What makes you giddy

Get emergency medical care if you experience new, severe dizziness or vertigo along with any of the following:. Loop-shaped canals in your inner ear contain fluid and fine, hairlike sensors that help you keep your balance.

At the base of the canals are the utricle and saccule, each containing a patch of sensory hair cells. Within these cells are tiny particles otoconia that help monitor the position of your head in relation to gravity and linear motion, such as going up and down in an elevator or moving forward and backward in a car. Dizziness has many possible causes, including inner ear disturbance, motion sickness and medication effects.

Sometimes it's caused by an underlying health condition, such as poor circulation, infection or injury. The way dizziness makes you feel and your triggers provide clues for possible causes.

How long the dizziness lasts and any other symptoms you have also help pinpoint the cause. Your sense of balance depends on the combined input from the various parts of your sensory system. These include your:. Vertigo is the false sense that your surroundings are spinning or moving. With inner ear disorders, your brain receives signals from the inner ear that aren't consistent with what your eyes and sensory nerves are receiving. Vertigo is what results as your brain works to sort out the confusion.

You may feel dizzy, faint or off balance if your heart isn't pumping enough blood to your brain. Causes include:. Dizziness can increase your risk of falling and injuring yourself. Experiencing dizziness while driving a car or operating heavy machinery can increase the likelihood of an accident. You may also experience long-term consequences if an existing health condition that may be causing your dizziness goes untreated.

Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission. This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Dizziness is a term used to describe a range of sensations, such as feeling faint, woozy, weak or unsteady.

For more information about falls, see the topic Preventing Falls. To prepare for your appointment, see the topic Making the Most of Your Appointment. You can help your doctor diagnose and treat your condition by being prepared to answer the following questions:. Before seeing your doctor, it may be helpful to keep track of your symptoms. Use the questions above as a guide for what to include in your diary of symptoms. Blahd Jr. Author: Healthwise Staff.

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Topic Overview Dizziness is a word that is often used to describe two different feelings. Light-headedness is a feeling that you are about to faint or "pass out. Light-headedness often goes away or improves when you lie down. If light-headedness gets worse, it can lead to a feeling of almost fainting or a fainting spell syncope. You may sometimes feel nauseated or vomit when you are light-headed. Vertigo is a feeling that you or your surroundings are moving when there is no actual movement.

You may feel as though you are off balance, spinning, whirling, falling, or tilting. When you have severe vertigo , you may feel very nauseated or vomit. You may have trouble walking or standing, and you may lose your balance and fall.

Light-headedness It is common to feel light-headed from time to time. Light-headedness has many causes, including: Allergies. Illnesses such as the influenza flu or colds. Home treatment of your flu and cold symptoms usually will relieve light-headedness.

Vomiting, diarrhea, fevers, and other illnesses that cause dehydration. Very deep or rapid breathing hyperventilation. Anxiety and stress. The use of tobacco, alcohol, or illegal drugs. Vertigo Vertigo occurs when there is conflict between the signals sent to the brain by various balance- and position-sensing systems of the body. Vision gives you information about your position and motion in relationship to the rest of the world.

This is an important part of the balance mechanism and often overrides information from the other balance-sensing systems. Sensory nerves in your joints allow your brain to keep track of the position of your legs, arms, and torso. Your body is then automatically able to make tiny changes in posture that help you maintain your balance proprioception.

Skin pressure sensation gives you information about your body's position and motion in relationship to gravity. A portion of the inner ear, called the labyrinth, which includes the semicircular canals, contains specialized cells that detect motion and changes in position. Injury to or diseases of the inner ear can send false signals to the brain indicating that the balance mechanism of the inner ear labyrinth detects motion. If these false signals conflict with signals from the other balance and positioning centres of the body, vertigo may occur.

