Well, I finally figured out what else was causing my vertigo: my high blood pressure medication (metoprolol tartrate).  I never considered the medicine as a possible cause because when I first had the vertigo, I was not taking any medication.  And when I stopped eating soy, I was still taking the medication and I was fine.  However, I was only taking one pill a day.  When my dosage increased slowly to two pills a day, I began to have severe vertigo problems again.  I began looking for additional foods that might be causing the vertigo instead of blaming the medicine.

It doesn’t seem much of a leap to realize it was the medication, but I was sure it was a food allergy.  I got to the point where I was only eating about five different gluten-free/soy-free foods (cereal, almond milk, meats, bread, potatoes) and still having vertigo problems. Finally I looked online at the side effects of the metoprolol tartrate and discovered that about 10% of people who take the drug have vertigo.  Eureka!  Duh.

So I worked with my doctor to get me off the medication, and now I don’t have the bad vertigo problems, but I now I have to lose 20 pounds and increase my exercise level to drop my blood pressure.  Well, I wanted to (needed to) do that anyway.  Now I have a real reason to do it.

An observant reader will note that in the last paragraph I said “. . . I don’t have the bad vertigo problems . . .”, not that all the dizziness/vertigo is gone.  Yup, I still have some minor dizziness and every once in awhile a day with more moderate dizziness.  Is it from some food (eggs?).  Is it from the prilosec that I have to take (my only other meds)?  I don’t know, but I hope to find out . . .

BTW, my military thriller novel, FIELD PIECE (see the left sidebar), will be a Kindle FREE DOWNLOAD on Amazon.com on Black Friday and Saturday (11/29 & 11/30). Pick it up for nothing, nada, and give it a good review on Amazon if you like it.  (If you don’t like it, it’s OK if you don’t review it.)

Posted under Causes, Symptoms