Question
At least once every week I experience severe dizziness. This is accompanied by a physical feeling of being the other way up, and I see every little thing the other way up and blurry. It could be very sudden and random. When this happens, my body feels very heavy, like I’m on the form of amusement park ride that pushes you back in your seat. My mother suggested that it might be linked to supplemental melatonin. I take 5 mg of sublingual melatonin an evening to assist me sleep. Have you ever heard of melatonin causing all these dizziness?
Oh When an individual uses the term “dizziness” to explain a symptom, it might probably reflect several different feelings. It could mean that the person is.
- Feeling light-headed, especially when standing up
- Facing dizziness
- Feeling isolated and “out of it” – what I often call a “trap inside the head”.
The episodes of utmost dizziness you describe are most consistent with vertigo.
Usually the symptoms of vertigo will not be that severe. Often, individuals with vertigo have the sensation that the room is spinning or that you just are spinning across the room. Sometimes it’s only a sense of imbalance. Dizziness could also be related to nausea, vomiting, and ringing in a single or each ears (tinnitus).
In general, melatonin is taken into account a comparatively protected complement for short-term use. There have been reports of balance and balance problems at higher doses, often greater than 5 milligrams per day. Although it’s unlikely that melatonin is causing episodic cycles, the one solution to know obviously is to stop taking it.
When an individual has frequent episodes of vertigo, I often suspect a disorder called benign positional vertigo (BPV). In this condition, changes in head position cause sudden episodes of spinning sensations. BPV is attributable to tiny crystals that break loose within the inner ear canals and touch the sensitive nerve endings inside.
Another possible reason behind episodic vertigo is Meniere’s disease. But Meniere’s often doesn’t cause vertigo as often as once every week. In addition, Menière’s vertigo is accompanied by ringing within the ears and a few hearing loss.
A really rare reason behind recurrent dizziness is intermittent blockage of blood flow to the back of the brain.
Your next step is to talk over with your doctor about your symptoms. If it is a benign condition, your doctor may recommend an Epley maneuver. This involves moving the top right into a sequence of positions that move the floating crystal into an element of the inner ear with fewer nerve endings.
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