I am getting worried about this dizziness feeling I've been having for over three months now. It's weird, seems like every since I started this new job, and having to go to the basement to the delivery room to pick up the mail, I have been getting really dizzy when I'm getting on and off the elevators. This is a fairly new building, and I don't know if it's related to carbon monoxide or not. I have gotten blood taken when I told the doctor about it, and the only thing that came through is a little high cholestorol. But its kind of scary because it's happening more often and not just at work now. Any suggestions?

One source of dizziness that doctors hardly ever check is inner ear infection, and that can make you dizzy and lose your balance. High blood is another source. Getting up swiftly from a sitting position can sometime cause dizziness. I've heard of a lot of people getting dizzy from riding elevators, but since it's happening away from work, this must not be the source. Maybe you should have a Cat Scan done.

You can also get dizzy from low blood pressure.. also called Hypotension.

One way of determining if your dizziness is related to changes in position (sitting/standing/laying down) is called postural blood pressures. Have someone who can take an accurate blood pressure take your B/P when you are laying down and record it. Then sit up and immediately take another B/P and record that. Lastly, stand up and have another B/P taken and record that.

Normally there is not a huge discrepancy between the different positions.

As also stated, it can also be related to inner ear infections.

I'd get it checked as you don't want to risk injury from sudden dizziness at inopportune times.

It could be anything from an inner ear problem to postural hypotension. You need to be seen by a doctor if this keeps up much longer. Don't give it much longer either. Hope you start feeling better.

It could be something as serious as a bad cardiac arrythmia. Unlikley except in the elderly. Still a possibility to be ruled out. A doctor needs to diagnose this.

I'm thinking it's inner ear too, I am having pain in the left ear, with a little over abundance of wax buildup, so when I go to the doc tomorrow, I'll have her check them again, she already put me on one antibiotic, (for sinus infection) doxycycline, since I'm allergic to all kinds of antibiotics. I've finished them. I don't feel better though, if anything now I have chest pains. Geez, I'm falling apart, lol. I am also taking a pretty strong sleeping pill for night terrors, called trazodone, and that messes with the blood pressure, I run really low sometimes, never high. So that may be the other questionable problem.

I'm glad you are getting it checked out soon. We aren't getting any younger. I would rather be safe than sorry. Good luck with your appointment and I hope that they can get you feeling better

I have had dizziness for 4 months now. To the point it almost causes me to past out. I went to the doctors who sent me to the hospital where I stayed or 2 days on a heart monitor. I had a stress test, MRI of the head, Cat scan of the head and blood test. Than they let me go homw only to retun a week later for another stay. They wanted me to go to a specialist to wear a heart monitor at home. All my test were fine except for my white blood cell count being a little high. Than on New Years Eve I had a lot of pain in my left ear and they gave me antibiotics with steriods. Now the right ear is infected. Can that happen? Can the infection more from one ear to the other? Also since
I have been taking the antibiotics in my ear no dizziness.

Dawn,

I get "chronic" ear infections. Due to sinus/allergy issues and deformed ear canals. I’m also partially deaf from those deformities and a lot of scar tissue in the ears and one the ear drum from previous ear infections. A Chronic ear infection is one that last like forever – one can have a ‘minor’ chronic ear infection, meaning just a slight infection that is hardly noticeable (and can often not even been seen in routine check-up at doctor’s office – my doctor has to swab out my ears and have that cultured for bacteria (infection germs)). In fact I was first misdiagnosed as having nerve deafness, but a year later when I got a bout of pneumonia and put on the real powerful super antibiotics not only did my pneumonia clear up but I got a significant hearing gain, so much so that I had to have my hearing aides readjusted.

Now going up and down in an elevator about 5 to 6 floors (60 to 75 feet) causes me to have ear pressure. You know like when you go up the mountains or when you fly in a plane? I can feel the pressure difference in my ears granted not a serious popping like flying up to 30,000 feet, but I still feel it. I also feel in coming lows and highs (weather systems) cause my ears to feel the pressure – also ringing and when I have minor (although chronic – meaning very long lasting) ear infections pressure changes trigger dizziness for me. When I am having a really bad ear infection and it happens I can have the room spins, where even laying flat on my back in the middle of the floor I still have the “I’m-going-to-puke-or-die” dizziness.

