10 causes of dizziness you should be worried about

Do you feel dizzy or light headed all the time? It's not just because of the heat or dehydration, it could mean you are suffering from something serious!

Do you constantly feel dizzy or light headed? It's best you visit a doctor because constant dizziness could indicate something seriously wrong with your body. But one should know that dizziness is of four different types such as, vertigo--the feeling that you are spinning or whirling , disequilibrium-a disturbance in balance or coordination which affects gait, presyncope where the patient loses consciousness or light-headedness, which is a vague sensation of feeling light in the head and is not associated with previous three types. These different types can hint at something serious and hence, it is important that you know what constant dizziness or light-headedness can indicate.

Hyperventilation: A common cause of light-headedness is hyperventilation, wherein patients tend to breathe faster and deeper than necessary. Hyperventilators usually feel that they have lost their balance or have a feeling like they will faint. With some patients, the dizziness can worsen over time, is unpredictable and usually related to a specific position or activity they are doing. Along with dizziness, hyperventilators also experience palpitations, abdominal bloating and weakness.

Hypotension or low blood pressure: Patients suffering from hypotension also feel dizzy when their blood pressure drops below the normal range. Also, many times, people also feel dizzy when they stand up suddenly. This happens because the blood pressure falls when the patients stands. It is called orthostatic hypotension and dizziness is its most common symptom.

Severe anaemia:Patients with severe anaemia often exhibit a reproducible or a predictable pattern. They often experience exertional light-headedness after physical exercise or exertion. They may also experience disequilibrium.

Heart diseases:Patients suffering cardiac arrhythmias or irregular heartbeats and primary cardiac disease often feel lightheaded.

Prescription drugs: Many medications often trigger disequilibrium but people often fail to recognise the connection between a new or higher dose of medicine and this type of dizziness.

Hypothyroidism: It is often associated with such kind of dizziness and it ranges from mild episodic disequilibrium to frank ataxia wherein the patient loses bodily movement control and has an abnormal gait.

Epilepsy: Light-headedness which is accompanied by postictal symptoms, odd behaviour, automatisms or automatic/involuntary action and retrograde amnesia can also indicate epilepsy.

Meniere's Disease: Light-headedness along with concurrent tinnitus or deafness can point to Meniere's disease or another cochleovestibular disease.

Psychiatric disorders: Many times people feel like lightheaded all the time and they suffer from psychogenic light-headedness, which is usually a manifestation of a psychiatric disorder. This is only confirmed after patients undergo dizziness simulation tests and test results are normal.

Multiple sensory deficit syndrome: Patients with this disease often suffer from disequilibrium. It is mostly seen in the elderly who have other illnesses, making it difficult for them to move around unassisted. Visual impairment, deafness, painful orthopeadic conditions and weak muscles usually affect their sense of space and motion, which affects their confidence of walking.

Reference

Reilly BM. Dizziness. In: Walker HK, Hall WD, Hurst JW, editors. Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations. 3rd edition. Boston: Butterworths; 1990. Chapter 212. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK325/

Image source: Shutterstock

---