, specially trained physiotherapists and general practitioners. During the treatment, you get to make a series of head turns and body movements, which move the loose crystals in the archways to a place where they do not cause any trouble.
Another form of dizziness from the inner ear is cervical inflammation or vestibular neuronitis. If you get it and vomit a lot, you may need to be hospitalized to get fluid and nutrition in the drip. You get this through a vein catheter, that is, a small thin plastic tube that is inserted into the arm. When you feel better, it is important that you get up and move quickly, because then the hassles go over faster. Balance training is important after balancing nerve inflammation.
Treatment of dizziness caused by other diseases
In Meniere’s disease the pressure regulation in the inner ear fluids is disturbed. What causes this is unknown. The treatment consists primarily of reducing harmful stress and eating less salt. There are many different treatments to try and you can always cure the dizziness if it becomes too cumbersome.
If the cause of dizziness is, for example, heart disease, blood vessels, nervous system or serious infections, you will receive treatment for those diseases. Then dizziness usually diminishes.
If you have depression or anxiety and anxiety, there is treatment with medication and conversation therapy. Physical exercise is also very important in reducing the problems. It may be enough with light cardiovascular exercise, for example in the form of walking, to reduce your depression and anxiety.
What causes dizziness?
Dizziness is a very common symptom. It is usually a matter of temporary and harmless problems. For example, a feeling of fainting may be due to a temporary drop in blood pressure if you get up quickly.
Dizziness as the only symptom of serious illness is very uncommon. Then it is common to have other symptoms at once.
The opposite of dizziness is balance
Many of the everyday things you do, such as standing or walking while doing things with your arms and moving your head, are really difficult balancing acts. The experience of balance depends on what information the brain receives from the body’s various senses and parts: vision, balance organ in the inner ear, joints, muscles, skin, arms, trunk, feet and legs.
Brain coordination is also very sensitive to mental stress. Thus, anxiety and anxiety can also disrupt the feeling of physical balance. The signals from the various sensory organs are coordinated in the brain. When these signals work, you experience balance. But when something is wrong, you may feel dizzy. Then it is usually about signals from the eye, the balance organ in the inner ear or sensory bodies and nerves in muscles, skin and joints.
The sight provides information about the environment in which you are moving and enables you to prepare for obstacles and uneven terrain. Instability mainly arises if the visual impressions do not match what the body’s other signals tell about position and speed. An example of this is if you are sitting in a train that is stationary and a train on another platform starts to move.
The balance organs are located in the inner ears
In the inner ear is the balance organ. It consists of three archways with cells that record movement changes and two earstones that record position changes. Both balance organs give equally strong signals to the brain if you keep your head still. If you move your head, for example, you turn in one direction, the signals from the balance organ on the side you are moving will increase. If one of the balancing organs does not function properly, it can give too strong or too weak signals. Then it becomes an imbalance and you get carousel jerky. The eyes try to compensate for the wrong signals from the inner ear by repeatedly moving in the opposite direction. You can see that the eyes move slowly in one direction and then jump back.
The brain has the ability to adapt to the balance changing between the two balance organs. Therefore, the carousel belt usually disappears with time. Restoring the balance goes faster if you practice movements that induce dizziness.
Sensory bodies and nerves
Another important area for balance is the nerve signals sent from the joints and muscles of the neck as you move your head. Pain in the muscles and joints in the neck can interfere with the movement signals. Most often you feel a rocking instability.
Sensory bodies in the muscles, joints and tendons of the legs and arms also provide information to the brain on how to move. The soles of the feet have important functions in that they talk about how the body’s load on the ground is distributed and where the movement is going.
Strong emotions affect the brain
Brain coordination is also very sensitive to mental stress. Strong emotions, such as anxiety and anxiety, can make you more susceptible to sensations of feeling and then have a rocking feeling of instability. Since dizziness is often very uncomfortable, you may be scared of it spinning. If the cause of the dizziness is mental tension, it can create a vicious circle with more dizziness and anxiety.
