We often take walking, running, and all of the other basic actions for granted. But the transition from crawling to standing and walking is crucial for babies. Usually within the first year of life, babies start pulling themselves up to stand, and it’s often not much longer before they start walking and tearing through the house.
Staying on your feet requires coordinating your body and maintaining balance. Whether it’s called postural control, stability, or equilibrium, balance is essential for movement and interaction with the world around you. Balance disorders disrupt your ability to do basic things, and accessing the treatment you need begins with recognizing you may have an issue.
If you struggle with balance problems, Dr. Irfan Lalani and our expert team at Irfan Lalani, MD, PA, in Sugar Land, Texas, can help you stay on your feet.
Conditions that affect your balance can result from problems in many body areas, including your eyes, ears, muscles, joints, heart, blood vessels, and nerves.
Most often, the damage to the inner ear (the vestibular system) causes these issues. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is the most common balance-related problem in adults, Other common reasons for balance disorders include head trauma, neuropathy, migraine, vestibular neuritis, and acoustic neuroma.
Acute problems like dehydration and certain medication side effects can cause short-term balance issues, which chronic illnesses like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Parkinson’s disease create long-term balance issues that may not ever fully resolve.
These symptoms indicate you may have trouble maintaining balance:
The sensation that you can’t stay on your feet, or that you feel like you’re about to fall, can stem from vestibular conditions, stroke, and nerve damage.
Fainting, dizziness, or lightheadedness can stem from medications, dehydration, migraines, stroke, and several chronic conditions.
Decreased vision and blurriness make balance more difficult. Vision impairments may be caused by age, eye disease, medication interactions, or as a complication of diabetes.
When standing still, vertigo is a sensation of spinning or movement. It results from inner ear imbalances (peripheral vertigo) or problems in the brainstem or cerebellum (central vertigo).
Being unable to determine spatial information due to confusion can undermine your balance. This problem may be caused by neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, head injuries, or dehydration.
Diagnosing the underlying source of a balance issue may involve a range of evaluations, such as hearing tests, posturography tests, electronystagmography, videonystagmography, rotary chairs, blood pressure and heart rate tests, and MRI and CT scans.
Once we’ve determined the source of your balance issues, we offer comprehensive care to manage the symptoms, including medications specific to your illness, vestibular rehabilitation, physical therapy, lifestyle changes, and, if necessary, surgery.
Occasional balance issues are completely normal, but if you’re dealing with chronic equilibrium problems, don’t delay — see Dr. Lalani as soon as possible. Call or click online to schedule your visit at Irfan Lalani, MD, PA, in Sugar Land, Texas, today.
