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Dizzy is still Vertigo

Discussion in 'Your Living Room' started by Pupper, Aug 19, 2017.

  1. Pupper

    Pupper Active Member

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    I remarked here recently, that I read from a reliable source that dizziness IS vertigo/spinning, but the vertigo is very minimal. I've since been trying to wrap my silver head around that notion. How can something cause a visual spinning sensation, yet not be notices as such by the subject? I've tried a few experiments to try and detect the spinning (that we supposedly can't detect) when we're dizzy.

    I think I've come up with a way. I've only tried it when I'm dizzy, so I don't know if it works when I'm not. (I should have waited to make this post but I'm impatient. I will update this post after I've compared the experiment results while in a non dizzy state.)

    Method:

    Sit erect and look at a distant object. Keep your eyes on the object as you tilt your head slightly back, putting a bit of strain on the back-of-the-neck muscles. Open your eyes as wide as you can and bug them out. Notice the object is now slightly vibrating. Vibrating, quickly shifting, i.e. spinning.

    This MAY BE a view into the otherwise undetected vertigo that supposedly IS the cause of our dizziness.

    I'd be interested to know if you experience the same thing or not.
     
  2. scott tom

    scott tom Active Member

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    There are different definitions, depending on the source. I personally distinguish between dizziness (world feels off), oscillopsia (slow oscillating world), and vertigo (rapid spinning). There are different causes of each, and it helps the neurotologist when you can differentiate between them. But everyone has their own definitions, so this is not universal.
     
  3. Pupper

    Pupper Active Member

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    MDIC: "Patients may experience mild rotational vertigo that they call "dizzies." They may consider this "dizziness" to be different from acute rotational vertigo, but it is actually low-level rotational vertigo."

    Just saying, that's quite a non-distinction. They're stating that the difference between dizziness and vertigo is a matter of degree, not of kind. Beyond semantics, I'd like to get to the heart of the physiological difference.
     
  4. Pupper

    Pupper Active Member

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    I'll do a bit a research, and also email MDIC for clarification on their statement.
     
  5. tdoak

    tdoak Member

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    I mentioned on here recently that when I start feeling lightheaded and dizzy, if I stare really heard to my left, somewhat straining my eyes things start to move (vertigo). But when I look everywhere else I experience no vertigo.
     
  6. scott tom

    scott tom Active Member

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    This argument has occurred on many forums for many decades. There is not one definition, as not everyone agrees on one definition. Often, you just have to describe the sensation rather than using terms, as different doctors have different definitions.
     
  7. June-

    June- Well-Known Member

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    I think there are two aspects of the arguement as i have heard it. One is appreciation or lack therof of the violent relentless vertigo episodes that afflict many with menieres and the minimizing that seems to happen when people who have not experienced it refer to it simply as dizziness. The other is as you say, more along the lines of what is going on in both cases.

    I have a third question while it is being discussed. What do you call it when the world,simply tilts to the right for a couple hours? I have never had vertigo (knock on wood) although i have had something like tulios, (nausea from sound). I do have hydrops which for a time was threatening to progress. I only have one balance nerve so no compensating when the other gets wonky. But i have never heard this tilting discussed.
     
  8. scott tom

    scott tom Active Member

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    June, I have the tilting thing, but it tilts up from me. That is, the long flat road ahead looks like it's going up at a 5-10 degree angle.
     
  9. Pupper

    Pupper Active Member

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    Right. I get it. Decades. Boredom. Different definitions. Zzzzzzzzz
     
  10. Melc

    Melc Member

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    Pupper, here is another point of view.

    https://leadingedgephysio.com/blog/are-dizziness-and-vertigo-the-same-thing/
     
  11. Pupper

    Pupper Active Member

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    Thanks Melc. I look forward to reading that! :)

    Scott Tom, sorry for being catty earlier. I'm just interested in differences, even subtle ones...especially subtle ones. My dad used to get irritated with me for reading the thesaurus for fun. I guess something triggered there for a sec. Sorry, take care :)
     
  12. June-

    June- Well-Known Member

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    Do you have a name for it or any other info?
     
  13. scott tom

    scott tom Active Member

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    Nope. No doctor can explain it either.
     
  14. Melc

    Melc Member

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    June,

    I'm not sure if this addresses the sensation of tilting that you describe. I haven't experienced that so I may not be understanding what you described.

    I was reading about utricular dysfunction and wondered if this is what you are experiencing. It references an acoustic neuroma.

    https://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/unilat/utricular.html
     
  15. June-

    June- Well-Known Member

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    Thanks, Melc. Several things in that writeup caught my attention. I will ask the dr to explain next time i am there, never thought about stroke ... i have had acoustic neuroma but i think that is all gon now?
     
  16. Jimmy Alvin

    Jimmy Alvin Member

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    I have dizzy "periods." I am actually not spinning all of the time, but it is intermittent and frequent and can last up to eight hours or more. Generally during these times I feel bad, disoriented, and light headed--sometimes nauseous.
     
  17. Coach Betz

    Coach Betz Member

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    This is also my biggest complaint. Almost constantly now for the last six months. My 'current' ENT (since none of them seem permanent) says there's nothing he can really do because it's not ROTATIONAL vertigo. I'm trying one more thing: a hearing aid in my affected ear. He says that for some people that alleviates the feeling of "pressure" and "uneasiness". I am currently on full strength AV (1000x3 a day) and JOH (but not full blown, mainly Lysine and extra vitamin supplements). I was the following AV schedule: 1 month 3000mg/day, 1 month 2000mg/day, then 1000mg/day. I felt better after the first month, but when I reduced to 1000mg/day the symptoms started to return. My GP doctor bumped me back to 3000/day (at my request) for as long as I want to be there. Sorry to rant.
     
  18. teesdale

    teesdale Active Member

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    Coach, good luck with the hearing aid. Please let us know how you make out.
     
  19. Jimmy Alvin

    Jimmy Alvin Member

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    So what do you call, imbalance? Today I was walking down a step hill, and became unbalanced not so much dizzy, but like my head could not adjust, and a feeling of falling.
     
  20. Pupper

    Pupper Active Member

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    I don't know. You've got like 15 things going on at once. I'd need a team of scientists to figure you out.
     

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