Vertigo is like the Tilt-A-Whrl ride at the amusement park. Your environment is spinning around and around and up and down at the same time. But you can’t choose to get on the ride or get off. It’s totally out of control.

Last week I ended up in the Emergency Room after I woke up at 3 am with the room spinning violently. nausea, and sweating. By morning I still couldn’t walk or drink or eat without vomiting, so Larry took me to the Emergency Room.

After a day of tests the doctors said I was suffering from vertigo. And because I knew nothing about vertigo, I want to share with you what I’ve learned.

First, there are apparently different types of “dizzy.” When I said, “I’m dizzy,” the doctor asked. “Are you lightheaded or is the room spinning?” Ah, that was very clear. I had experienced lightheadedness in the past, which is a feeling you are about to faint when you stand up too quickly or take too many deep breaths. This was different. I was experiencing “room spinning.” If you’ve never experienced this, you will recognize it if you ever do, now that you know it’s a condition.

Vertigo is a feeling of motion when there is no motion. It’s like that amusement park ride called Tilt-A-Whirl where the platform goes around but it also tilts. It’s violent. You can’t stand up. It’s very much like being in a little boat in stormy seas. Everything is moving and you can’t control it. You just hold on.

CAUSES OF VERTIGO

Vertigo can be the result of a number of causes. It’s not a disease, it’s the result of a condition.

When I came to the Emergency Room the first thing they did was hook me up to an IV to start hydrating my body. Because “very common cause of vertigo” is dehydration. And, in fact, my body was dehydrated. Over the course of the day they gave me five bags of saline. [Just as an aside, when I woke up with the room spinning I grabbed Larry, who was lying next to me, screamed “the room is spinning” and then immediately asked repeatedly for water until he brought it to me.]

But it can also be caused by alcohol, epilepsy, heat stroke, hypothermia, insulin, shortness of breath kidney failure, trauma, infection, stroke or poisoning.

Clearly the doctors could see I had vertigo, but they didn’t know the cause. It could be anything from dehydration to kidney failure.

By the end of the day they had given me emergency medications to stop the dizziness, which I was grateful to have, but that’s all. They gave me a prescription for a drug to stop the dizziness, but didn’t tell me anything about how to prevent dizziness in the first place. So I had to do my own research.

By this time I had been told that a common cause of vertigo is a disturbance in the vestibular system of the inner ear. Herein lies the body’s balance system that tells you which way is down and senses the position of your head. It is filled with little crystals. During the course of life, the little crystals can move out of their location and then no longer function to balance. This can be caused by many factors.

So I suspected that dehydration may have triggered the attack, but it seemed like there were other factors.

VERTIGO AND TOXIC CHEMICALS

First I wanted to know if vertigo could be the result of by toxic chemical exposure (of course). So I looked that up. And actually there are associations between vertigo and industrial chemicals. There is even a word—ototoxic—that refer to chemicals that affect functions that belong to the ear, including hearing and vertigo. An audiologist recommends people should protect themselves from hydrocarbon, asphyxiant and heavy metal exposure.

• Hydrocarbons are basically any substances made from petroleum, particularly those that are volatile, such as paint fumes, synthetic fragrance, cleaning products, and the like
• asphyxiants are a gas or vapor that can cause unconsciousness or death by suffocation due to lack of oxygen. Carbon monoxide, methane and propane are all iasphyxiants.
• Heavy metals include lead, arsenic, mercury, chromium, and others.

So if you are creating a toxic-free home, you are also helping to prevent vertigo, or improve your vertigo if you have it.

MY TYPE OF VERTIGO AND WHAT I’M DOING TO END IT

After the doctors ruled out that my vertigo was not from a brain tumor, kidney failure or many of the other possible causes, I began to observe what made the spinning start and stop.

Once my body became more hydrated, the spinning lessened enough that I could observe the spinning stopped when I was laying down and started again when I sat up or stood up. It would also start when I would turn my head from side to side while lying down. And so I began to see that my vertigo was related to position, so it made sense that the problem was those little particles in my inner ear being out of place.

There seem to be standard chiropractic adjustments that can be done, but one of my readers sent me an article and video about a simple procedure I can do at home. It was developed by a ear, nose and throat doctor. She said none of her patients she has given it to ever came back for further treatment.

I have been doing this once a day almost daily for almost a week and every day I have less vertigo. As I write this, I have no attention on vertigo as I go about my day. Last night it was only slight as I got out of bed. I’m going to continue to do this procedure every night until I no longer have any vertigo.

CBS DENVER: Colorado Doctor Finds Way To Treat Common Vertigo

This video also has a really good explanation of what is going on with the particles in the inner ear that are causing vertigo.

I’ve concluded that there are natural ways to control vertigo and possibly even eliminate it altogether. Now I don’t have to be concerned about it and can get on with life.

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