About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffDizziness can usually be more specifically described as one of the following sensations:
- Vertigo — the false sense of motion or spinning
- Lightheadedness or the feeling of near fainting (presyncope)
- Loss of balance (disequilibrium)
- Other sensations such as floating, swimming or heavy-headedness
A number of underlying health conditions can cause these problems. Some of these conditions disrupt or confuse the signals your brain receives from one or more of your sensory systems, including your:
- Eyes, which help you determine where your body is in space and how it's moving
- Sensory nerves, which send messages to your brain about body movements and positions
- Inner ear, which houses sensors that help detect gravity and back-and-forth motion
When to see a doctor
See your doctor if you experience any unexplained, recurrent or severe dizziness.
Call 911 or go to the emergency room if you experience dizziness or vertigo along with any of the following:
- Significant head injury
- A new, different or severe headache
- A fever higher than 101 F (38.3 C)
- A very stiff neck
- Blurred vision
- Sudden hearing loss
- Speech impairment
- Leg or arm weakness
- Loss of consciousness
- Falling or difficulty walking
- Chest pain or rapid or slow heart rate
- Kerber KA, et al. Dizziness, vertigo, and hearing loss. In: Bradley WG. Neurology in Clinical Practice. 5th ed. Burlington, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-7506-7525-3..50021-2--cesec5&uniq=201760123&isbn=978-0-7506-7525-3&sid=1000299571#lpState=open&lpTab=contentsTab&content=4-u1.0-B978-0-7506-7525-3..50021-2%3Bfrom%3Dtoc%3Btype%3DbookPage%3Bisbn%3D978-0-7506-7525-3. Accessed May 19, 2010.
- Tusa RJ. Dizziness. Medical Clinics of North America. 2009;93:263.
- Branch WT. Approach to the patient with dizziness. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 19, 2010.
- Dizziness. In: Duthie EH, et al. Practice of Geriatrics. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/201760123-5/1000319689/1532/147.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2261-9..50021-5--cesec23_308. Accessed May 19, 2010.
- Falls and fractures. National Institute on Aging. http://www.nia.nih.gov/HealthInformation/Publications/falls.htm. Accessed May 19, 2010.
- Barton J. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 19, 2010.
- Eggers SD (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. June 16, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on