DeMystifying Dizziness
A presentation will be held next month at St. John’s Episcopal Church to help individuals understand the causes of dizziness and the treatments that are available.
Lee Balance Center Physical Therapist Nathalie Grondin said it often takes people five to seven visits to the doctor’s office to figure out what’s wrong with their feeling of dizziness.
“My goal is to give them a better way of expressing how they feel,” she said.
Grondin said it helps when she asks individuals to describe how they feel without using the word dizzy.
“That is when I get the true feeling of what is going on,” she said.
Grondin said her goal with the presentation is to help people describe their dizziness to their healthcare professional without being intimidated by how they are feeling.
“If we don’t probe a little more to find out what they mean by dizzy, we can make some incorrect assumptions of what causes their dizziness,” she said.
There are many types of symptoms of dizziness, which she explains as an umbrella.
One of those symptoms under the umbrella of dizziness is known as blood pressure drop.
“That often happens when people are on medication for hypertension or when people are dehydrated and then change positions quickly,” Grondin said.
The dizzy feeling comes when an individual goes from sitting to standing, especially after being inactive for a while. That same feeling can occur when an individual goes from a laying down position to sitting up first thing in the morning.
“That causes light headedness,” Grondin said, adding that it is often related to low blood pressure.
Presyncope is another symptom under the umbrella, Grondin said, which occurs just before a person faints.
“Those episodes are usually cardiac in nature,” she said, adding that there are also more medically related reasons.
Vertigo is another symptom under the umbrella of dizziness.
“It is a very common complaint in older people that causes a lot of decline in the quality of life if it is not managed,” Grondin said. “Most of the time it can be helped by therapy.”
Vertigo, she said can be explained as the illusion of movement.
“Most people that have an inner ear problem describe their world as spinning,” Grondin said. “A person could be sitting, standing very still and they can feel inside their head that they are moving or see their surroundings as moving, but their not.”
Unsteadiness, is another symptom, which is described as the general feeling of not being sure on your feet and not being in control of your body when it is in an upright position standing, walking or doing activities during the day.
Grondin said it is also important for individuals to ask questions about their medication because dizziness is usually in the top three or four symptoms of side effects. She said individuals should ask how long it will take the medication to take effect, as well as what they should do if they feel dizzy and how they can tell if it is caused by the medication or not.
The presentation, which will last about an hour, will be held on Jan. 9 at 10 a.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church. Grondin will be available for questions after the presentation is completed.
For registration and additional information call 239-424-3765.