Vertigo is a sensation of feeling off balance. If you have these dizzy spells, you might feel like you are spinning or that the world around you is spinning.
Vertigo is not a serious or life- threatening condition, however it causes discomfort in doing everyday activities and results into loss of self confidence since it affects every movement of the body. Long standing dizziness can result into secondary symptoms such as muscle fatigue; depression and can affect personal, financial and social life.
Vertigo is a very complex symptom that can be arising from variety of conditions. Some medications can have dizziness as a side effect. But in majority of the cases vertigo or spinning arises because of problems in the inner ear. The sensation of being off balance can also be due to vision problems or problems in movement and position detectors (proprioception) in our joints and muscles. In rare cases dizziness can also be caused by anxiety, low blood pressure, neck spasm, migraine, reduced blood supply to balance center in the brain, after head trauma. It can also occur in some central neurological disorders like parkinsonism, multiple sclerosis or after stroke.