Dizziness and frequently asked questions

The article is written by Doctor of Department of Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Central Park International General Hospital

Dizziness is a very common condition in many people, especially those in adulthood. Dizziness is sometimes just a symptom of stress, fatigue or environmental influences. However, there are also cases where dizziness is a manifestation of disease. Therefore, you should not be subjective and need to find the cause for treatment.

In medicine, vertigo is defined as the illusion of movement of the body or of the surrounding environment. During vertigo, people often feel that the house, everything around them spins, turns upside down, or flips over. Sometimes people feel their body drifting forward or falling down which is not the feeling that everything is spinning. The dizziness is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting, making people feel very uncomfortable and tired.
Thus, the key to realizing true vertigo is the sensation of the surroundings (houses, objects around, ...) or yourself moving, while in reality then everything doesn't move.

In our body there is a system called vestibular system. This system is located in the inner part of the ear and transmits signals to the brain via the vestibular cochlear nerve (the VIII nerve). The vestibular system helps us to perceive the head position, movement, and direction of the body in space, thereby helping to maintain balance and posture of the body and of the head during movement or when standing still. . Normally, when our head or body moves, the vestibular system generates signals that are transmitted into the brain, helping our brain to recognize these movements and create appropriate reflexes accordingly. response to maintain balance and position of the head and body. In cases where the vestibular system is compromised, these signals are either enhanced (automatically generated when there is no movement or generate stronger signals when there is slight movement) or disproportionately weakened. with head and body movements. This causes the brain to receive motion information that is out of sync with reality, leading to feelings of dizziness and inappropriate reactions (eg, the patient sees the house upside down and reflexively grabs objects). use around to keep balance)

Dizziness is often confused with a feeling of lightheadedness, dizziness, lightheadedness, or darkening of the eyes. The sensations are feelings of unsteadiness, unsteadiness, seeing things blurry or blurry, or darkening of the eyes. The causes of these sensations are usually low blood pressure, low blood sugar, insomnia, anxiety, fatigue, drug side effects or diseases of the cerebellar system and depth sensation. While the cause of dizziness is due to pathologies of the vestibular system.

We need to distinguish 2 separate issues:
Is the vertigo symptom itself dangerous? Dizziness is the illusion of movement of oneself or the surrounding environment, thereby causing reflexes to maintain incorrect posture and loss of balance. Therefore, the vertigo symptom itself is only uncomfortable and tiring, not deadly. However, the result of this feeling is loss of balance, which leads to falls and can be dangerous from falls with traumatic brain injury or broken bones. In short, vertigo itself is uncomfortable, which can be dangerous from a fall. In addition, dizziness is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting, if vomiting a lot, can lead to stomach bleeding, loss of water and electrolytes in the body. Is the cause of dizziness dangerous? There are many causes of vestibular system damage and dizziness. There are benign and not dangerous causes (vestibular neuritis, paroxysmal positional vertigo, chronic vestibular disease,...), but there are also dangerous causes (brain tumor, stroke, etc.) ...). In short, depending on what the cause of dizziness is, it will help us know if it is dangerous or not. Therefore, for a person with vertigo, the most important thing is to see a doctor to find out the cause of the dizziness, instead of just taking medicine to relieve the symptoms of dizziness. When finding the specific cause, the doctor will advise on a good treatment to stop the dizziness and not affect the patient's health.

As mentioned above, when having dizziness, the patient needs to see a doctor to find out the cause and treat it. However, how to recognize a case of dizziness as dangerous and to go to the hospital right away? For example: Dizziness due to stroke, having to go to the hospital right in the golden hour for emergency treatment, the ability to recover is good. The following signs warn of dangerous dizziness:
Dizziness occurs for the first time or changes in nature from the previous one. Dizziness accompanied by other symptoms: weakness, slurred speech, double vision, loss of half sensation,... Severe, prolonged or vomiting dizziness, making the patient very tired and affecting the patient. to daily activities. Dizziness occurs in the elderly with many other chronic diseases: hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease,... In particular, if the above signs occur suddenly, it is suggestive of acute stroke and must go to the hospital immediately, the sooner the better.

Treatment of dizziness consists of 3 parts:
Medicines: Using drugs that inhibit the vestibular system, antiemetic drugs to reduce symptoms of dizziness, vomiting, help the patient feel better and more comfortable. These drugs include acetylleucin, betahistine, dimenhydrinate, metoclopramide, domperidone, etc. These drugs must be prescribed by a doctor, because of possible side effects and do not last long. Vestibular Rehabilitation Exercise: Vestibular rehabilitation exercises help improve symptoms and maintain stability, further supporting drug therapy and helping to reduce drug dependence. Treatment of the cause: This is the main treatment to help stabilize or cure the disease, to address potentially life-threatening causes (brain tumor, stroke,...). Depending on the cause, the doctor will apply different treatment methods for each disease.

To prevent recurrent dizziness, patients need to follow the treatment regimen and instructions of the doctor.
Actively maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle. Limit the body to fall into a state of stress, fatigue, do not use alcohol and alcohol. For the elderly or people with underlying medical conditions, it is necessary to perform periodic health checks to make appropriate adjustments.
Department of Examination and Internal Medicine - Vinmec International General Hospital has high expertise in the examination and treatment of diseases related to the central nervous system (skull, meninges, brain, cerebral blood vessels, nerves in the skull, pituitary gland, spine, discs, spinal cord) and peripheral nervous system (nerves and ganglia outside the brain and spinal cord).
In order to best serve the examination and treatment, the hospital has actively equipped with a system of modern, high-quality facilities and a team of doctors with good expertise in examination and treatment for patients. many patient cases.
Thanks to quality and good medical services, Vinmec has now achieved many achievements and is trusted by professionals and customers as a reliable healthcare address.