What Causes Dizziness?

People tend to look for what causes dizziness, where in most cases, it may not be just one factor that is causing this problem.

The Cause of Dizziness is Usually Multifactorial

Some of the body areas that may be causing dizziness are the ears, eyes, neck, heart, brain, or even other areas like the feet. In many cases, more than one of these body areas can be causing dizziness at the same time and interacting with each other.

The interaction of all the body areas and organ systems that may cause dizziness makes the problem all the more complex.

Unfortunately, too much specialization in our current healthcare system causes many providers to have tunnel vision.

If multiple organ systems or different body parts are involved, what causes dizziness is often overlooked. The treatment is focused on reducing the symptoms.

Do Medications Resolve What Causes Dizziness?

The answer is sometimes. It depends.

Because dizziness is often caused by more than one factor, this means that if you went to the doctor and they gave you a pill for your dizziness, this pill may help get relief in the short term.

Medications are definitely indicated for symptom relief and daily comfort, but medications may not be the right long term treatment plan for you. This is because medications usually mask symptoms instead of resolving the cause of dizziness and vertigo.

If you have had a comprehensive exam by an expert in dizziness and they stated that your prognosis for recovery is poor, then the best plan for you may be to target symptom reduction with the specific pill that you were prescribed.

If not, then do not give up hope for a recovery!

Just to treat the symptom of dizziness with a pill as the first plan and only plan, without having a comprehensive Vestibular exam is recommended against in research studies. This is because of the many side effects of medications and the great success of vestibular rehabilitation in resolving what causes dizziness.

Vestibular Physical Therapy offers hope.

Usually, pills are not actually fixing the problem, but rather hiding the appearance of dizziness in your life.

People on medications that mask dizziness are at a higher risk of falling.

It is important to look deeper into the root cause(s) and the underlying factors that are contributing to the dizziness.

These pills may just mask the symptoms, so by looking for the root cause you may be able to potentially resolve the whole dizziness problem and get back to living your life to the fullest.

One study found that people with BPPV who fall are more likely to fracture a bone. This finding illustrates the importance of resolving the problem instead of masking the symptoms of dizziness.

Multiple Organ Systems may be involved with what Causes Dizziness

It is important that an assessment is done that looks at the different organ systems and body areas to determine what might be contributing to dizziness.

In our medical care today, we have divided up the organ systems and body parts into different specialties, which means that you may need to see more than one provider to get all of the factors related to your dizziness resolved.

Doctor Shopping can cause Delays in Care

Sadly, this effort of “doctor shopping” may prolong dizziness and vertigo symptoms for months to years, and even lifelong.

In my specialty practice, I offer a comprehensive exam and treat the causes of dizziness that are within my scope of practice.

Then I quarterback my patients to other specialty providers so they can get, hopefully, a complete recovery.

Every situation is different, so a comprehensive exam by a Vestibular expert is a valuable step to direct the care.