I been having vertigo

Hi Emma.I would be very surprised, from your symptoms, if you do not have migraine variant balance disorder and (possibly) benign positional vertigo also.Doctors are really rubbish with diagnosing things like this, and often misdiagnose it a labyrinthitis - but you should go to your GP and ask to be referred to a neuro - otologist. Within 10 mins they would be able to confirm my diagnosis. The benign positional vertigo can be fixed in 5 mins by the specialist doing the epley manouvre - its painless, and will sort out the dizzyness you get when lying down, which is due to displaced crystals in your ear. However the bulk of yuor problems sound like they are down to migraine variant balance disorder, also called vestibular migraine. I have had this for the last four years - it is fixable, through dietary measures and medicines. The neuro-otologist would tell you what drugs are best for you. Regarding the diet - keep COMPLETELY off alcohol, citrus fruits, bananas, pineapples, chocolate, cheese and dairy, any foods containing monosodium gluatamate (this is E number E62 in foods, and you get it a lot in chinese foods - so no chinese takeaways) and caffeine - so no tea or coffee (including decaf as this still contains caffeine) or coke.This should help settle you down and within a few weeks you should feel a lot better. When you see you GP ak for stemetil (this will prevent the nausea, if it is a major problem) and propranolol . the propranolol is a beta blocker and will help clock the migrainous syignals in the brain.

Sorry for typos in previous mssg. Meant to say - the eustachian tube type problems are common with migraine variant balance disorder and will get better. Dont try to improve them using usual ETD 'cures' like popping your years, steaming etc as they will probably only make it worse - once the main triggers are cut out, the ears will improve. The main thing is to get a proper diagnosis-but as i said before from your symptoms, migraine variant balance disorder and positional vertigo seem very likely. Another possibility is neuritis.

You need to find what the trigger(s) are for your attacks. It is probably something in your diet -though other triggers include stress and lack of sleep. Once you find the triggers and eliminate them, things will get a lot better. I would keep a diary of what you eat and when you get you attacks. include other daily things too....like if you were particularly stressed. You may start to see a pattern. You say you have caffeine free coke - what about all the other things - citrus, alcohol, cheese,tea, coffee, chocolate - it may be hard to cut them out of your diet, but it may be the only way. What does the specialist you are seeing specialize in - you need to see a balance specialist or neuro-otologist - ENT doctors are ok, but not focused enough