If you feel like you’re not very steady on your feet or lose your balance while walking it could be an issue with your vestibular system (again, the part of the inner ear that helps you stay balanced). This is another reason why maintaining your heart health is so important. A heart arrhythmia, blocked blood vessels, thickened heart muscle, or a decrease in blood volume can make you feel lightheaded. The second possibility is cardiovascular disease. That dizziness comes from a large drop in your blood pressure. This is when you standing or sitting up too quickly makes you feel dizzy. If being lightheaded or faint is behind your balance problems there are two likely causes. Vertigo also comes along with many other things like Meniere’s disease, migraine, Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a head injury, or motion sickness. You might have nausea and difficulty walking. It’s an inflammatory disorder usually caused by a virus. The second most common, according to the Mayo Clinic, is vestibular neuritis. If you have BPPV you’ll notice balance problems like a spinning sensation when you turn in bed or look up. Those crystals are what control your balance. The most common type is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).īPPV is caused by the calcium crystals in your inner ear becoming dislodged. There are a lot of conditions that may be associated with vertigo, or the sense of motion or spinning. Let’s look a little closer at some of these symptoms so you can get a better idea of what they may feel like or be caused by. Sometimes they can be an indicator of more serious health issues like an ear infection, stroke, or multiple sclerosis. If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms you should speak with your doctor about balance disorders. There are many different symptoms you may experience if you’re having balance issues. There’s also the possibility for a head injury or some medications to cause loss of balance. Things like stroke and low blood pressure can also cause dizziness or balance problems. That causes vertigo (we’ll explain that a little further down the page). Your inner ear, which is called the vestibular system, gets infected or swollen. Often times it’s something like an inner ear infection.
With so many different areas working cohesively to keep you upright, there are a lot of different things that can go wrong, according to the National Institute on Aging.
That includes your muscles, bones, joints, nerves, heart, blood vessels, and the balance organ in your inner ear. There are a lot of different systems in your body that have to work together to help you stay balanced.
While you can have balance problems at any age, it’s more common for the issue to occur as you get older. Let’s look at some of the things that can cause balance problems, the symptoms you may experience, and some natural remedies for dizziness and balance. Having good balance will help you walk better, stand up and sit down without falling, climb stairs, and much more. A lot of the time it’s caused by some type of inner ear issue, but there are many different things that could be behind that feeling of dizziness, lightheadedness, or just feeling like the room is spinning.īalance for seniors is important because falls can often cause more problems that will land you in the hospital. Older adults commonly experience balance problems.