Causes of Dizziness

DEFINITION
* Headache / dizziness can result from disorders that affect any body part that affects the balance (such as the inner ear and the eye) or from certain drugs.
* A description of the problem by the patient and results on physical examination can guess the cause, which may require additional tests.
* Treatment depends on the cause and may include medication to relieve the symptoms that accompany it.

Dizziness / headache were approximately 5 to 6% of visits to the doctor. It can occur at any age but becomes more common as people age. It affects about 40% of people older than 40 years sometimes. At any age, dizziness can cause problems, particularly when doing calculations or hazardous tasks, such as driving or operating heavy machinery. People who experience persistent dizziness or associated with daily activities should visit the doctor.

Doctors usually classify dizziness as:
* Dizziness or lightheadedness.
* Loss of balance.
* Vertigo.
* Mixed type above.
* Not the type above.

Dizziness may be intermittent or chronic. Dizziness considered chronic if it lasts more than a month. Chronic Dizziness is more common in older people. Chronic dizziness is often difficult to be grouped because they often involve more than one reason, and because it looks different at different times-for example, such as mild headaches such a time and then vertigo.

CAUSE
Although the possibility of disruptive dizziness and even not able to make, only about 5% of cases resulting from a serious disorder. Dizziness has many causes because many body parts work together to maintain balance. They include the inner ear, the eye (which provides a visual cue is needed to maintain balance), muscles and joints, brain (especially the brain stem and cerebellum), and the nerves that connect all parts.

Each type of the typical causes of dizziness tend to experience.For example, dizziness and mild headaches can occur from a sudden fall in blood pressure or other disorders resulting from the blood supply to the brain that is not fulfilled. In this disorder, the heart may not pump enough into the brain, or possibilities of the arteries to the brain is blocked or narrowed.

Loss of balance can result from visual impairment due to visual cues the body depends on to maintain balance. Loss of balance may also be due to musculoskeletal disorders, which causes muscle weakness and thus associated with sulvant and sedatives) and disorders of the inner ear. Other causes include the use of certain drugs (such as anticonvulsants and sedatives) and disorders of the ear.

Diagnosis
Before dizziness can be treated, doctors must determine the cause and origin. Doctors ask the person to explain in detail the sensations felt: whether feelings during these events were dizziness, lightheadedness, loss of balance, rotating or moving itself or its surroundings (vertigo), or other flavors. The person is asked when the dizziness began, how long it has lasted, what triggered it or eliminate it, and what other symptoms-headache, deafness, noises in the ears (tinnitus), impaired vision, weakness, or difficulty walking, has been there. Some details to help pinpoint naturally in dizziness and can give estimates of the causes.

One of the goals of a physician when performing a physical examination is to reproduce the (cause) of these symptoms.Decrease in blood pressure upon standing (orthostatic hypotension) is one of the most common causes of headache / dizziness. Therefore, doctors try to cause a decrease in blood pressure by changing the position of the person and see if any of these symptoms occur when the blood pressure changed.Doctors measure blood pressure and pulse when the person has been lying down for 5 to 10 minutes, then after sitting, and again after standing. Bedside table that enables doctors to perform more thorough tests. Changes in blood pressure may be caused by dehydration, so the doctor sees signs of dehydration and order laboratory tests.

The person may be asked to perform Valsalva movements (strong exhale with your mouth closed as if the same pains when bowel movements). Some of the slow movement of the heart rate temporarily, which can produce dizziness. Electrocardiography (ECG), Holter monitoring for heart rhythm abnormalities, echocardiography, and exercise stress test can also be done to examine the function of the heart.

Some tests can be used to assess balance and gait, such as the Romberg test. Other balance tests, the person who walked the straight line with one foot on the other belkang.

Vision tests performed, and the eyes examined for the possibility of abnormal movements (such as nystagmus). If doctors suspect vertigo, they do special tests to induce symptoms. In addition, hearing tests can be used to detect inner ear disorder that affects both balance and hearing.

Additional diagnostic procedures may include computed tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in the head. This procedure is usually very helpful if doctors suspect that the blood supply to the brain is inadequate and cause symptoms such as stroke. In addition, CT angiography, magnetic resonance angiographyv (MRA), or cerebral angiography (also called a catheter angiography because of a catheter inserted into the artery) can show if the arteries to the brain are narrowed or blocked. CT angiography and MRA are not painful and is usually preferred over cerebral angiography.

Other diagnostic run if it does not appear or is not real cause of dizziness is found, the doctor may ask about the possible causes of psychology. Several tests can help doctors identify depression, somatization disorder, and other psychological problems that can affect that person to feel dizzy or does not blend with the world. If no cause is identified, the doctor examines the person's birthday in stages.

TREATMENT
Specific treatment depends on the cause identified. Getting enough fluids often improve low blood pressure resulting from dehydration arthostatic. Drugs (such as the mineralocorticoid, and midodrine) may be needed for people with hypotension arthostatic caused autonomic nervous system dysfunction. If the cause of dizziness is a drug, the drug is stopped or the dose reduced. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) can often be alleviated by turning the head movements (Epley movement) performed in the doctor's office. If doctors suspect symptoms such as stroke, then treated the risk factors, several antiplatelet drugs are given and the possibility of a bypass or a stent put in blocked artery.

Regardless of whether a cause is identified, drugs may be given to reduce the accompanying symptoms (nausea) or to prevent blood pressure drop