Is dizziness due to anemia? Misconceptions about dizzinessNeurologist Jihyun Park

If you have dizziness, is it anemia? 2022. 09. 23

1. Reasons for dizziness

Many people confuse dizziness with the name of the diagnosis, but dizziness is a symptom. Dizziness is a symptom of a loss of balance. And what is important is where the dizziness is caused and what kind of disease is causing it. There are dozens of known causes of dizziness. There are hundreds of rare diseases, so it's important to get an accurate diagnosis and treat them properly.

2. Do I have to go to the hospital?

Not everyone who feels dizzy needs to go to the hospital. Usually, when we're tired, haven't been able to sleep, or are under a lot of stress, we all feel a little dizzy. This is called physiological dizziness. After the causative events change or after a good night's sleep, things usually return to normal. In this case, of course, you do not need to go to the hospital. However, about 30% of the population, or 3 out of 10 people, will suffer from dizziness so severe that they will have to go to the hospital for the rest of their lives. So, in what cases should you go to the hospital?

First, there is a type of dizziness called "vertigo," which is spinning. This 'vertigo' means that there is a sudden problem with the nervous system of our body, so it is important to pinpoint the cause. And secondly, there is a recurrent feeling of dizziness. If the dizziness recurs after a week or a month, it is necessary to treat the cause correctly. The third is chronic dizziness. Feeling dizzy all the time can affect your daily life and requires medical attention. And if you have risk factors for stroke, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or smoking, don't take it lightly and seek medical attention. In addition, if any neurological symptoms such as headaches, double vision, numbness in the limbs, or weakness are accompanied by dizziness, it is recommended that you seek medical attention as soon as possible.

3. Which hospital should I go to?

If your eyes hurt, you go to an ophthalmologist, and if your nose hurts, you go to an ENT, but which hospital should you go to for dizziness? Not necessarily, but if you are dizzy and deaf at the same time, or if you have severe tinnitus, it would be best to see an ENT doctor first. And if you have dizziness with neurological symptoms, or dizziness that comes with a severe headache, or if you have chronic recurrent dizziness, a neurologist may be more helpful. Also, if you feel dizzy after changing your medication, or if you have a heart condition, or if you have a lung disease and the dizziness is accompanied by it, it is a good idea to see an internal medicine doctor.

Finally, if you have severe depression, severe anxiety, and dizziness, it may be helpful to see a psychiatrist. However, when you go to a psychiatrist, it is much more helpful to go to a psychiatrist when it is determined that a psychological problem is the main problem, even though there is no specific problem in neurology or otolaryngology.

4. Myths about dizziness

1) Do you feel dizzy if you don't eat?

If you don't eat it well, you may be mistaken for dizzy due to poor nutrition. Of course it could. There may be some underlying disease that prevents proper nutrition, or it may cause dizziness due to malabsorption of nutrients, but in such cases, it is not difficult to differentiate because there are other symptoms. However, these days, dizziness is more often caused by eating too much and eating too well, so taking aphrodisiacs or various supplementary foods is not really helpful for dizziness.

2) Are there foods that are good for dizziness?

It's not hard to find foods that are good for dizziness or bad foods for dizziness on the internet, but in fact, such a dichotomy doesn't help treat dizziness at all. There may be good and bad foods for the conditions that cause dizziness, but there is no need to think about the good and bad foods for dizziness.

So it's better not to divide this food so much and do more research on my disease. And there are a lot of cases where foods that are said to be good for some dizziness can worsen dizziness from other causes. For example, drinking plenty of fluids can make dizziness worse if you don't drink enough water. However, if you have heart failure or kidney failure, drinking too much water is even worse.

And if I had to pick one bad food for all dizziness, it would be alcohol. Alcohol can be a boost to our lives, but it is the one that makes almost all dizziness worse. Alcohol is technically a central nervous system depressant. So it suppresses all brain functions, especially the cerebellar function. This means that their speech becomes stale, they can't walk well, and their behavior becomes sluggish. Therefore, people who suffer from dizziness should not drink alcohol in general.

3) Are you dizzy because you're anemic?

Some people think of dizziness and anemia as synonymous. But does anemia cause dizziness? Not at all. The lack of red blood cells in the blood is called anemia. Therefore, when the level of haemoglobin called hemoglobin is below 12.0 g/dL, it is defined as anemia. However, in order for dizziness to occur due to anemia, it must drop below 7.0, and if it drops to that level, you may experience shortness of breath, lack of energy throughout the day, shortness of breath, and difficulty walking. Therefore, it is common knowledge that dizziness is caused by anemia, and it is important to find out the exact cause.

4) Do women get more dizzy?

It is correct to say that women are more dizzy than men. According to data from the Health Review and Assessment Service, women are twice as common as men. There are several reasons for this. First, there is a high prevalence in women among the conditions that cause dizziness. Otolithiasis, pre-migraine, and psychogenic dizziness are the three most common causes of dizziness, all of which are prevalent in women. So, of course, the rate of dizziness in women is going to increase. Second, the frequency of chronic dizziness increases with age, and we have a much higher percentage of people over the age of 65 in women. Women then go through dramatic hormonal changes several times throughout their life cycle. Whether it's the onset of your period, your monthly period, menopause, pregnancy, childbirth, these are times when you go through a lot of hormonal changes. Conditions that are sensitive to these hormonal changes, such as precondition migraine, can cause women to feel much more severe symptoms under the same circumstances.