THE FOLLOWING ARE SYMPTOMS AND CONDITIONS COMMONLY TREATED BY THE WASHINGTON ACUPUNCTURE CENTER. DIZZINESS Dizziness is a term often used to describe difficulty in maintaining balance, ataxia, or vertigo. It is an unpleasant sensation of disturbed relations with surrounding objects in space. Ataxia is impaired coordination of voluntary muscular action, especially the groups of muscles used for walking or reaching for objects with the hands. It is caused by pathology of central or peripheral nervous system pathways involved in balancing muscle movements. Vertigo is the sensation that one's nearby environment is revolving around him or that he is revolving around it. Meniere's disease of the inner ear may cause vertigo, ataxia and a sensation of dizziness along with nerve deafness and tinnitus. It usually responds somewhat to antibiotic treatment, but result in episodes of dizziness which are very resistant to medical treatment. Acupuncture is usually effective in such cases. It is important that this disease be differentiated from acbustic neuroma, which requires surgical treatment for tumor removal before acupuncture is used to treat residual symptoms. Alcohol or other drugs can cause temporary dizziness, ataxia and vertigo, but if these symptoms persist for more than 24 hours after the last dose of the drug thorough diagnostic studies are required. Prolonged alcoholism can cause persistent ataxia with cerebellar degeneration, which may be somewhat relieved by megavitamin therapy and acupuncture. Tranquilizers, such as Thorazine, Mellaril or Haldol, may damage the basal ganglia of the brain thereby causing persistent ataxia. Acupuncture can be used to treat alcoholism and as an effective substitute for psychotropic drugs in treating mental illness. It also relieve the ataxia and dyskinesia caused by these drugs. Multiple sclerosis is a frequent cause of ataxia with or without a sensation of dizziness. Although cortisone and some other drugs may give some temporary relief of multiple sclerosis symptoms, they have serious side effects and do more harm than good if taken over a long period of time. Acupuncture is the most effective, as well as the safest, treatment for multiple sclerosis. next