Three semicircular canals and two so-called macula organs form the organ of balance in both inner ears of the human body. There is also a balance area in the brain, the vestibular nuclei. This is also where information from the eyes, the spinal cord and the cerebellum arrives. The brain can determine our position in space from these messages. We can stand, walk and run and are able to turn and rotate our head and body in space at will.
The different types of vertigo are divided into
- Rotational vertigo: You or the world around you seem to be moving in a circular motion.
- Swaying vertigo: The ground on which you are standing seems to tilt alternately to the right and left.
- Lift vertigo: The surroundings seem to move up and down.
- Falling vertigo: You have the feeling of falling at any time.
- Dizziness dizziness: This staggering feeling often lasts longer.
- Persistent or chronic vertigo: Your sense of balance is disturbed for a long time or forever.
There are also certain situations that trigger dizziness:
- Vertigo at heights: you get scared at higher altitudes.
- Kinetosis: With motion sickness, you experience severe nausea in addition to dizziness, for example.
In these two cases, the brain cannot process the stimuli as quickly and signals danger as a precaution. However, these balance disorders are harmless, as is the feeling of dizziness after standing up quickly from a squatting position, after spinning on a merry-go-round or after quick body turns such as when dancing.
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There are many different causes of balance disorders:
- You feel dizzy (spinning vertigo) when you get up too quickly in the morning. This is usually caused by low blood pressure.
- Rotational vertigo as positional vertigo: ear stones become loose and change their position in the ear. The dizzy spells occur when you move your head and/or torso.
- The vestibular nerve has become inflamed. This is caused by herpes viruses.
- Bilateral vestibulopathy: The organ of balance of both inner ears is disturbed. Walking is difficult, and it is particularly bad in the dark. You may experience vertigo and/or dizziness. The cause of this disease is unknown.
- Meniere's disease: The sudden attack of vertigo can be accompanied by ringing in the ears and hearing loss. Additional fluid accumulates in the inner ear - researchers do not yet know why this happens.
- Labyrinthitis: The inner ear is severely inflamed.
- In classic middle ear inflammation , dizziness is an alarm sign.
- Vestibular or vertigo migraine: In addition to vertigo, it often shows other signs of migraine, but can also occur without headaches.
- Chronic dizziness is usually due to psychological causes. Alternatively, it can occur as a permanent condition after a stroke, for example.
- Dizziness can be caused by strabismus and other eye diseases .
- Calcified and altered blood vessels or a stroke are also possible causes of balance disorders.
Dizziness is always an alarm signal from the brain that something is literally out of balance. If you are ill, the dizziness occurs frequently or the cause is not clear, you should consult a doctor. Always state the symptoms as precisely as possible and also their chronological sequence, as there are always atypical symptoms in addition to clear cases. For example, dizziness and nausea or occasionally dizziness and headaches often occur together, but not necessarily. Furthermore
- Visual disturbances,
- hyper- or hypoglycaemia,
- blood pressure that is too high or too low,
- shortness of breath (including panic attacks),
- brief fainting and
- and pain.
Sometimes several symptoms occur together, then one after the other. The more your doctor knows, the better he can make a correct diagnosis.
First of all, your family doctor should be informed of the problem. If in doubt, he or she will refer you to various specialists, such as an ENT specialist, neurologist, ophthalmologist or internist. Some clinics have a dizziness outpatient clinic, which is the right place to go, especially in the evening or at weekends and in acute cases.
- Benign positional vertigo and bilateral internal organ dysfunction are significantly improved or eliminated by certain body and head rotations: for example, the ear stones fall back to their place of origin and are broken down there.
- Vertigo migraines and inflammation are mainly treated with medication. For example, cortisone is administered to combat the vertigo attacks caused by herpes viruses. However, the treatment takes some time. Systematic basic treatment is recommended for migraines. Meniere's disease is also treated with medication.
- On the whole, therapeutic exercises and medication are combined for many types of vertigo. Exercise is recommended for circulatory disorders, and medication is also given.
- In the case of dizzy spells and balance disorders whose cause is not so easy to determine, various preparations and exercise units must be tried over several weeks.
- Psychological dizziness, usually caused by anxiety (phobic dizziness), is best treated with confidential discussions and, if necessary, psychotherapy.
