• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Contact | 360-778-1266

Center for Hearing Loss Help

Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Reference
    • Glossary of Ear Terms
    • Drug Pronunciation Guide
    • Looping Information
    • “Learn About Hearing”
    • Useful Links
  • Museum
  • Blog
  • Shop
    • Alerting Devices
    • Assistive Listening Devices
    • Books
    • Loop Systems
    • Speechreading CDs
    • Telephones, amplified
    • Visor Cards

Is That a Balance Problem or a Stroke? — Here’s How to Tell

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

If all of a sudden you feel dizzy and your balance is off, has something just happened to the balance parts of your inner ears, or have you just had an ischemic stroke in your brain? Your doctor needs to determine what has happened right away.

Up to now, doctors typically ordered MRIs to look for a blood clot in your brain which would indicate a stroke. Unfortunately MRIs are both expensive and do not always find tiny blood clots, especially at the outset.

Now researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Illinois have discovered a fast, accurate, low-tech way to determine which is which. Your doctor can tell in under a minute whether you’ve just had a stroke or not. Here’s how he can do it.

Your doctor gives you a three-part eye test called H.I.N.T.S. (In case you’re interested, H. I. stands for “head impulse”, N.T. for “nystagmus test” and S. for “skew”.)

First, is the Head Impulse Test. Here your doctor rotates your head while you keep your eyes focused on his nose. If you have had a stroke you cannot do this. However, if you have an inner ear balance problem, you can keep focused on his nose.

Second, is the Nystagmus Test. You follow your doctor’s finger as he moves it. If you have a balance problem, your eyes will jerk in only one direction. However, if you have had a stroke, your eyes will most likely jerk in both directions.

Third, is the Skew Test. Here your doctor looks at your eyes to see if one eye appears higher than the other. If one eye is higher than the other, you have had a stroke. If they are the same level, then it could be inner ear balance problems.

According to David E. Newman-Toker, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and coauthor of this study. “These three eye tests tell, with 96% certainty, whether or not the patient has had a stroke.”

According to Bottom Line’s Daily Health News, December 14, 2009, “Dr. Newman-Toker advises seeking attention for any dizziness that comes on unexpectedly and has no obvious explanation, particularly if it lasts more than a few seconds. In situations where you still feel dizzy when you arrive at the ER, request the eye tests, he says, but be aware that not every doctor has the training and experience to perform them.”

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hearing Loss Research & Resources

Free Visor Cards

Download your free Visor Cards for hard of hearing or deaf people here.

Loop Systems

Loop your home or meeting room. Discover how you can hear wonderfully clear sound again when listening to the TV/radio, etc, or when listening to a speaker at a meeting.

Loop systems are one of the best-kept secrets in town. To learn more about Loop Systems and what they can do for you, click here.

Take Control of Your Tinnitus—Here’s How

If your ears ring, buzz, chirp, hiss, click or roar, you know just how annoying tinnitus can be. You do not have to put up with this racket for the rest of your life. This book teaches you many things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under your control so it no longer bothers you.

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Sounds Now Too Loud for You?

Hypersensitive to Sound front coverIf some (or all) normal sounds seem so loud they “blow the top of your head off”, or make you wince or jump, or cause you headaches or ear pain, or affect your balance, or result in fear or annoyance of sounds so you feel you have to avoid these sounds, this book is for you!

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Hearing Phantom Sounds?

When hard of hearing people begin hearing phantom voices or music, they immediately worry they are going crazy. It never crosses their minds that they are sane and are just experiencing Musical Ear syndrome.

To learn more about the strange phantom sounds of Musical Ear syndrome and what you can do about them, click here to read a comprehensive article about Musical Ear Syndrome.

Or get the book—Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Glossary Navigation

  • Full List of Glossary Terms
  • A to Z Index

Footer

Center for Hearing Loss Help

Neil G. Bauman, Ph.D.

1013 Ridgeway Drive, Lynden,
WA 98264-1057 USA

Email: neil@hearinglosshelp.com

Phone: 360-778-1266 (M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM PST)

© 2025 Center for Hearing Loss Help – Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life [which also includes perfect hearing] through Jesus Christ our Lord." [Romans 6:23]

"But know this, in the last days perilous times will come" [2 Timothy 3:1]. "For there will be famines, pestilences, and [severe] earthquakes in various places" [Matthew 24:7], "distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring"—tsunamis, hurricanes—Luke 21:25, but this is good news if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for "when these things begin to happen, lift up your heads [and rejoice] because your redemption draws near" [Luke 21:28].