Remember when you were a kid, how fun it was to run in circles until you got dizzy? Well, as it turns out, dizziness isn’t nearly so fun when you’re an adult — especially when it affects your other activities.
The good news is, dizziness is usually very treatable. The key is to seek treatment early on, before your symptoms really interfere with your life and your health.
With offices in Salt Lake City, Murray, Draper, Tooele, and West Jordan, Utah, ENT Specialists is a leading provider of treatments aimed at relieving dizziness and vertigo using medical treatment and lifestyle changes. Here are five things you can try to reduce your dizziness symptoms.
Dizziness is a common sign of dehydration. When you’re dehydrated, your blood pressure drops, and that drop is what can lead to sensations of dizziness or vertigo.
Plus, being dehydrated can mess up your electrolyte levels, leading to imbalances that can make you feel dizzy. Carrying a water bottle and sipping throughout the day may help.
Alcohol and caffeine can both make dizziness worse. That’s because these substances wind up constricting your blood vessels, interfering with normal circulation — especially to your brain.
When circulation to your brain decreases even a little bit, the amount of oxygen your brain receives also decreases. In turn, that can lead to dizziness and alterations in perception that can make your symptoms feel worse.
Finally, caffeine and alcohol can lead to dehydration — and as we saw above, that’s another possible cause of dizziness.
Many dizziness issues involve your inner ear, which serves as a kind of “balance center” for your body. When you move rapidly, this system can be disrupted, resulting in feelings of dizziness and, sometimes, vertigo.
Many people feel dizzy when they rapidly move from a sitting to a standing position, when they sit up from lying down, or when they move their head rapidly. Try to use slow movements to see if that helps with your symptoms.
Stress seems to affect just about everyone these days, but some people are more prone to the side effects of stress, which can include dizziness. When you’re stressed, your brain secretes chemicals that increase your heart and breathing rates and constrict your blood vessels. All these effects can lead to dizziness.
If you can, try to work some simple stress-busting routines into your schedule every day. “Square breathing” is an easy technique you can practice pretty much anywhere — even while you’re stuck in traffic. Journaling, meditation, yoga, exercise, and even a little alone time can all help, too.
While there are medications to help control dizziness, other medications can cause dizzy symptoms or increase the risk that you’ll experience them. During your office visit, be sure to discuss all the medications you’re taking,as well as any over-the-counter medicines and supplements. Sometimes, it’s not a single medicine that causes dizziness, but a combination of two or more products.
Above all, do not stop taking any medication without talking to your doctor. If a medication is contributing to dizzy symptoms, sometimes all that’s needed is a dose adjustment or a change to another brand.
Dizziness is more than an annoyance; it can be a sign of a more serious underlying medical problem. To find out what’s causing your dizziness — and how we can help you relieve it — book an appointment online or over the phone with the team at ENT Specialists today.
