Is Your Dizziness Caused By Inner Ear Problems?

Dizziness is one of those symptoms that can have a wide range of different causes, which can make getting the right diagnosis rather tricky. When you tell your GP that you’ve been filling dizzy, they might want to check whether it is due to your diet, your heart, or an infection as well as looking for inner ear problems.

Causes of Dizziness

When you first see a doctor about dizziness, they will spend some time asking about your health and any other symptoms you’ve been experiencing. This will help them to narrow down the possible causes. Your GP will probably want to consider some of the following factors which could be responsible for your dizziness:

• If you have recently been unwell then it could be a temporary symptoms linked to an infection, particularly if your ears were affected.
• Poor diet could be responsible if you haven’t been eating enough, you have iron deficiency anaemia or you are dehydrated. However, sometimes low blood sugar or anaemia has an underlying cause that may need to be treated.
• Motion sickness can be responsible for dizziness and nausea that only happens when you’re in a car or another vehicle.
• If you have other symptoms such as breathlessness, blurred vision or numbness in your face or limbs, it could be a sign of a heart condition or clogged arteries.
• Some medications can cause dizziness as a side effect.

However, inner ear problems are another common cause of dizziness. Conditions such as Ménière's disease can cause dizziness because they affect the parts of your ear that are responsible for your sense of balance.

Signs That Dizziness is Caused By Inner Ear Problems

If your dizziness comes with the following symptoms then it is usually a sign that it is being caused by an inner ear problem:

• Balance problems
• Hearing loss (which can be very mild)
• Tinnitus

You may need to see an ENT doctor and have specialist tests to find out exactly what is wrong. Once the cause of your symptoms has been identified, the specialist will be able to recommend the best course of treatment for you.