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Nervous System Problems

Overview

The nervous system is a complex, highly specialized network. It organizes, explains, and directs interactions between you and the world around you. The nervous system controls:

  • Sight, hearing, taste, smell, and feeling (sensation).
  • Movements you choose to make (voluntary) and those that happen without your thinking about them (involuntary). These include breathing and heartbeat.
  • The ability to think and reason. It allows you to be awake (conscious), to have thoughts and memories, and to use language.

The nervous system is divided into two parts:

  • The brain and spinal cord (central nervous system).
  • The nerve cells that control how you feel pain, touch, or temperature (peripheral nervous system).

The symptoms depend on which area of the nervous system is involved. They also depend on what's causing the problem. These problems may occur slowly and cause a gradual loss of function (degenerative). Or they may occur suddenly and cause life-threatening problems (acute). Symptoms may be mild or severe. Some serious conditions, diseases, and injuries that can cause nervous system problems include:

A sudden nervous system problem can cause many different symptoms. It depends on the area of the nervous system involved. Stroke, Opens dialog and transient ischemic attack, Opens dialog (TIA) are common examples of these acute problems. You may suddenly have one or more symptoms, such as:

Seizures can also cause sudden changes in consciousness, feeling (sensation), emotion, or thought. Some people have abnormal body movements, such as muscle twitching. How often the seizures occur and how severe they are depend on the cause of the seizures and the area of the brain involved.

Diabetes can cause problems with balance. This can be a result of peripheral neuropathy or stroke.

Vertigo, Opens dialog and dizziness, Opens dialog are problems of balance and coordination. Vertigo is often caused by a medicine or a problem of the inner ear or brain. Emotional distress, dehydration, Opens dialog, blood pressure problems, and other diseases can all make you feel dizzy.

Most headaches aren't caused by serious central nervous system problems. The pain that comes with a headache can be a throbbing or a piercing pain, such as with a migraine, Opens dialog. Or it can be severe pain that comes and goes over several days, such as with cluster headaches, Opens dialog. Headaches are usually caused by problems with the sinuses, scalp, or muscles of or around the head.

Current as of: December 20, 2023

Author: Ignite Healthwise, LLC Staff

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All Healthwise education is reviewed by a team that includes physicians, nurses, advanced practitioners, registered dieticians, and other healthcare professionals.