For the brain to function normally, it must have oxygen from the blood. Disorders of the heart’s rhythm or blood pressure, or blood clots, can affect the brain’s functioning with dizziness as one of several symptoms.
Dizziness may be due to a drop in blood pressure
It is common for the eyes to blacken and feel unsteady when you get up. These are usually not signs of any illness. The reason is that blood pressure has to be adjusted when you get up, and in some people it is sometimes too slow. It is more common in tall lean people and in young people. Physical exercise can often reduce blood pressure drop.
Dizziness without obvious cause
Sometimes it can be difficult to find any direct cause of dizziness and imbalance. If the doctor does not find any defects in the sense organs, the first step is to exclude other diseases. This can usually be done during a regular medical examination.
Alcohol and drugs
Alcohol and other drugs can cause varying degrees of instability and dizziness. All parts of the balance system can be affected so that you become tired and react more slowly to nerve signals from different parts of the body, such as the eyes and balance organs. If you already have dizziness, it is often made worse by alcohol.
Dizziness in the elderly
In the elderly, dizziness is common. Like the rest of the body, nerves, sensory organs and the brain’s ability to coordinate signals age. Difficult balance art is the easiest to learn and develop when you are young. As you get older, your body and nervous system’s ability to handle complicated information decreases as you move. Therefore, volatility and dizziness become more common the older you are.
Often, the feeling of instability is caused by poorer nervous functions, sometimes in combination with drug effects and impaired blood circulation. If you are not physically active, the symptoms can often be further exacerbated. Blood pressure drop in the elderly can sometimes be caused by the blood vessels being stiffer and unable to contract as quickly. Medication for high blood pressure and heart disease can sometimes cause you to temporarily get too low blood pressure when you get up. Dizziness may also be due to an illness or you may need to have your medication changed.
Some drugs may affect the balance. How you respond to medicines varies from person to person and sometimes you may become dizzy with any medication.
In the past, drugs that affect alertness and responsiveness have been labeled with a red warning triangle. Since the warning triangles system can cradle people in false safety, for example when driving, the marking of warning triangles has ceased. However, several drugs that are not reported to affect the ability to react can, for example, cause dizziness and fatigue. You may also get such symptoms if you stop taking a medicine. Information on contents, dosage and side effects can be found in the package leaflet, the information leaflet that usually comes with the package of medicines.
Changes in hearing
Vestibularisschwannom, also called the acoustic neurinoma, is a nerve node that starts from the balance nerve but also presses the auditory nerve. It usually grows slowly. The symptoms are that you gradually get impaired hearing on one ear, ear sores on one ear, and sometimes a dizziness with instability.
In sudden severe disease of the blood vessels, such as heart attack , or rhythm disorders, you may develop dizziness. If you get a blood clot in a blood vessel in your brain you can sometimes get dizziness as one of several symptoms. Usually you also have paralysis and loss of sensation.
In order for the brain to function properly, it must receive oxygen from the blood. Disorders of the heart’s rhythm, blood pressure, and blood vessel plugs to the various parts of the brain can affect brain function. Then dizziness is one of several symptoms.
Nervous system disorders that cause dizziness
Nervous system disorders can cause instability. In so-called polyneuropathy , it is primarily the long nerve pathways of the legs that are affected. It is more common in the elderly and people with diabetes as well as if you are deficient in vitamin B12. If you have this disease, your skin and joints feel worse, starting with the soles of your feet. Migraine is a common disorder of the nervous system that can cause dizziness. More unusual is dizziness in, for example, MS . Tumors in the nervous system only cause dizziness is extremely rare.
Dizziness simultaneously with other illness
Severe diseases affect the various sensory organs, nerves in the body and the central parts of the brain. Then you can get a feeling of dizziness. Examples of this are severe infections, blood diseases and tumor diseases with dissemination in the body.