What to Know About Vertigo

It is a symptom rather than a diagnosis. An episode may also cause imbalance, nausea, vomiting, jerky eye movements, or difficulty walking. The timing, triggers, hearing changes, headache, neurological symptoms, and medication history help a clinician work out the cause.

Brief spinning brought on by rolling in bed, looking upward, or turning the head is a typical presentation of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. Meniere's disease can present with repeated vertigo together with fluctuating hearing, ear pressure, or tinnitus. Migraine can present with vertigo before, during, after, or without a headache. Inner-ear inflammation may cause a more continuous episode, sometimes after an infection.

Feeling faint when standing is different from true vertigo and may point toward blood-pressure, hydration, heart-rhythm, or medication effects. Describing the sensation precisely helps prevent these experiences from being grouped together.

Sit or lie down as soon as spinning begins, keep your head movements slow, and use support when standing. Avoid driving, ladders, swimming alone, open flames, and machinery until the episode has passed and you can move safely. Sip fluids if you can keep them down, and reduce bright light or visual motion if either worsens nausea.

Arrange a clinical review when episodes recur, persist, disrupt walking, or come with hearing symptoms. Keep notes on onset, episode length, head-position triggers, headache, ear symptoms, recent infection, and new medicines. A repositioning manoeuvre can help positional vertigo, but it should match the affected balance canal and may be unsuitable for some neck or back problems.

Call an ambulance for sudden vertigo with facial droop, new arm or leg weakness or numbness, trouble speaking or swallowing, double vision, loss of coordination, inability to stand, fainting, a new severe headache, or severe neck pain. These neurological signs require urgent assessment even when spinning improves.

Seek urgent medical care as well for sudden hearing loss, ongoing vomiting with inability to drink, chest pain, breathing difficulty, a very high temperature, or vertigo after a significant head injury. Do not drive yourself while balance or vision is impaired.

Ask whether the examination suggests an inner-ear, migraine, medication, circulation, or neurological cause. Find out whether you need hearing assessment, positional testing, balance therapy, or imaging. Clarify whether a repositioning manoeuvre is appropriate, how to perform any home exercise correctly, how long to avoid driving or risky work, and what symptom change should prompt emergency care.