Losing Your Balance Easily

Did you know that if you have trouble keeping your balance, it may not necessarily just be something you have to deal with—it could actually be a sign of some major medical problem! Being unsteady on your feet and feeling dizzy, especially if you feel dizzy when you’re sitting or when you’re lying down, can definitely indicate that something is wrong. That’s because you keep your balance thanks to a combination of many different body parts working together, including your ears, muscles, nerves, bones, vision, and more. If something is off, having poor balance can actually be one of the first indications.

Most of the problems that lead to poor balance come from issues with the vestibular system, which is based in the ear.

Symptoms Besides Losing your Balance

There are a few other symptoms you may experience if you have a problem with your balance. You might feel like the room is spinning around or that you’re swaying back and forth even when you’re completely motionless. You might also feel faint or start to feel dizzy. These are all issues related to having balance issues.

Causes

So what can cause your balance to be messed up? There are a number of different conditions that can do it:

• Meniere’s Disease, which can cause sudden vertigo, hearing loss, and a ringing in the ears.
• Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, or BPPV, which is the result of calcium forming in the inner ear. When these deposits move, they result in vertigo.
• Acoustic Neuroma, a type of slow-growing, noncancerous tumor that develops on the nerve in the ear that affects both balance and hearing. It is rare, and generally hearing loss occurs first.
• Migraines can lead to dizziness and a feeling of movement.
• Head injuries can cause dizziness and a temporary loss of balance.
• Vestibular Neuritis is the inflammation of the nerves in the inner ear. The symptoms can be persistent and very severe and can even make it difficult to walk.
• Motion sickness can cause dizziness.
• Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, sometimes referred to as herpes zoster otitis, occurs when the facial nerve near the ear has a shingles infection near it.
• Cardiovascular disease can cause presyncope.
• Orthostatic hypotension, which is a fancy way of saying sitting up or standing up too quickly, can cause dizziness.
• Nerve damage in the legs is one type of condition not related to the ears that can affect your balance.
• Having muscular or joint problems in the legs.
• Vision problems can affect your balance.
• Some medications can affect your equilibrium.

There are so many different things that can affect your balance that it can be difficult to say conclusively what causes the issue and how it can be treated without a number of tests.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to treat, diagnose, or cure any diseases.