What is Vertigo, or Vertigo Disease?
Vertigo is an abnormal sensation that causes you to feel as though you, or your environment, is moving or spinning. It can be one of the more unpleasant symptoms of Meniere’s disease because of the other physical effects that is creates, such as nausea, vomiting or sweating.
It is a feeling that shows up when the balance nerve is “impacted’ or alerted to a problem. People describe dizziness and vertigo as two totally different sensations.
Whereas dizziness is a sensation that seems to come from the inside of you, vertigo seems to “come” from an external source or force. There is an actual physical sensation of you “moving or spinning”. People feel the car they are driving or riding in, is rotating wildly or spinning around them.
Of course, they have no way to stop that. Dizziness is more of an internal feeling that you can’t get away from the spinning inside of your head. These distinctions are noted by your doctor and are valuable to remember.
Vertigo is a very difficult condition to live with
Vertigo often forces the sufferer to lie down. If they can’t get to a bed in time they may have to crawl along the floor or even up the stairs. Sometimes the attack is so powerful that the person has a drop attack and falls to the ground “like a bag of sand”. These attacks can be accompanied by severe nausea, vomiting, and sweating as well as vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss.
Vertigo attacks can come in varying intensities and durations, and they can last for a few minutes or for several hours. Some people may experience a sudden onset of an attack that can last for hours. Others have brief or even momentary periods of vertigo.
An attack of vertigo might come a few times a week, or a month. Some suffer once or twice a year. Some are totally unable to move. Someone may only have a slight vertigo or temporarily loss of balance. Still others feel unsteady all day long for long periods. For most people the immediate outcome of any of these episodes is total exhaustion and the need to sleep for hours.
Vertigo of any type occurs when there is a problem in the vestibular labyrinth (semicircular canals), the portion of the inner ear that controls balance. This causes the loss or a change of your balance and it is this sudden loss of balance, which often forces the person to fall to the ground. Often it is a sensation of being knocked around, especially the head.
Vertigo attacks are unpredictable and the attacks can be very debilitating.
Many injuries occur because the people have no warning of an attack so they cannot protect themselves or break their fall. They are often seen as staggering. If someone is driving, their head might be suddenly flung to the side or shaken, ending up with the person being completely disorientated.
Because of this unpredictability, it is impossible to plan ahead for anything. There will be no warning when an attack might occur. It could be in the grocery store with its bright lights and long aisles. Or it could be on the road with the scenery rushing by.
We have heard many instances of people being “knocked down” in a doctor’s office, in emergency departments, or being forced to lie down in grocery stores. Vertigo attacks can happen anywhere.
How can you get some answers about what is causing this?
Vertigo is challenging for the sufferer and the family. It is important to try and find the cause in spite of the frequent and really sad prognosis of “there is no cure: you have to live with this”. Everything has a cause: it may be very well hidden, but it has to be “there”.
You would certainly have gone to your doctor already with your Meniere’s disease symptoms. However, you also need to do your own searching as well. If you know that nothing happens without a cause, then you need to look for the cause.
The cause always “happens” before a symptom shows up, or a vertigo attack happens. So it would make sense to really go over what you did during the previous 24 hours. You need to try to eliminate any other possible problems by looking at what you ate, how well you slept, how much stress you may have been under.
Unfortunately you still need to do the scans and other tests as well, but this can help the doctors in narrowing down what may be the cause of your symptoms and attacks.
- If you would like a copy of our Meniere’s Disease Study Guide, please click here. This guide is a step by step journey exploring your symptoms and what may be causing them.
- If you would like more information on the system that David, and numerous others, have used, please click here; What Finally Worked.
- If you have any health questions or concerns, please feel free to Contact Us and we will be happy to share our knowledge and ideas with you.
Karin Henderson, Retired Nurse
(604) 463-8666 – Pacific Standard Time