Vertigo is an artificial feeling that a person or the surrounding is in motion or spinning and it is often accompanied by nausea and a person looses his balance.  The dizziness that a person experiences in vertigo can be compared to the feeling of that game that children play spinning round and round then doing a sudden stop and staring at the surroundings spin around.  But not everybody who gets dizzy is experiencing vertigo.

Tinnitus on the other hand is a sensation of ear ringing in the absence of an actual ringing.  The sounds heard are buzzing, ringing, humming, croaking, ticking, etc.  The noises that a person with tinnitus heard cannot be heard by the people around him not unless it’s the pulsatile type of tinnitus.  The causes of vertigo and tinnitus will be discussed below.

Vertigo is caused by problems that involve the inner ear, where our body’s sense of balance is located.  It can also be a result of problems in the acoustic nerve, that connects the inner ear and the brain, or other disorders that affect the connections of the cerebellum and brain stem, which also has something to do with our sense of balance.  Vertigo commonly results from motion sickness.  People who have motion sickness are those whose inner ear is hypersensitive to swaying motions or sudden starting and stopping.

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo results from the formation of sludge in the semicircular canals of the inner ear.  This is common among the elderly and it is experienced when the head is positioned in a particular way.

Meniere’s disease can also cause vertigo.  Although the cause of Meniere’s disease is still undetermined, it is said to be due to a swell in the inner ear.  Other causes of vertigo that affects the inner ear and the nerve connections are viral/bacterial infections like herpes zoster, mastoiditis and viral labyrinthitis.  Tumors in the auditory nerve, paget’s disease, nerve inflammations and taking ototoxic drugs that damage the inner ears may also cause vertigo.

Vertebrobasilar insufficiency, a temporary ischemic attack when the supply of blood to the arteries of the brain stem, back of the brain and cerebellum is reduced, causes vertigo. 

Tinnitus is commonly caused by hearing loss either temporary or permanent.  This is mainly because the brain receives improper electrical signals from the damaged cochlea which it interprets as a sound.  This sound is the ringing that a tinnitus sufferer hears.  Temporary hearing loss may be due to a blockage in the ear canals due to impacted ear wax.  Removal of the ear wax will eliminate the tinnitus.  Other causes of tinnitus are infections of the inner ears, head injuries, meniere’s disease, tumors, otosclerosis, circulatory problems.

Both causes of vertigo and tinnitus originate from problems that affect the inner ears.  So if you experience any of this, it is best to have a proper medical evaluation paying special attention to the ears.