Saw a doctor recently from feeling nauseated and what I thought was dizziness, but when doctor asked if it was dizziness, lightheadedness, vertigo or an imbalanced sense of disequilibrium, I now have more questions than answers. I think I left dizzier than when I went in from the confusion!
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Colloquially, there is no hard distinction. ‘Dizziness’ is a bit of a catch-all term.
More specifically:
* Vertigo describes the sensation of spinning (like the feeling you get when turning on your own axis for too long)
* imbalancedness/disequilibrium describes the sensation of not being able to control your balance properly or your sense of balance being tilted in one particular direction
* Presyncope/being lightheaded is the sensation you might get prior to fainting – a sense of numbness, gray-outs, etc.
These all may sound relatively similar, but can have drastically different biological causes – for instance, vertigo is often caused by an issue with a certain fluid stored within your inner air that grants you your sense of balance, while dizziness typically points to dangerously low blood pressure and/or oxygen levels in the brain.
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