How to Diagnose Vertigo
Dizziness is the sensation of feeling faint. Vertigo is dizziness that feels like the room is spinning or the patient is turning or falling. To diagnose vertigo, many potential causes need to be explored, since many things can cause it. Lightheadedness is easily mistaken for vertigo, so part of the differential diagnosis is exploring maladies that cause merely dizziness instead of true vertigo. Vertigo is not acrophobia, a fear of heights, as some commonly think. Vertigo can be quite debilitating, preventing some from lying flat, looking up or even sleeping supine without triggering severe spinning and even vomiting.
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Instructions
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Diagnosis
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Differentiate between organ of origin. A sense of lightheadedness alone indicates a cardiovascular malfunction. True vertigo, instead, includes a sense of the room turning, the patient turning, of the patient moving to the left or right, forward or back while the patient is in fact standing still. True vertigo may indicate an ear or brain disease.
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Let your doctor (preferably a neurologist or ear specialist) know if there is associated tinnitus (ringing or booming) or deafness in one or both ears. This will help the doctor decide whether to explore the possibility of cholesteatoma, acoustic neuroma and Ménière's disease (if there's tinnitus or deafness), or instead to explore benign positional vertigo and vestibular neuronitis (if there isn't).
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Let the doctor know if you've recently experienced trauma.
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Check your blood pressure both lying down and after suddenly sitting up. Hypertension usually causes just lightheadedness, not true vertigo, though it is possible for it to cause both.
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See if your skin is pale. Anemia can cause lightheadedness, but rarely vertigo.
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Have both an ear exam and a brain scan done. If the former is abnormal and the latter is normal, have the doctor explore otitis media, cholesteatoma or petrositis.
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Let the doctor know if you hyperventilate during the vertigo attacks. This suggests hyperventilation syndrome.
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Consider a virus as the cause if the above diagnostics don't yield progress. A video linked in the references section below gives an example of a herpes virus that caused vertigo, subsequently cured with rife (frequency resonance) therapy.
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Consider a chiropractic approach if the above diagnoses don't make progress. Positional vertigo may yield to what is called Epley's maneuver, by shifting elements in the inner ear. See the videos in the Resources section.
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