Why Dizziness Is Still a Medical Mystery | The New Yorker

The experience of dizziness has been documented for thousands of years, and it’s one of the most common complaints that bring people to the doctor. Even children can readily identify it: if you are old enough to play Ring Around the Rosie, you know what it feels like. Yet dizziness, like pain, isn’t something that can be seen directly in an X-ray or an MRI; it must be described by the person who feels it, and terms like “vertigo” and “light-headedness” never seem to capture the entire experience, or how profoundly it can unsettle us.