Fluctuations in hearing or dizziness

Timothy C. Hain, MD   Content last updated: June 18, 2009

Often people wonder why their dizziness is sometimes gone and sometimes not, or why their hearing symptoms come and go. There are a number of generic explanations for these things, which are outlined below.

• Biological Oscillators
  • Processes with long delays in feedback loops
    • There are no obvious examples in the otologic framework, but neurology has many -- for example, Cheyne-Stokes respiration, and Kleine Levin syndrome.
  • interaction with external oscillators
    • allergy (pollen counts)
    • seasons (for example, certain Migraine syndromes occur seasonally).
    • SAD -- seasonal affective disorder
• Interactions with other disturbances
  • other diseases such as colds may cause the vestibular or hearing deficit to worsen
  • fatigue and stress
  • foods
  • medications (many medications impair balance and several also impair hearing)
  • heat (i.e. in MS)
  • allergy status
  • change in glasses (may be dizzy for several days)
• Diseases that have their own timing for reasons that are not entirely clear
  • Migraine -- characterized by episodic headache, sometimes accompanied by dizziness
  • Menieres -- characterized by episodic dizziness and hearing symptoms
  • Multiple sclerosis -- neurological symptoms that are scattered in time and space.
  • Viruses such as those in the herpes family