Dizziness is a feeling that a good number of people get from time to time. There are numerous causes for this condition with only a small proportion being serious. When experienced occasionally, you should not worry too much. The problem is when it is associated with other symptoms such as loss of consciousness, headache, visual blurring and hearing loss among others. Frequent episodes should also raise the red flag. There are a number of important things that you need to know as you seek dizziness treatment in Toronto.
Differentiating dizziness from vertigo is important. While the former is a feeling of lightheadedness, the latter refers to a sense of spinning environment. Vertigo is caused by a problem affecting the semicircular canals of the ear. One of the forms of this condition is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (also known as BPPV). Symptoms are usually experienced when one changes their body position.
The other common cause of the problem is Meniere disease. In this condition, fluid builds up within the ear. Typically, it affects one ear. The main causes of dizziness that have been documented include tumors such as acoustic neuroma, migraines, sudden changes in blood pressure, low blood sugar, medications, heat stroke, motion sickness, strokes and brain hemorrhage among others.
It is a good idea to keep track of the episodes so as to assess the severity of your condition. This can be achieved by having a dairy at your side to document each of these events. The diary will also be helpful in monitoring the response to treatment.
When you visit your doctor, they will embark on an exercise to establish the exact cause of your problem. A medical history will be required and this will be followed by a comprehensive physical. Issues that the doctor will want to know include the number of episodes that are experienced in a day or week, whether or not there is a relationship with body positioning and the presence or absence of related symptoms. Blood tests and radiological investigations such as the CT scan and MRI may help confirm the diagnosis.
Treatment modalities to be employed will depend on the cause. It should be noted, however, that in some cases, the cause is not found. Treatments that have been tried with variable success rates include lifestyle changes, home therapies and pharmacotherapy. When the cause is migraines, patients are advised to avoid trigger factors and to use reliever medications. Meniere disease, on the other hand, is managed by dietary modification and surgical intervention when this fails.
There is a high risk of dehydration, heat stroke and hypoglycemia among athletes. All these have been known to predispose to dizziness and fainting. To prevent this occurrence, the athletes will be well advised to have a bottle of water with them and glucose at all times. The same goes for persons that engage in strenuous physical activities especially in environments where the ambient temperatures are significantly high.
Dizziness is a symptom that is fairly common and each one of use may have experienced it at one point in time. There usually no cause for worry in most cases. Worry should set in if there is recurrence and association with other symptoms. Due to its vague nature many people confuse many other things for dizziness and this makes diagnosis and treatment a big challenge.
Differentiating dizziness from vertigo is important. While the former is a feeling of lightheadedness, the latter refers to a sense of spinning environment. Vertigo is caused by a problem affecting the semicircular canals of the ear. One of the forms of this condition is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (also known as BPPV). Symptoms are usually experienced when one changes their body position.
The other common cause of the problem is Meniere disease. In this condition, fluid builds up within the ear. Typically, it affects one ear. The main causes of dizziness that have been documented include tumors such as acoustic neuroma, migraines, sudden changes in blood pressure, low blood sugar, medications, heat stroke, motion sickness, strokes and brain hemorrhage among others.
It is a good idea to keep track of the episodes so as to assess the severity of your condition. This can be achieved by having a dairy at your side to document each of these events. The diary will also be helpful in monitoring the response to treatment.
When you visit your doctor, they will embark on an exercise to establish the exact cause of your problem. A medical history will be required and this will be followed by a comprehensive physical. Issues that the doctor will want to know include the number of episodes that are experienced in a day or week, whether or not there is a relationship with body positioning and the presence or absence of related symptoms. Blood tests and radiological investigations such as the CT scan and MRI may help confirm the diagnosis.
Treatment modalities to be employed will depend on the cause. It should be noted, however, that in some cases, the cause is not found. Treatments that have been tried with variable success rates include lifestyle changes, home therapies and pharmacotherapy. When the cause is migraines, patients are advised to avoid trigger factors and to use reliever medications. Meniere disease, on the other hand, is managed by dietary modification and surgical intervention when this fails.
There is a high risk of dehydration, heat stroke and hypoglycemia among athletes. All these have been known to predispose to dizziness and fainting. To prevent this occurrence, the athletes will be well advised to have a bottle of water with them and glucose at all times. The same goes for persons that engage in strenuous physical activities especially in environments where the ambient temperatures are significantly high.
Dizziness is a symptom that is fairly common and each one of use may have experienced it at one point in time. There usually no cause for worry in most cases. Worry should set in if there is recurrence and association with other symptoms. Due to its vague nature many people confuse many other things for dizziness and this makes diagnosis and treatment a big challenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment