Question: I'm 73 and live alone. I have vertigo and had a typical spell of it the other evening when lying on a couch. When I awoke, the room was spinning around. I finally reached a phone to call a friend. My friend took me to the emergency room where I got a shot and anti-dizziness pills. They did blood tests and sent me home. Meniere's syndrome was mentioned. That's all I know.
- Mrs. L.F.
Answer: Rather than recite the 70 possible causes of dizziness, I'll list three likely ones, including the Meniere's possibility.
There's a dizziness that comes on when the head assumes a certain postural attitude. Moving it into that provoking position brings dizziness. It's called "benign positional vertigo," an inner-ear balance problem. I must say, though, that your description seems to point in other directions, your dizziness coming as you wake up.
A siege of dizzy spells can point to inner-ear viral infections. Such patients respond to general anti-vertigo drugs, such as Dramamine and Antivert.
A doctor would suspect Meniere's syndrome when hearing loss and ear ringing accompanies the dizziness. The cause is fluid accumulation in the inner ear.
A low-salt diet and avoidance of caffeine products can work wonders for the Meniere's patient. Surgical procedures range from insertion of tubes to draw off fluid to severing nerves carrying the troublesome symptoms. Sometimes you can reduce the fluid by instilling the antibiotic streptomycin.
An otolaryngologist specializes in diagnosing ear problems.
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Question: My husband has stopped smoking cigarettes. But he has taken up cigars, which I find odious. He says there is no danger in smoking cigars. I beg to differ with him. I think you should weigh in with the medical truth.
- Mrs. R.
Answer: Cigar smoking is not healthy. It increases the risk of mouth cancer and larynx cancer. It also increases the risk of lung cancer, although to a lesser degree than cigarette smoking.
Even if your husband does not inhale, he's getting a dose of the nicotine through the mouth's lining tissues and thence to the bloodstream, where the drug can exert its vessel-constriction effect.
Question: I am writing this for my dear aunt. My uncle suffers from hiccups - sometimes for weeks on end. Now it has happened again. My aunt has tried to give him a teaspoon of sugar, which she read about. It doesn't help. My uncle's brother also had hiccups. No one else in the family, though.
- C.W.
Answer: Hiccups are intermittent contractions of the diaphragm that separates the chest and abdomen.
The sugar trick is not for the severe hiccups your uncle has been having.
For random hiccups that come on for no good reason, often swallowing a teaspoon of granulated sugar will abort them - not every time and not for every person. For ordinary hiccups, the trick is worth trying. It ranks with eating a wedge of lemon soaked in angostura bitters or drinking a glass of water while holding your nose.
Your uncle's hiccups sound chronic. Such hiccups call for medicine, not home remedies. I'm thinking of chlorpromazine, carbamazepine and diazepam.
Prolonged hiccups can signal serious problems, such as lung cancer or a diaphragmatic abscess. I hate to mention such worrisome possibilities, but thinking positively, truth is the best medicine.