In clinical practice, vertigo and dizziness are distinguished by degree, with vertigo as a more serious manifestation. In vertigo, the head feels as if wrapped in a wet towel, with symptoms of spinning and loss of balance. The etiological cause is an underlying deficiency of spleen qi with accumulation on heat in the middle jiao. This leads to food stagnation and phlegm, and if truth were told, phlegm is the key pathogenic factor in vertigo. Underlying deficiencies of kidney yin and jing can generate liver wind, driving phlegm upwards. In TCM, this can be referred to simply as endogenous wind-phlegm. Effective herbal formulas should address this complex of deficiency, wind, heat and phlegm.
By marcello from potenza, italy (Dizzy thorns) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) or CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons