Our systems for balance work every time we come into motion, walk ,sit, run or lie down but we are hardly aware of this. We realise the importance of the balance system only when something goes wrong in it. There are three sources from where we get our balance:

1. Vision: Our eyes give us a vision of our surroundings in relation to where we are.

2. Joints: The sensors in our joints, muscles and feet give us important information about our position

3. Balance organs within our ears (vestibular system)

We have 5 balance organs in each ear. Three of them are semicircular canals and are filled with fluids. These canals have very tiny hair cells in them. On rotation of the head, this fluid moves in the canal and the hair cells sense this movement. They send messages to the brain about the movement which in turn sends signals to control our eye and body movements.
Normally the information sent by the brain is perfectly matched, though it might not be so in case of a loss of balance function. if this is sudden, one feels severe symptoms like spinning around as if one was in a round about. One might feel sick and have an inability to walk across a room.