Ok, I've decided to start a thread on MMJ for treatment of Menieres and tinnitus relief. I have been battling meniere's for 10 years, since I was 24. In the early years I was fortunate enough to have attacks only once or twice a year, with complete symptom-free remission in between. As time passed though, I got more vertigo attacks and this past April 2010 I got hit again, but this time the tinnitus remained permanent 24/7. Then in October I got a very serious vertigo attack (could not move - constantly vomiting), was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and stayed there for 3 days - given 12 IVs for vertigo and nausea. I have never fully recovered - my balance is off and my tinnitus is now even louder. Living with the constant tinnitus and ear pressure sucks the life out of me. The doctors cannot offer me much help - as I already know there is no cure and tinnitus is permanent. I do not find relief nor do I want to be long term medicated on Xanax or Ambien to help me sleep. Beta-serc and JOH regimen are not helping anymore and the antivirals have yet to see improvement on them. I had a myringotomy tube placed - it helped for a year, but I'm still getting worse. I have tried everything except chiropractic - but I'm not convinced that works at all and wonder if it can worsen it! I worry over losing my career to this disease and how it affects my marriage and family life. Most days after work I just lie on the couch with ear pain, or exhaustion from the 24/7 tinnitus. The weekends I am just bed or couch locked. My desire to go out and do things outside or around the house is nil. I have tried masking with white noise (sleepmate device) and sleeping next to my bubbly aquarium. Everyday it is struggle to see how well I feel to get up and go to work. My energy is sapped and I'm also worried about my future and keeping up with my career which I'm very happy with - but only now to have it lost to me by this illness. Life is just not enjoyable anymore. I don't drink alcohol, and don't smoke cigarettes and try to live health life style and it's just not enough. This disease is eating away at me... Since I've been reading that cannabis may help sufferers with Meniere's symptoms. I have decided to start a thread about how I will begin to treat myself with cannabis. I have a grow tent and several plants and am close to harvest. I have bought a vaporizor and will start in a week or two to test this idea. As there are no guarantees, it might not work and then I'll sell off the equipment. If it does work, I will post my experiences here. This is my last hope.
There's already a fresh thread on this topic. But you're smart to try it and use a vaporizer. At least you're not ingesting any toxins.
Keep your chin up! I hope this works for you. I've had severe-bilateral Menieres for 61 years and it has take been a tough road. However, on the positive side, I've managed to have a good education, a great career, a wonderful social life and supportive family and friends. Luckily, my employers were also supportive. I've lost a lot of my hearing and all of my balance but still manage to have a fairly active life style at 71. Check out the thread on this. Lots of interesting stuff there. Keep us posted.
You joined this site over a year ago with the username ninjakush, but are just now using pot...I doubt it. Just for the record, I have been a chronic pot smoker for years and recently quit 100%. My ear has not felt this good in years. I'm actually coming to terms with the possibility that I caused my ear issues by smoking too much pot. I told my ENT only after I quit, and he said about 25% of his MM patients have a history of smoking ganja, for whatever that is worth. (if anyone is wondering about the word Kush, just Google it) I'm tempted to smoke just to see of I come out of remission, but I don't want to tempt fate. Maybe it's the pot, maybe not, but I don't want to take the chance. Not saying you should or should not smoke, that's none of my business. Just relaying my experience. If I come out of remission I may have a toke or ten.
AFO, more than 25% of the general population have smoked pot so its not surprising your ent has seen those numbers. And besides, how would he know? Does he ask them all? Sounds like a typical statistical guess. Chronic pot smoking cannot be compared to medicinal pot smoking anymore than abusing xanax can be compared to taking proper doses.
That's why I said "for whatever that is worth". I never said take what the ENT said as gospel. As for medicinal vs. chronic: Again, that's why I said "Not saying you should or should not smoke, that's none of my business. Just relaying my experience" even if pot did cause my MM does not mean it caused, or would cause, someone else's... even if they did smoke chronically for years. Again I was just relaying my experience to someone who MIGHT be a chronic smoker. Not saying OP is.