Injury to the ear or head. Migraine headaches , which are painful, debilitating headaches that often occur with vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light, noise, and smell. Decreased blood flow through the arteries that supply blood to the base of the brain vertebrobasilar insufficiency. Less common causes of vertigo include: A non-cancerous growth in the space behind the eardrum cholesteatoma. Brain tumours and cancer that has travelled from another part of the body metastatic. These problems may develop from: Taking too much of a medicine over medicating.

Alcohol and medicine interactions. This is a problem, especially for older adults, who may take many medicines at the same time. Misusing a medicine or alcohol use disorder. Drug intoxication or the effects of withdrawal. Check Your Symptoms Is dizziness your main problem?

How old are you? Are you male or female? Why do we ask this question? The medical assessment of symptoms is based on the body parts you have. If you are transgender or non-binary, choose the sex that matches the body parts such as ovaries, testes, prostate, breasts, penis, or vagina you now have in the area where you are having symptoms.

If you have some organs of both sexes, you may need to go through this triage tool twice once as "male" and once as "female". This will make sure that the tool asks the right questions for you. Have you had a head injury? Could you be having symptoms of a heart attack? If you're having a heart attack, there are several areas where you may feel pain or other symptoms. Do you have symptoms of shock?

Did you pass out completely lose consciousness? If you are answering for someone else: Is the person unconscious now? Are you back to your normal level of alertness? After passing out, it's normal to feel a little confused, weak, or light-headed when you first wake up or come to. But unless something else is wrong, these symptoms should pass pretty quickly and you should soon feel about as awake and alert as you normally do. Did the loss of consciousness occur during the past 24 hours? Have you had any new neurological symptoms other than dizziness?

Do you have these symptoms right now? Is the dizziness severe? Severe means that you are so dizzy that you need help to stand or walk.

Have you noticed any irregular heartbeats or changes in your heart rate? Do you have symptoms of a serious illness? Do you have vertigo? Have you had sudden, severe hearing loss? Is vertigo a new problem? Are your symptoms getting worse? Did the symptoms start after a recent injury? Have you recently had moments when you felt like you were going to faint? Have you felt faint or light-headed for more than 24 hours?

Are you nauseated or vomiting? Nauseated means you feel sick to your stomach, like you are going to vomit. Are you nauseated a lot of the time or vomiting repeatedly? Do you think that a medicine could be causing the dizziness? Common causes of dizziness include a migraine, medications, and alcohol. It can also be caused by a problem in the inner ear, where balance is regulated. Dizziness is often a result of vertigo as well.

The most common cause of vertigo and vertigo-related dizziness is benign positional vertigo BPV. This causes short-term dizziness when someone changes positions quickly, such as sitting up in bed after lying down. This causes fluid to build up in the ear with associated ear fullness, hearing loss, and tinnitus.

Another possible cause for dizziness and vertigo is an acoustic neuroma. This is a noncancerous tumor that forms on the nerve that connects the inner ear to the brain. In rare cases, dizziness could be caused by multiple sclerosis , a stroke, a malignant tumor, or another brain disorder.

Sometimes, dizziness is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, or fainting. Seek emergency medical help if you have these symptoms for extended periods. You should call your doctor if you continue to have repeated bouts of dizziness. You should also notify your doctor immediately if you experience sudden dizziness along with:. Your doctor can narrow down the cause of dizziness and any other symptoms by performing a physical examination.

Your doctor may also check your eyes and ears, do a neurological physical exam, observe your posture, and perform tests to check balance.

Treatment for dizziness focuses on the underlying cause. In most cases, home remedies and medical treatments can control the cause of dizziness. For example:. Most cases of dizziness clear up on their own once the underlying cause is treated. In rare cases, dizziness can be a sign of a more serious health problem.

Dizziness may result in complications when it causes fainting or a loss of balance. This can be especially dangerous when a person is driving or operating heavy machinery. Use caution if you feel an episode of dizziness coming on. If you become dizzy, stop driving immediately or find a safe place to steady yourself until it passes.