It’s not unusual to experience common allergy symptoms like sneezing, coughing, and an itchy throat. Sinus pressure from allergies, however, can cause lightheadedness, dizziness, and vertigo. These may be related to more serious issues.
If you’re feeling dizzy, you might be wondering what’s causing it. Dehydration, medications, and a variety of conditions can cause you to feel dizzy and nauseated.
While dizziness might seem like a mild condition, it can be very disrupting to daily life. In fact, it can even be so severe that it leaves you stuck in bed for hours or days.
Dizziness can sometimes be caused by allergies.
An allergy is the immune system’s response to a foreign substance that’s not typically harmful to your body. These foreign substances are called allergens. They may include certain foods, pollen, or pet dander.
What causes allergy-induced dizziness?
Allergy-induced dizziness can be caused by allergens.
If you’re allergic to certain airborne substances, including dust, pollen, and pet dander, your body begins releasing chemicals including histamine to fight off these perceived intruders. These chemicals are the cause of what you know of as allergy symptoms.
- Common allergy symptoms include:
- sinus congestion
- sneezing
- itchy throat
- postnasal drip
- coughing
Allergies can affect the Eustachian tube. It is essentially a tunnel that connects your middle ear to the back of your throat and helps to regulate your balance while also equalizing the pressure in your middle ear with the ambient air pressure.
You begin feeling the signs in your ear, often the nasty clogged sensation that will make it hard for you to hear, due to the blockage of mucus in your Eustachian tube.
“Once blocked, the Eustachian tube cannot equalize the pressure in the ear or keep the body’s balance intact either,” he adds.
These middle-ear disturbances could lead to dizziness symptoms in allergy sufferers, people with colds, and individuals suffering from sinus infections.
Lightheadedness may be an allergic symptom as well. The two specific symptoms are usually distinguished from one another: lightheadedness makes you feel that you might faint or pass out, and the feeling of spinning is more a characteristic of dizziness – where you think that the room or your head spins.
Lightheadedness usually subsides when you lie down at least temporarily, but dizziness typically does not subside when you lie down.
What is vertigo brought on by allergies?
A severe form of dizziness called vertigo makes you feel as though the room is whirling. In addition to feeling as though they are moving, a person suffering from vertigo may also be sitting or standing motionless.
How is allergy-induced dizziness treated?
The cure for allergy-induced dizziness is usually to treat the cause-the allergy itself.
The best treatment for an allergy is to avoid the allergen altogether. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to avoid allergens in the air.
Prescription and over-the-counter medications are available to help relieve dizziness and other symptoms of allergies. However, treating the underlying cause is usually a more effective way to rid yourself of dizziness for good.
First, your doctor will try to determine the cause of your allergic-induced dizziness. This is usually done by a traditional allergy test, with a detailed analysis of your particular allergens.
Medications
There are many treatments for fighting allergy symptoms. Antihistamines are commonly used as a short-term treatment and are very effective at relieving the congestion that might be causing your dizziness.Antihistamines are also prescribed to treat vertigo. Be aware that many of the older antihistamines cause drowsiness. Do not drive or operate machinery when you first take an antihistamine.
You should also not combine them with antidepressants, anti-anxiety agents, muscle relaxants, sleeping pills, or alcohol. In case you have some questions, please refer to your doctor or pharmacist.
In addition to antihistamines, other medication options for allergy treatment or the symptoms of allergies are:
- corticosteroid pills
- cromolyn sodium
- nasal steroid sprays
- decongestants
- leukotriene modifiers
Allergy shots
Long term, your doctor will likely want to treat the allergy causing your symptoms. This can be done with prescription medication that’s safe for daily use. It can also be done with specially formulated allergy shots.
When an allergy shot is delivered, it means that you are being injected with a small amount of the allergen. This desensitizes your body to the allergen over time.
Gradually increasing your dosage, your body adjusts. Your symptoms will decrease over time.
Diet
Your doctor may also monitor you for signs of celiac disease. This is a more serious form of gluten intolerance that requires complete avoidance of gluten in your diet or serious health complications can follow.
