Categories: General

Dizziness while riding Bike

Aside from the neck pain, I have two other issues I am trying to resolve on the bike. One is the splitting headache problem I get during races. The other issue is new – slight dizziness while riding my bike. Every time I hit a little bump in the road, I get a momentary bout of dizziness. This just started a couple weeks ago.

I went to an ENT doctor this week, thinking all of this might be sinus or ear related. Dr. Yu at Chapel Hill ENT did not see anything wrong with my ears or sinuses, other than my deviated septum which pretty much blocks me from breathing thru my nose! She said I should get surgery for that. Maybe after my race season is over. She gave me three different nasal sprays to help with the nose breathing. She thought the headaches and dizziness might be a slight oxygen deficit issue. Interesting theory. Some googling turned up this link which talks about “oxygen fatigue” – sounds kind of like my issues: http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/health/tired.htm

Yesterday I went on a tempo bike ride. I had used all those nasal sprays, so was getting plenty of air thru my nose and mouth. Still got the dizziness. It seems worse when I go faster. It actually made me kind of scared to go too fast. WTF? That just ain’t right!

Other thoughts I have are:

low iron. I do have low iron, and frequently get dizzy when I stand up quickly. The sensation I get on my bike is very similar to that. I’m supposed to take iron supplements, but they give me a stomache ache, so I tend to eat lots of raisins instead. Probably not enough. I started taking the FeSol again to see if that helps.
motion sickness. maybe I am developing motion sickness. I do tend to look down at the road in front of my wheel, rather than ahead at where I am going. When I look ahead, I think the dizzyness problem is less. I know, I should be looking ahead anyway!!! I wonder if dramamine would help?
pinched nerve? I wonder if the dizzyness and headache are related to the neck pain. Maybe there is some pinched nerve thing happening in my neck? The headache only happens during longer races, and I suspect they are set off by the swim. I do twist my neck funny when I breathe. I work on this problem, of course, but old habits die hard! I have another appointment with the Chiropractor on Friday and plan to ask what he thinks about this.
Nutrition: I did change my Infinit forumula two weeks ago. I was using my friend’s formula which has 201 calories per serving. My friend weighs alot less than me, so I decided to use the Infinit questionnaire and make my own formula. [link to my formula] My formula has 261 calories. Nothing else was different between the two formulas other than number of calories (The carbohyrate blend slider was up all the way on mine, all other sliders were the same). Could a few extra calories be too much and diverting blood to my stomach? (that’s one thing the article about oxygen fatigue talks about). This seems unlikely, but I’m brainstorming here!
Black Cohosh. For several months, I have been taking 40mg of Black Cohosh per day to help with menopause symptoms. Sucks being an old lady, let me tell you! lol! I just now googled ‘black cohosh dizziness’, and there are lots of references to dizziness as a side effect. Dang, that stuff works! I’m going to wait to see if taking the iron helps first, then maybe stop the Black Cohosh.

Anybody have any ideas, I’d love to hear them! I’m starting to kind of freak out about the ironman. I do not want to suffer that splitting headache on the long bike rides at Duke 1/2 and B2B. And I need to solve this dizziness problem so I can go FAST down hills at Duke. That is how I always get a good bike split there. Help – I need to get my bike mojo back!!!!

carolyahoo

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Jennifer says:

September 16, 2009 at 9:32 am

The best iron supplement is called Repliva and it is by prescription only. If your doctor is not familiar with it, tell him to look it up. It is awesome and does not have all of the side effects of other iron tablets. It has different forms of iron and then a bunch of other stuff that helps your body absorb it. My hemoglobin went up 2 points in just a week while I was taking this. Please look into, it could make a huge difference. Low hemoglobin means low oxygen because that is where the O2 attaches. Good luck!