The eyes themselves bring in information about movements or tilting in the outside world, while sensors in the joints and muscles relate the position of the rest of the body to complete the balance information sent to the brain. All these signals feed into the balance centers of the brain. These command centers run the show and move the muscles of the eyes, neck and body to keep things steady and allow you to sit, stand or move about. The balance centers also can irritate the areas of the brain that cause nausea, vomiting and sweating sometimes associated with motion sickness. In diagnosis, a patient s description of the sensation is perhaps the most important information for a physician, House said.
True vertigo is a sensation that the patient is spinning or the world is whirling by.
Particular positions or head movements, particularly when looking up or down, provoke these feelings. Take, Vero Beach resident Kay Jones-Denning, for example. Vertigo is strange everything lurches. You grab on for something because at my age, you don t want to fall. The most common cause of vertigo is a head injury, such as a blow to the head.