Here is a nice site that shows an illustration of the three tubes that make up the balance organ: http://www.goldbaum.net/balance/How_Balance_Works.html

Most doctors look in the ear for infection, looking for redness, possibly discharge (other things too) – but with minor ear infections, (inside the ear drum) they can be living there but not seen. Usually an inner ear infection is noticeable because the eardrum is distended (from the discharge build up inside) or red – however when the infection is small, (minor) it can go undiagnosed, treated when or if it flares up. It is possible to have two ears with a minor infection, you can “fix the one” and miss the other, and then the other becomes noticeable to you because the one you fixed isn’t bothering you no more.

Outer, inner and middle ear infections are treated differently and diagnosed differently and can have different symptoms.

Not all antibiotics work on all ear infections some infections are bacterial (respond to antibiotics) others a viral. Mind I have taken antibiotics time and time again for ear infections and to think (even though I finished every last pill on schedule) that it cleared up to find myself trotting back to doctor one more time for more antibiotics as the ear infection flares up again. Further, the ear infection may require CT or MRI scan to find.

If you have other common ills that lead to ear infections, allergies, sinus issues, smoking, etc – then it is highly possible that you have gotten a sinus infection (chronic or otherwise) All the holes in your hear (eyes, ears, nose and throat) are interconnected through the sinus cavities, thus if you hold you nose and mouth closed and try to push out air you can actually blow air out of your tear ducts (not something I advise doing regularly) If you suffer from chronic dry eye, that too can be a symptom of a sinus condition which has traveled to the ear.

The sinuses are connected to the ears via the Eustachian tube: (another neat site: http://www.rcgates.com/psyc/c5_4.html) – so yes, technically you can have an ear infection travel through your head to your other ear. However that would be a sinus infection. Which sinus infections can lead to ear infections, or lead to deafness and other ear related issues, like dizziness.

Since it is all interconnected it can be either/and/or both a sinus and an ear infection, most likely a sinus infection infecting both ears.

Thank you so much for your response. I have been having sinus problems lately. I never had that before in my life. I tried to tell my doctor it was my ears and he basically ignored that. Guess I'll find a doctor that listens Again thank you so much for ll the information. I will put it to good use.

Dizzyness and loss of balance. You might be interested in this. My wife developed shingles on the side of her face. The infection spread into her ear and affected her labyrinth. The result was she had facial palsy which after three years she has not completely recovered from..........a hearing problem in that sounds are distorted...........but more than that, she has total loss of balance and this will NOT improve. Getting round the house is by holding onto furniture, outside, she has to hold onto me, otherwise she would fall over. If we stand talking to anyone, as she mover her weight from one leg to the other, she begins to fall. The result is that now she has been recognised as being registered disabled. Neither of us drive, so you can see the implications. After a year of looking after her, I had a heart attack. This on top of me having a failing kidney and a urinary diversion. Both of us retired early.

I appreciate I may have wandered off the initial subject of dizzyness, but don't suppose it matters too much.

It's kind of weird that you bring up shingles. I had shingles on my lower left side of my back before all this happened. After that that is when all the dizziness started happening. Although mine has improved I still get dizzy and feel like I am going to pass out. I have had test after test and they now tell me it's stress. Of Course I don't agree with them. My next trip to the doctor I will be bringing up the shingles issue. I think this is weird and now somehow connected. Thanks!!!

You're welcome, BUT, don't assume it IS connected. I remember that when the shingles was first diagnosed, they said "we are doing all that we can to prevent the infection from spreading into the ear etc".

You said you had a sinus infection.. Sinus infections and ear infections go hand in hand. I have had both all my life and when i get one i get the other no matter what. I too have been having the dizziness only when getting off the elevator at work. Its the start of an ear infection along with sinus build up i have been having. Make sure you always finish all the antibiotics the doctor gives you... Hope your feeling better.