Osteoporosis patients are more likely to also have vertigo, says a new study.

The study, published in the March 24, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, involved 209 people with benign positional vertigo with no known cause such as head trauma or ear surgery.

Vertigo is an inner ear disorder that is a common cause of dizziness. The disorder is believed to be caused by loose calcium carbonate crystals that move in the sensing tubes of the inner ear.

The people with vertigo were compared to 202 people with no history of dizziness. People with osteoporosis, or low bone density, were three times more likely to have vertigo, and people with osteopenia, which is the stage before osteoporosis, were twice as likely to have vertigo as people who had normal bone density.

In women, 25 percent of those with vertigo had osteoporosis, compared to nine percent of those who did not have vertigo, and 47 percent of those with vertigo had osteopenia, compared to 33 percent of those without vertigo.