If you experience dizziness symptoms you’ve never had, it’s important to inform your family and friends about your current condition and calmly check the following symptoms to determine whether your condition is an emergency.
Dr. Jo So Young, a H Plus Yangji Hospital neurologist, advised on July 16, “If you suddenly experience severe headaches, do not take it lightly and neglect it. Suppose you have a history of smoking, severe obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, arrhythmia, cardiovascular disease, or cerebrovascular disease in your family. In that case, you should first distinguish whether it is a stroke or warning sign.”
Dr. Jo outlines several signs that may indicate a stroke: sudden severe headaches accompanied by vomiting, difficulty standing even with support from nearby furniture, seeing double or experiencing visual impairments, severe shaking or drooping of the eyes, numbness or sudden loss of strength in arms and legs, slurred speech or difficulty maintaining a conversation, and unclear consciousness. If you or someone else exhibits any of these symptoms, seeking medical attention is crucial.
However, even if you do not have these symptoms, do not take dizziness lightly and neglect it.
Vestibular migraine accounts for up to 30% of patients visiting dizziness centers, making it a common condition. If the focus is solely on headache and pain, diagnosis can be difficult. Dizziness that occurs with changes in posture can be mistaken for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), and it can also be accompanied by tinnitus, similar to Meniere’s disease.
Dizziness can occur after a concussion from an accident, and it usually improves within three months but can persist longer. Direct impacts can cause significant and minor damage to the brain, and psychological factors such as depression and anxiety are also added. Even if there is no brain damage, dizziness and headache can commonly occur as post-concussion symptoms due to damage to the peripheral vestibular organs inside the ear.
Dizziness is also associated with various degenerative diseases, such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease, which increase with age. Dizziness appears mixed with memory decline and gait/balance disorders. Motor degenerative diseases showing Parkinson’s symptoms often have balance disorders. Still, they frequently complain of faint dizziness, which is due to the progression of neurodegenerative changes in the autonomic nervous system.
Young people without other neurological symptoms often visit due to repeated fainting, requiring autonomic nervous system testing. The tests to evaluate autonomic function are varied, and some may lack clinical significance. Therefore, the physician’s ability to interpret these tests is crucial. Arrhythmias and heart failure can also cause repeated fainting, making collaboration with cardiology (circulatory medicine) essential for diagnosis and treatment outcomes.
Dr. Jo emphasized, “One out of four outpatients at the neurology department complain of dizziness. It is important to accurately diagnose and start treatment for various acute and chronic diseases hidden behind dizziness symptoms.”
