Ever wonder what causes dizziness? It can be incredibly debilitating and ruin a fun road trip, cruise, or bus tour, not to mention causing missed days at work, inability to drive and so on. The following is a simplistic everyday approach to understanding what causes simple benign vertigo and what you can do for relief.
You can think of the brain as a central processing center of all the information that is sent to it from the body. For instance, you touch something hot, a sensor in your hand sends a signal to your brain, you realize it hurts and instantly draw your hand back in pain. The interesting thing is that the original signal sent, is not pain. It isn’t pain until your brain processes the signal and you realize that particular sensory signal hurts!
So with dizziness and vertigo, millions of sensors in your body and head, in conjunction with your eyes and ears, constantly send your brain information about falling, spatial positioning, acceleration, and so on. One of these sensors in particular is found in the ear, and is responsible for sensing acceleration and deceleration. Now, if this sensors becomes irritated or simply hypersensitive, it can tell your brain, “Your falling!”. You brain then looks to the other sensors, such as the eyes, and if the eyes don’t agree, it doesn’t compute, and then you feel dizzy!! (no emails from ENT docs, neurologists or physiologists please! I’m just trying to keep it simple!)
Treatment and Expectations:
Try to find an area with least movement, such as the center of the boat or plane
Try to breath cool, fresh air. Many odors will make the situation worse.
Over-the-counter medications such as Dramamine or Bonine can be very effective for short trips or when symptoms occur intermittently. These medicines can make you drowsy however.
For longer trips, ask your doctor to prescribe medication called Transderm-Scop (scopalimine transdermal patch) comes in the form of a patch can be worn behind the ear. You place them discreetly behind the ear and they work for about 3 days, per patch.
Try not to drink alcohol at least one full day before traveling (at least don’t totally tie one on!)
Plan it out, be well rested.
If a person gets car sick easily, consider allowing them to drive! It works! It’s easier to prevent the onset of motion sickness, than to make it go away after it hits you.
For an effective cure of vertigo, which is described step-by-step, click here.