Understanding Vertigo – Symptoms, Types, and Causes
Vertigo is more of a symptom of an underlying medical condition that causes dizziness and loss of balance. It makes you feel as if everything around you is spinning or you would feel like you are twirling. Vertigo is not exactly dizziness and they are two different things. Feeling dizziness is one of the many symptoms of vertigo. These symptoms may be severe at times and it will be so difficult for you to focus on daily activities or even the simplest of tasks like walking.
This symptom is caused by medical conditions that affect the inner ear mostly. Your inner ear is responsible for your understanding of balance and positional orientation therefore when there is a condition affecting your inner ear, you experience all sorts of symptoms such as vertigo, dizziness, loss of balance and or nausea.
Causes Of Vertigo
Causes of vertigo include problems with the inner ear or with the brain. The period of time that vertigo lasts depends on these causes but before learning more about the causes of vertigo, you need to know the types of vertigo to identify the causes for each type.
There are two types of vertigo:
- Peripheral vertigo is caused by a part of the inner ear and sometimes also due to a nerve that is in between the brainstem and inner ear which is known as the vestibular nerve. Some of these conditions are Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), Meniere’s disease, and vestibular neuritis.
- Central vertigo is caused by the brain. Mostly due to a problem at the brain stem or the cerebellum, the back part of the brain. These brain-related conditions include very rare types of strokes and seizures, multiple sclerosis, cancerous or noncancerous tumors, and migraines.
