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What Causes Persistent Dizziness?
Recently I have been feeling faint, stood up once this weekend and almost fell over. I had to hold onto a door, just not to fall over and knelt back down to recoup. I have also had slight pangs on both my left and right side towards my back. I don t know if my blood pressure being low( culprit) for the faint feeling?
Mon, 20 Apr 2015
Hello!
I read your question and understand your concern.
There are many causes of dizziness and fainting. The most simple thing would be a low blood pressure or an orthostatic hypotension. I would recommend you to measure your blood pressure regularly and in two positions, sitting and standing up. A decrease more than 30mm Hg from sitting to standing position would be indicative of orthostatic hypotension.
Another cause would be a vertebral artery insufficiency or from cervical spondylarthrosis causing compression of the vertebral artery. It would also explain the back pain.
A cardiac arrhythmia can cause similar symptoms too.
I would recommend you to consult with your GP , have a full blood work to rule out anemia. A doppler ultrasound of the cervical vessels and a cervical column xray would also be needed. Other tests for the heart like an 24h ECG monitoring , and a Heat up tilt test for orthostatic hypotension may be necessary.
Hope to have been of help!
Best wishes, Dr. Abaz Quka
I read your question and understand your concern.
There are many causes of dizziness and fainting. The most simple thing would be a low blood pressure or an orthostatic hypotension. I would recommend you to measure your blood pressure regularly and in two positions, sitting and standing up. A decrease more than 30mm Hg from sitting to standing position would be indicative of orthostatic hypotension.
Another cause would be a vertebral artery insufficiency or from cervical spondylarthrosis causing compression of the vertebral artery. It would also explain the back pain.
A cardiac arrhythmia can cause similar symptoms too.
I would recommend you to consult with your GP , have a full blood work to rule out anemia. A doppler ultrasound of the cervical vessels and a cervical column xray would also be needed. Other tests for the heart like an 24h ECG monitoring , and a Heat up tilt test for orthostatic hypotension may be necessary.
Hope to have been of help!
Best wishes, Dr. Abaz Quka
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