Check if you have Ménière's disease
Symptoms include: feeling like you or everything around you is spinning (vertigo) losing your balance. ringing or buzzing sounds in 1 or both ears (tinnitus)
During the earliest stage of Meniere's Disease, you will experience sporadic vertigo attacks. You might randomly feel unbalanced or like everything is spinning uncontrollably around you. During this stage, you will begin to experience hearing loss and increased tinnitus in the affected ear.
Low Salt Diet Low salt diet is very commonly used as the first line treatment for Meniere's disease. It's thought to lower the pressure in the inner ear.
Ménière disease is a balance disorder. It's caused by an abnormality in part the inner ear called the labyrinth. Fluid build-up here can cause a severe spinning sensation (vertigo) and affect the hearing.
Certain stresses and emotional disturbances can trigger episodes of Ménière's symptoms, including working for too long, underlying health conditions, and tiredness. Salt in the diet is another trigger.
Ménière's disease can develop at any age, but it is more likely to happen to adults between 40 and 60 years of age.
Ménière's disease isn't a life-threatening illness, but it can affect quality of life. People who have this disorder may struggle with symptoms that happen without warning, come back time and again, and may disrupt their daily lives.
Avoid caffeine and alcohol, which may make symptoms worse. If you smoke, quit. Quitting may help reduce symptoms. Some people find that managing allergy symptoms and avoiding allergy triggers helps decrease Meniere disease symptoms.
Avoid things like coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks, chocolate, and diet pills. Caffeine will stimulate the nervous system and make migraines and tinnitus worse. Eat a low sodium diet. Sodium causes fluid retention and can make your symptoms worse in your inner ear.
The disease also plays tricks on your vision. For some strange reason, the nerve that goes from your inner ear to your brain also controls some of your eye movement. Your eyes can twitch or bounce constantly, making focusing on objects, much less print, extremely difficult at times.
The age at the first attack of Meniere's is usually in the third to sixth decade of life.
An ENT specialist can conduct an examination to diagnose Meniere's disease, which assesses the level of hearing loss, function of the inner ear, and balance. A diagnosis of the disease requires: Two episodes of vertigo that each last 20 minutes or longer but do not exceed 12 hours. Tinnitus/fullness in the ears.
The results indicated that the patients with Ménière's disease developed all-cause dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and vascular dementia more frequently than those in the comparison group during the 11-year follow-up period.
There is no cure but treatment can help to ease and prevent symptoms. If you are a driver, you must stop driving if Ménière's disease is diagnosed.
Though vertigo is a symptom of Meniere's disease, the chronic condition can have multiple other side effects and tends to get progressively worse. On the other hand, vertigo does not necessarily link with a more severe condition, such as Meniere's disease.
Many people with Meniere's disease feel better if they do vigorous aerobic exercise on a regular basis (e.g. bike, rowing machine, etc.). Don't over-extend yourself – if you can't physically manage vigorous aerobic exercise do something more low impact, like yoga or walking.
Drink lots of water – This may sound counterproductive as Meniere's is the result of too much fluid in the inner ear. However, if the cause of Meniere's has to do with a virus, a pathogen, or a bacteria, drinking lots of water can flush these things out of the body.
Vitamin C is important for the structure of blood vessels and vitamin E helps maintain their elasticity. Omega 3 fatty acids from oily fish such as sardines, herrings, mackerel, pilchards, salmon (if tinned they should be in olive or sunflower oil not brine) are an excellent anti-inflammatory.
Meniere's is a progressive disease, which means it gets worse over time. It may start slowly with occasional hearing loss. Vertigo may develop later.
Many experts recommend that you try and sleep on your back, as the crystals within your ear canals are less likely to become disturbed and trigger a vertigo attack.
Betahistine is a histamine analog and is a prescription only medication. It is also known by the brand name Serc. Betahistine is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs used to treat vertigo, tinnitus and hearing loss associated with Ménière's disease in the UK.
They may occur daily or as rarely as once a year. The severity of each attack can vary. Some attacks may be severe and interfere with daily living activities.