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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Can Dizziness And Nausea Be Caused By Diabetes?

My name is John Wilson and I am dietbetic, but for the last 3 months,about 1 or 2 times a week I hav gotten dissines and nauseaed. Itake motion sickness pills which make me sleep for about 3 or 4 hour. When I wake up I am fine.Can this be caused by diebites?
Mon, 8 Sep 2014
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ENT Specialist 's  Response
Hi John. Both Diabetes and the medications for Diabetes can cause dizziness and nausea especially due to a condition called hypoglycemia(low blood sugars).

In Diabetes, there is high blood sugar but your body doesn't use the sugar adequately due to reduced insulin levels or due to increased resistance to Insulin. When you take medications for diabetes, it reduces blood sugar levels and also increases the utilization of glucose by tissues in your body. The dosage of medications and amount of blood sugar levels depend strongly on your daily activity levels (which can not be constant). It is not possible to alter the dosages daily based on activities (it is not practical to do so). Therefore what happens is that the blood glucose levels tend to fluctuate because of the variable amount of blood glucose levels and dosage requirements with different types of physical activities. So you are bound to get an occasional spell of low blood glucose levels or hypoglycemia (once or twice a week) and this causes dizziness because the brain receives inadequate amounts of glucose during this time. Dizziness in turn precipitates nausea.

Most patients with diabetes also develop hypertension because diabetes gradually affects the blood vessels as well. If you are hypertensive and are on medications then postural changes such as when standing from a sitting position or sitting from a lying down position can cause dizziness due to postural hypotension.

In any case, the dizziness must be differentiated from causes due to the ear.
An easy way to do this is by noticing if the dizziness only happens when you're upright, then cause is probably not related to the ear. If the dizziness sometimes happens when you're lying down, the cause is usually an ear condition and you must see your ENT specialist for further evaluation if this is the case.

I would recommend that you follow up with your endocrinologist to further titre your medications to ensure lesser blood glucose fluctuations. This will help reduce your dizziness. If the endocrinologist and an ENT evaluation have ruled out the cause for dizziness then a neurology consult and an MRI brain is indicated.

Hope this information has helped answer your question. Please feel free to ask me anything else if I have missed to address in this response.
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Can Dizziness And Nausea Be Caused By Diabetes?

Hi John. Both Diabetes and the medications for Diabetes can cause dizziness and nausea especially due to a condition called hypoglycemia(low blood sugars). In Diabetes, there is high blood sugar but your body doesn t use the sugar adequately due to reduced insulin levels or due to increased resistance to Insulin. When you take medications for diabetes, it reduces blood sugar levels and also increases the utilization of glucose by tissues in your body. The dosage of medications and amount of blood sugar levels depend strongly on your daily activity levels (which can not be constant). It is not possible to alter the dosages daily based on activities (it is not practical to do so). Therefore what happens is that the blood glucose levels tend to fluctuate because of the variable amount of blood glucose levels and dosage requirements with different types of physical activities. So you are bound to get an occasional spell of low blood glucose levels or hypoglycemia (once or twice a week) and this causes dizziness because the brain receives inadequate amounts of glucose during this time. Dizziness in turn precipitates nausea. Most patients with diabetes also develop hypertension because diabetes gradually affects the blood vessels as well. If you are hypertensive and are on medications then postural changes such as when standing from a sitting position or sitting from a lying down position can cause dizziness due to postural hypotension. In any case, the dizziness must be differentiated from causes due to the ear. An easy way to do this is by noticing if the dizziness only happens when you re upright, then cause is probably not related to the ear. If the dizziness sometimes happens when you re lying down, the cause is usually an ear condition and you must see your ENT specialist for further evaluation if this is the case. I would recommend that you follow up with your endocrinologist to further titre your medications to ensure lesser blood glucose fluctuations. This will help reduce your dizziness. If the endocrinologist and an ENT evaluation have ruled out the cause for dizziness then a neurology consult and an MRI brain is indicated. Hope this information has helped answer your question. Please feel free to ask me anything else if I have missed to address in this response.