I saw a young woman in my office this week, who presented to see if I could help her with her vertigo and dizziness, which she has been suffering with for several years.  This is not an uncommon presentation in my office, in fact quite the contrary; it is what folks commonly come in to see me for.  What made this case different was the fact that this young lady fell last year as a result of her balance being affected, not only from the vertigo and dizziness, but from the drugs being used in the failed attempt to treat her (the main side affect being that of dizziness).  The fall resulted in a fractured shoulder, causing severe limitation of movement of that arm and as such, with her activities of daily living.  As I talked to this young lady, I thought to myself, “if only she had come in sooner, I could have treated her successfully without the use of the drugs which likely caused her balance loss, which would have averted the fall and thus the fractured shoulder.”  This is all too common a problem as individuals often times wait painstakingly long intervals in anticipation that the problems will resolve on their own, when in fact, they rarely do.  Procrastination is the mother of disaster, causing a bad situation to become worse, especially with problems such as vertigo and dizziness.  Over time, these conditions affect your balance by altering the pathways in your brain that monitor the postural systems.  Ultimately, you wind up with a new problem, that of balance loss.  With falls being the #1 cause of nonfatal injuries in all age groups, and the leading cause of accidental death in people over the age of 65, it is only a matter of time before something bad happens.  Typically with dizziness types of disorders, the sooner an individual presents for treatment, the easier and less involved that treatment is, which is really true of almost everything.  As the disorders progress, they oftentimes cause the introduction of new problems involving other areas of the brain or the neuraxis.  If you or someone you love suffers with vertigo or dizziness, finding the cause and treating it early can make all the difference between getting on with your life vs. getting on with a lifetime of anguish and medical bills.