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JEFFREY LEVIN was on a commuter train to Manhattan one morning in May 1992 when he suddenly felt unsteady and lightheaded, he said, as if "my head was in a bowl of Jell-O." Doctors told him the dizziness would probably pass, but Mr. Levin only felt worse as the weeks went by.
He began to have trouble negotiating the busy floor of the futures exchange, where he was the chief economist. He found it increasingly hard to concentrate in meetings and began to have memory problems, sometimes calling colleagues into his office and then forgetting why he had asked to see them.
"It was scary," said Mr. Levin, 44, who lives in Montclair, N.J. "I was afraid I was getting Alzheimer's."
Fortunately, it was not Alzheimer's disease. Mr. Levin later learned that his dizziness and memory problems were the result of an inner-ear disorder, possibly caused by a virus after a bad cold. A Common Problem
Nearly 90 million Americans, or more than one-third of the population, report bouts of dizziness at some point in their lives, according to studies from the National Institutes of Health. Of those, 76 million suffer from inner-ear disorders, which can be caused by whiplash, blows to the head, viral infections, high doses of certain antibiotics, strokes or degeneration of the inner ear's balance function, also known as the vestibular system, which often deteriorates with age.
Because inner-ear problems cause such diverse symptoms as vertigo, nausea and blurred vision, many who suffer from the disorders spend years going from doctor to doctor, only to have their symptoms misdiagnosed as sinus, eye, neurological or psychological problems.
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