Dizziness is a description for many different sensations, including lightheadedness, unsteadiness, wooziness, and feeling off balance.
Vertigo is similar to dizziness, though it describes a spinning sensation of a person's surroundings, usually caused by head movement or positioning.
Some medical conditions that can be dangerous or even life-threatening may have dizziness as a symptom. Call a doctor if any of the following occur:
- Sudden dizziness
- Severe, new instances of dizziness
- Dizziness without a clear cause
- Change in known patterns of dizziness
- Worsening or new symptoms
- Dizziness after taking newly prescribed medications, or recent dosage or regimen changes in previous prescriptions
Call 911 or go to a hospital’s emergency department right away if dizziness is associated with any of the following symptoms or conditions:
- Chest pain, heart palpitations, or shortness of breath (may be a sign of a heart attack)
- Facial droop, slurred speech, weakness on one side of the body, or inability to walk straight (may be signs of a stroke)
- History of heart disease
- Loss of consciousness, fainting, or nearly fainting
- Fever or pale skin
What Are Symptoms of Dizziness?
Symptoms of dizziness may be described as:
- Lightheadedness or actual fainting
- Weakness
- Nausea
- Confusion
- Fatigue/tiredness
- Clumsiness
- Feeling off balance
- Feeling a sensation of movement, spinning, rocking, or whirling, of themselves or the room (possible vertigo)
Dizziness may be accompanied by other symptoms such as:
What Causes Dizziness?
Dizziness can be caused by a wide variety of conditions, including:
- Heart disease or blood pressure problems
- Heart attack
- Irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmia)
- Fast or slow heart rate
- Weakened or diseased heart muscle (cardiomyopathy)
- Extremely high blood pressure (hypertension)
- Low blood pressure (hypotension)
- Toxins or drugs that affect the rate or force of the contractions of the heart
- Brain diseases or conditions
- Headache
- Migraines
- Loss or decrease of blood supply to the brain, such as fainting
- Stroke
- Tumor
- Dementia
- Medications
- Antidepressants
- Blood pressure medications
- Diuretics
- Pain relievers
- Sedatives
- Tranquilizers
- Some antibiotics
- Metabolic disorders
- Low blood oxygen (hypoxia)
- Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
- Dehydration
- Other illnesses
- Internal bleeding or hemorrhage
- Low red blood cell count (anemia)
- Prolonged bed rest
- Endocrine diseases such as those of the thyroid, adrenal glands, and pituitary gland
- Allergies
- Low blood pressure after eating (postprandial hypotension)
- Psychiatric conditions
- Anxiety/stress
- Depression
- Panic disorder
- Breathing too fast or too deeply (hyperventilation), which may be caused by anxiety
- Physical symptoms caused by mental illness (somatization)
- Aging
- Low blood pressure on standing (orthostatic hypotension)
- Hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis)
- Nerve damage or disease (neuropathy)
- Diminished ability to exercise/deconditioning
- Weakness
- Menopause
- Poor eyesight
- Loss of coordination
- Dementia
- Hearing loss or ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
- Pregnancy
How Is Dizziness Diagnosed?
The cause of dizziness is diagnosed with a patient history and physical examination along with tests based on the patient’s history and physical exam to determine the cause, such as:
- Blood tests
- Electrocardiogram (ECG)
- Computerized tomography (CT) scan
- Cardiac stress test
What Is the Treatment for Dizziness?
Treatment for dizziness depends on the cause. Dizziness can be a symptom of many different underlying conditions and each condition must be treated differently.
Treatment for some conditions that cause dizziness may include:
- Medications to treat the underlying condition
- If dizziness is caused by medications, it may be treated by stopping or modifying the dosage or regimen (never stop taking a prescribed medication without first talking to your doctor)
- Intravenous (IV) fluids to treat dehydration
- Emergency blood transfusion
- Fever reducers
- Medications to treat infections
- Oxygen for shortness of breath or hyperventilation
- Epley maneuver for vertigo
- Medications such as meclizine (Antivert) or benzodiazepines such as diazepam (Valium) or lorazepam (Ativan) may be given to control the spinning feeling (vertigo) associated with dizziness
- Surgery
Home treatments for mild cases of dizziness include:
From 
https://americanpregnancy.org/healthy-pregnancy/pregnancy-health-wellness/dizziness-during-pregnancy-966/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/eating-can-cause-low-blood-pressure