What to Do if You’re Feeling Dizzy
Feeling dizzy is something most of us have experienced at one time or another. If you’ve ever ridden the teacup ride at Disneyland, you know the dizzy feeling you get right after you get off. You don’t need to have just gotten off an amusement park ride to get that feeling though. As you get older, you might get that dizzy feeling by just getting up too quickly.
If, however, you have started feeling dizzy at other times, without a clear cause, this could be a sign of an underlying condition and you will want to make an appointment to see your physician. Several different conditions can result in dizziness.
Blood Pressure Problems
Both high blood pressure and low blood pressure may cause dizziness. When you have low blood pressure, feeling dizzy often accompanies a queasy feeling, perspiration, and/or difficulty breathing.
Low blood pressure itself, however, is only a symptom of several other underlying conditions. Low blood pressure may result from bleeding, anemia, lack of fluids, or temperature related problems like heat stroke. Certain medications may also cause low blood pressure (e.g., certain beta-blockers have it as a listed side effect).
High blood pressure may also cause dizziness. High blood pressure tends to disguise its signs until its advanced stages. However, feeling dizzy, queasy, or having headaches can sometimes be the first symptoms of hypertension (the technical term for high blood pressure). Untreated high blood pressure may cause stroke or heart attack.
Diabetes
Diabetics will often suffer from dizziness because of heightened or insufficient levels of sugar in their blood. Hypoglycemia (low levels of blood sugar) may cause dizziness, disorientation, perspiration, and even coma if not treated.
Overly high levels of blood sugar (hyperglycemia) due to insufficient insulin may also cause problems such as disorientation and dizziness. The person then may lapse into a coma. If untreated in the long term, hyperglycemia can lead to several life threatening problems such as heart attack or stroke.
Heart Conditions
Several kinds of heart disorders may also cause dizziness. This is because irregularities in blood flow make you feel dizzy. Beating too quickly, tachycardia, or too slowly, bradycardia, is often the result of drunkenness, diabetes or a viral infection. Untreated these may lead to serious health conditions.
Vertigo
Vertigo is a special version of feeling dizzy. Vertigo is not just a feeling of weakness or light-headedness, but also a sensation of spinning—like the after effect of the teacup ride again.
There are both psychological and physical causes for vertigo. One may experience vertigo as a psychological fear of heights or open spaces—what psychologists call agoraphobia (think Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock’s classic by the same name).
More often than not, however, vertigo results from a physical disorder to the inner ear. The inner ear is the source of our equilibrium or balance. When we damage that area of our body, we are likely to experience problems with our balance. Inflammation or a viral infection in the inner ear canals may result in dizziness, as may a benign tumor (known as acoustic neuroma).
Certain types of brain abnormalities—such as stroke—may also cause dizziness.
An Incomplete List
Be aware that what I have listed here is an incomplete list of the possible causes for dizziness. A number of other minor and major conditions may also result in feeling dizzy.
When dizziness is an emergency:
If dizziness accompanies chest pains or intense nausea, you should immediately call for help. Such symptoms may be the early sign of a life-threatening situation such as a heart attack.
Similarly, loss of consciousness may also be a sign of a severe condition and you should take immediate action.
Even if dizziness is only an occasional symptom, however, you should still consult a doctor. A minor dizziness that continues over time may be a sign of a deeper, more serious, condition that is slowly developing. You should look to have it checked out early so that you can prevent complications from developing.