Dizziness (Latin: "Vertigo") is the sensation of instability. The term is fairly vague, and can include a number of more specific conditions, ranging from harmless to life-threatening. One of the most common causes of dizziness is rapid spinning; this cause lent its name to the baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean, whose windup while throwing the ball caused him to spin completely around.

Vertigo refers to dizziness with a sensation of motion. The cerebellum takes input about the location and motion of the head from the inner ears, the visual system, and position sensors in the neck. If these signals disagree with one another, or if the processing is not working right, vertigo is experienced. Vertigo is more likely than other types of dizziness to be associated with nausea, vomiting, or double vision, to occur even when lying down, and to feel better with the eyes closed.

Instability is not necessarily dizziness; uneasiness during walking or standing is often due to musculoskeletal pain, Parkinson's disease or various other conditions.

Causes

Inner ear causes:

• Labyrinthitis
• Meniere's disease
• Benign paroxysmal postural vertigo
• Vestibular neuronitis
• Perilymphatic fistula
• Pontine angle tumor (Neurinoma of the Acoustic nerve )
• etc.

Eye causes:

• new glasses
• optical illusions

Neck causes:

• Whiplash and other strains
• arthritis
• Cervical Vertigo

Central Nervous System causes:

• Vertebrobasilar migraine
• Multiple sclerosis
• Arteria basilaris syndrome
• Orthostatic hypotension
• concussion
• etc.