What is Dizziness

Vertigo is a sensation of feeling dizzy, nauseous, motion sick, & generally off-balance. If you have Vertigo or Dizziness, you might experience that you’re unable to keep your balance & tend to sway or tilt towards one side of your body while standing, walking, or running.

During an attack, you might experience a range of symptoms like vomiting, nausea, excessive sweating, chills, dizziness, a spinning sensation like the room or surroundings are moving about, & general disorientation.

These episodes or attacks might last for only a short period of time, like a few minutes. However, in some cases, the episodes may last longer than that & may even be quite severe in nature.

The usual cause of vertigo is a problem with the inner ear. The inner ear houses the vestibular system, which is responsible for maintaining the body’s balance & coordination. It also maintains the body’s position in space.

When something goes wrong with this system, the person experiences symptoms like dizziness, sudden spinning sensations, nausea, vomiting, migraine headaches, & disorientation.

Vertigo that arises out of inner ear issues is called Peripheral vertigo. It is the most common type of vertigo experienced by people & is also easily treatable.

Another type of vertigo that is somewhat less common is called Central Vertigo. As the name suggests, it arises out of central nervous system disorders & issues that affect the brain & central coordination.

Central Vertigo is usually chronic in nature & its attacks are also a bit more intense & severe as compared to peripheral vertigo attacks.

Vertigo symptoms:

Although it’s possible for each individual to have different symptoms of vertigo, some vertigo symptoms are usually common across all vertigo patients.

These generally include symptoms like:

• Dizziness
• Sudden sensations of movement, feeling as if your surroundings are spinning around or moving, & random perception of external movement
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Motion sickness
• Hearing issues
• Vision problems
• Rapid, abnormal, & jerky eye movements. These are also known as nystagmus & can serve as an important piece of information to your doctor in determining if you’re suffering from vertigo or general dizziness. The pattern & frequency of the nystagmus also helps your doctor understand if you’re suffering from peripheral Vertigo or central vertigo.
• Ringing, buzzing, or whistling sound inside the ears. This is also known as Tinnitus & is common in patients with Meniere’s Disease.
• Hearing loss, usually in one of the ears.
• Swaying to one side of the body
• Tilting to one side of the body
• Inability to walk in a straight line
• Inability to maintain a straight gait
• General disorientation
• Loss of coordination

Vertigo causes:

Vertigo can occur due to a variety of reasons, including some harmless, benign ones & other potentially serious, life-threatening conditions. Although in most cases, Vertigo isn’t harmful & usually resolves on its own. In other cases, vertigo can be treated with the help of certain vertigo exercises, vertigo medications, & some home remedies.

Some of the most common vertigo causes that affect most patients include:

• Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo(BPPV)
• Vestibular Neuritis
• Labyrinthitis
• Meniere’s Disease
• Middle ear infections
• Central nervous system disorders
• Autoimmune disorders like Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Lyme Disease, etc.
• Side effects of certain medications including anticonvulsants, antidepressants, anti-anxiety tablets, anticholinergics, & certain antihistamines(especially the first generation antihistamines like Benadryl, Dramamine, etc.)
• Certain illnesses & infections
• Ear surgery
• Neck surgery
• Head injuries
• Whiplash injuries
• Blunt force trauma to the head
• Migraine headaches

Other less commonly seen causes of vertigo include:

• Stroke
• Transient Ischemic Attack(TIA), also known as a mini-stroke
• Brain tumors
• Acoustic Neuroma, a tumor that grows on the Vestibular Nerve
• Cardiac diseases
• Double vision, also known as diplopia
• Excessive consumption of alcohol

Vertigo treatment & the role of Vertigo medicines:

Vertigo treatment usually depends on the exact cause of your vertigo. Your doctor will carefully evaluate your condition and decide on the right course of vertigo treatment for your particular condition.

Your vertigo treatment will normally include some vertigo medicines, vertigo exercises, & certain home remedies for effective & quick recovery. Surgical alternatives are less common, though in some rare cases, they might be beneficial to resolve a certain physical condition that is causing your vertigo symptoms.

Some common vertigo medications and vertigo treatment exercises prescribed to most vertigo patients include:

• The Epley Maneuver, also known as the Canalith Repositioning Maneuver. This vertigo treatment exercise focuses on removing the tiny calcium crystals called otoliths from inside the semicircular canal back to their original position inside the middle ear. The Epley Maneuver is very successful and has high rates of success in final resolution statistics of vertigo treatment.
  It has an accuracy of over 90% in one performance. Most vertigo patients are able to get relief after performing this maneuver only once. However, some others may have to perform it multiple times to get the desired results.
  
  Some other vertigo treatment exercises include the Brandt-Daroff exercises, which utilize gravity to dislodge the calcium crystals to their original position. Other exercises include the Semont maneuver, & the Foster maneuver.

Vertigo treatment medicines usually prescribed by doctors include:

• Meclizine tablet, also known as Antivert.
• Vertin tablet
• Stemetil MD Tablet
• Stugeron Forte tablet
• Dramamine II tablet
• TravelEase tablet for Motion Sickness that occurs during vertigo episodes or if you’re prone to getting vertigo on specific motor vehicles or situations that involve any kind of movement
• Anti-nausea drugs
• Anti-anxiety medications
• Antidepressants
• Anticholinergics tablets
• Medicines to treat dizziness
• Migraine medicines to prevent & treat headaches during vertigo attacks
• Antibiotics to treat any bacterial infections that might be causing your vertigo symptoms
• fluids & rest to treat any viral infections that might be causing your vertigo symptoms
• Ginkgo Biloba tablets or liquid Ginkgo Biloba to treat vertigo symptoms and inner ear issues
• Herbal tea
• Ginger & honey concoctions
• Chamomile tea to calm & soothe the vestibular nerves
• anti-inflammatory tablets like Paracetamol(Tylenol), ibuprofen, & aspirin to treat pain & inflammation due to various infections &/or autoimmune disorders
• steroids, either oral or localized to treat any flare-ups of autoimmune disorders that might be causing your vertigo symptoms
• antibiotic injections like Gentamycin to treat any inner ear bacterial infections that might be causing your vertigo
• Injections and plasma therapy to prevent the progress of Multiple Sclerosis & relieve its symptoms among patients
• Any other medicines or therapy to help provide relief to patients & resolve their vertigo symptoms quickly & effectively.

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