Suggest Treatment For Dizziness, Nausea And Cold

Posted on Tue, 27 Sep 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 27 Sep 2016 Answered on

Tue, 18 Oct 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : Twice in the last month I have experienced fairly sudden significant episodes of dizziness, nausea, and cold sweats. Lasts about 10 - 15 minutes, then goes away. Both times during the day. Not associated with any physical or emotional stress. I feel as though I am just about to vomit, then the symptoms go away completely very quickly. I feel perfectly fine afterward. Male, 67, 6'2', 220 lbs. Fairly active, hike the AT with no discomfort breathing or otherwise. Just had a complete physical 6 weeks ago. All good. Also had an echo cardiogram which was also excellent.

Answered by Dr. Noble Zachariah (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Please see the discussion below.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Welcome and thanks for your query.
Your symptoms of giddiness, nausea and cold sweat usually occur in two conditions. One is a benign positional vertigo in which the symptoms are caused by signals from the inner ear and the other is vertebrobasilar insufficiency in which the blood flow to the basal part of the brain is reduced momentarily and you become alright when the blood flow becomes normal. This can occur in vasovagal syncope where there is pooling of blood in the legs or due to cervical spondylosis because two blood vessels to the brain traverse through the neck vertebrae and any disturbance of blood flow due to movements of the neck may produce symptoms in some.
I would also be interested in knowing the opinion of your doctor who has examined you.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar