Do you ever get dizzy? Light-headed? Motion sick? Nausea? Vertigo? Room spinning? Yep, I have dealt with all the above! And this year, it has reared its ugly head again. What I have recently learned though, is that all the above maladies are not the same. I had always associated these symptoms with “motion sickness” and/or “vertigo”.
I was the child that often got to sit up front. As a teen and young adult, I paid dearly for riding the “spinning” ride at the amusement park. My first couple plane rides were disasters, especially for the passengers sitting next to me. Glass bottom boat – forget it! And I have feared and avoided cruises.
Middle age brought a new, but related issue. Occasionally, I find that going from sitting to standing – often when getting out of the car – I can get light headed. For example, parking the car, and then standing up to walk into a store. I have to stop to get my bearings. I am okay after about 10 to 20 seconds.
And in the past ten years or so, it has not happened often, but every now and then, after exercise such as yoga and swimming, I experience severe nausea. I start to panic. I am light-headed and dizzy. And then I start to vomit, and for literally hours, cannot stop the vomiting and dry heaves. It is very embarrassing.
So I finally decided to discuss with my physician. She suggested Meclizine, and a visit to a Physical Therapist that specializes in Vestibular Therapy. I was fortunate to get an appointment with a Physical Therapist that treated me ten years ago for a neck issue. Weirdly, during my first session with him ten years ago, I had one of these severe nausea episodes. The repositioning of my neck during therapy appeared to cause it.
My Physical Therapist wanted to rule out vertigo, which he explained is the term used when “the room is spinning”. I have experienced this in the past, but this was not happening in these severe episodes. The tests he performed determined that I did not have “rocks in my head”, or the need for “repositioning the crystals” in my inner ear – “Canalith Repositioning“.
Working together, my Physical Therapist and I have determined that my problem is most likely related to the Vagus Nerve which runs all the way from the brain stem, thru the neck, to the colon. He used the terms Vasovagal Reception and Baroreceptors Sensitivity. I am still trying to get a hand on understanding these medical terms and phenomenons. (I did not include links to these terms as they are really confusing!)
My Physical Therapist wants me to try to be more intensional regarding hydration and getting a higher, more even protein intake. He suspects that especially when exercising in the morning – low blood sugar, low blood pressure and dehydration may be contributing to my light headedness and dizziness.
So… my goals are:
- 1 gallon of water per day (I am still working up to it).
- less caffeine (1 cup of coffee in the morning instead of 2).
- water with a protein-based breakfast (especially when exercising in the morning).
- having an anti-nausea medicine (Zofran) on hand just in case I do get sick.
- and continuing to exercise!
And I have one more trick up my sleeve – GINGER!
These little doTERRA Ginger Digestive Drops really do help me. The mild taste of ginger and lemon are soothing. They help me to ward off motion sickness, as well as calm a simple upset stomach. I only recently learned that GINGER is actually the main ingredient in Non-Drowsy Dramamine! I never really thought about it, but ginger ale soda pop helps me in a similar way.
Certainly go the route of checking with your physician if you have any of these symptoms:
- dizziness
- light-headedness
- motion sickness
- nausea
- vertigo
But once you have done that and have a firm diagnosis, you may want to add doTERRA Ginger Digestive Drops to your arsenal. They have really helped me!
I have been where you have been. I was on three different medications that had a dizziness warning on each label. I was experiencing light headedness occasionally, so I cut out those meds one at a time and determined which ones were contributing to the light headedness. Luckily they were meds that I could quit taking if I decided to. Also during the time that I was going to physical therapy, Someone grabbed my hand and pulled me up too fast and I experienced about 20 minutes of pretty severe vertigo hope. I had seeing a car practor at the time and he told me what exercises to do too Get rid of it. And it worked. And I’ve had no more trouble. I hope you get free all these problems also.
I’ve had vertigo, horrible, maybe runs in our family? Last couple times though, not vertigo (room spinning), but rather light-headed and ridiculous vomiting! All day sick! At the yoga studio and at the Y. Ughhh! But I am armed with good advice, I think, so not giving up! p.s. Miss you!!!