vaporizers rule... but be careful. they are kinda dangerous cuz you dont realize how much you are actually taking in LOL... uh... not that im speaking from experience or anything... :
Do you have any idea of the mechanism that would cause smoking ganja to initiate ear issues? I have never smoked one in my life, but am always looking for a common thread and this potential cause is a new one for me Thanks, Sirlanc
A vaporizer is a device that heats the cannabis, but not to the point of combustion. When the cannabis plant is heated to a certain level (usually 275-325 F.) it will out gas all of the oils and beneficial compounds without the plant matter burning. You are inhaling the vapors of the THC and other oils, and none of the cancer causing Carcinogens created when the material is burned/smoked. It is considered as the safest way to ingest medicinal Cannabis aside from using the plant (or extracted oils, cannabutter, etc.) in foods. The effects of the meds will be felt much quicker than you would if ingesting it in foods, so for Meniere's patients dealing with vertigo, etc. the benefit is generally needed asap. A good vaporizer is an investment, and costs for a quality unit can run $150 - $700. IFD
Not a clue I can speculate: could be pesticides or fertilizers, maybe even an allergy(to the pot or even pollen or mold) etc..who really knows what was used on what I smoked, you know? Unlike OP I could not grow it myself as I live in a non-medicinal state and the threat of the government taking your home for growing pot is very real. Otherwise I'd have grown it myself. All I can do is relay my experience: I eliminated everything from my life that could possibly be causing my ear issues at one time or another. I had a long day a while back and didn't smoke any pot all day long and had a pretty good ear day. Came home and took a few puffs, and what do you know, my ear started popping. Not a HUGE deal, but at that moment I realized just MAYBE the smoke WAS having some kind of effect on my ears. I decided then that I must at least give it a shot, as I'd tried everything else. Heck, I could always go back to smoking if it didn't help, right? Well within three days my ear felt unbelievably better. Better than it had since I could remember. Fullness was gone...literally the fluid that I could feel in my ear drained away for the first time in FOREVER. That damn feeling of having a water balloon in my ear was gone! The popping stopped the day I stopped the pot. The distortion stopped. More surprising to me than anything, my hearing got better...a LOT better(over a weeks time). Better than I have heard in that ear in three years. In fact, if I listen to my MP3 player, I can hardly tell a difference between the ears. 90% of distortion has gone away! Now, why this happened, I cannot say for sure. Could be a remission, etc..placebo. My ear still rings every bit as much as before. My good ear also has moments where it will ring for 30 seconds or so and then stop. This tells me SOMETHING is still going on. I have not had an episode of 100% deafness in my bad ear since stopping. Before I stopped they were coming every few weeks. Deafness, fullness, distortion, roaring whooshing sound, etc..everything but vertigo. It could also be that I am just delaying the inevitable. Maybe I have already damaged my ears and that by stopping I have just slowed whatever process I began. All I can do is stay off the pot and see what happens. And hey, on the bright side, I can always go back to smoking if my ear issues return full force. truth be told tho: I am also feeling better than I have in a long time. My lungs feel better, I sleep better and even eat better. I've always gone to the gym but my muscle tone has really improved and I've gained muscle weight. Quitting pot has almost been like a drug for me But like I said, I cannot say this would help anyone else, even if the are a chronic smoker. With a name like ninjakush I thought maybe the OP was a chronic like me and could get help from my experience. Maybe not but doesn't hurt to throw it out there. And you know, deep down, I really wonder if it was THC itself that somehow after long term exposure affected my ears. I smoked, vaporized and ate many strains over the years but the one common denominator in all of it was THC. But like I said who the heck knows. FWIW, I have now added salt back to my diet...all I want!!! And stopped the water pills. I still do some of JOH, I see no reason to stop that. I'm now two months symptom free for the first time in years. But I know it could return tomorrow...even worse than before. I'll use this thread to update my progress if it might help others.
Air Force One shows up in a pot thread... :'( clever may man Maybe you were allergic to it my pilot friend? Do you guys think vaporizing into the lungs, and extracting it into a resin and ingesting, can have different effects? The dude that was curing cancer was using extraction. Wonder if vaporizer is the same?
Don't worry, I've never piloted a plane, stoned or otherwise. Could be I was allergic. Could be a lot of things. Could be no relationship at all. Something in or on the pot if I had to bet. I know people that have smoked more than I, for longer than I and have zero issues with their ears. Could be pot+a genetic predisposition.
Air Force One this could be clue to the fact that when you stopped chronic smoking your ear felt better. Not sure. Maybe the smoking was causing runaway fungus infection in your ear. According to this document smoking marijuana inhibits the body's ability to destroy candida fungus. This research comes to you courtesy of Tom47. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote "We conclude that marijuana smoking does not alter phagocytic behavior or the respiratory burst of human PAM, but marijuana smoking does decrease the ability of human PAM to destroy ingested Candida albicanus. These findings contrast with the effects of tobacco smoking, which not only decreases the fungicidal activity of human PAM but also increases their respiratory burst."(15) However, the authors explain that Candida albicanus (a yeast) is a relatively large organism, and a decreased ability to destroy it may not indicate a decreased ability to destroy bacteria. "An appropriate question to ask is whether fungistatic or fungicidal activity by PAM bears any relationship to the intracellular killing of bacteria. As opposed to fungi pathogens, bacteria are more likely to be encountered during lung infections of MS or TS. Human PAM from healthy volunteers were recently compared with respect to their ability to ingest and kill Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicanus. (16) Although bacterial killing was complete in 2 [hours], 4-6 [hours]. were needed for PAM to kill a stationary phase, agerminative strain of C. albicanus for PAM."(17) http://www.drugscience.org/Petition/C2B.html
