“I get dizzy all the time.”
“I get car sick a lot–particularly as a passenger.”
“I cannot go on the spinning rides at the fair.”
“I am frequently nauseated.”
“I’m unsteady when I walk–I stumble a lot and sometimes I fall.”
“I’m so clumsy—I can’t even walk in a straight line. I sometimes bump into furniture and door frames and the person walking next to me.”
“Turning my head from side to side, bending down to pick something up from the floor or getting up from a chair quickly makes me very dizzy.”
“For days after I returned from my cruise, things felt like they were moving as if I was still on the ship.”
These are all common phrases from people thought to be suffering from an inner ear or “vestibular” problem. They may have seen one or more doctors to find relief from these symptoms but with no luck after numerous tests, treatment plans or medications. They may have researched Meniere’s Disease or other disorders that could cause dizziness, motion sickness and nausea, but what worked for others with those symptoms did not work for them. And why not? Because they didn’t realize that their dizziness, motion sickness, constant nausea, and difficulties with balance and coordination may be visually induced.
These people have a small amount of eye misalignment not found on a routine eye exam. Their body corrects the misalignment by overusing and straining the eye muscles, causing the “vestibular” symptoms of Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD).
One of the patients featured in Dr. Debby Feinberg’s book If the Walls of My Exam Room Could Talk came to Vision Specialists of Michigan in a wheelchair. His symptoms included constant dizziness and the inability to keep most food down. Once an active softball coach, he was now wasting away, and doctors were as mystified by his sudden deterioration as he and his family were. When he was referred to Vision Specialists of Michigan by another patient, he was in a wheelchair because of his constant dizziness…but when he left the office, wearing a pair of eye aligning glasses, he was able to walk out on his own.
So many months of more than discomfort; the man had lost his life in those months, frustrated and bewildered at his own body’s betrayal. And he, along with so many others, would never have guessed the cause to be his eyes. While his symptoms were extreme, there are so many others who suffer from daily nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness, vertigo, balance and coordination and other vestibular-related symptoms, without any inkling of the significance vision can play in all of it.
Do these symptoms sound familiar to you? Do you know someone who has suffered from these symptoms? Please visit and share the link IsItMyEyes.com and take the questionnaire to find out if your symptoms are caused by an eye misalignment–something that can be successfully treated once it is recognized.
