This is why I am sure this disease is not diet related

It could be different for different people. In my case, which I feel is virus related, i can eat foods such as nuts etc (high arginine) in moderation but if I get too many on a continued basis and then run into a stressful period on top of that, I can have a real setback and have to smarten up all over again.

 

As a MD sufferer who also has been diagnosed and am being treated for MAV, I can attest that diet can help control symptoms and does in fact do that for me.

 

I agree that this is true for some. It's true for me. In all the decades I've had this this, have never noticed any relation with anything I ingest. Various dietary adjustments have made no difference. However, this is not the case for everyone. It's an individual thing.

 

I would submit for consideration that yes, probably for some people diet has little impact. However, nobody knows the cause of MD but most of the leading theories have some relation to the immune system. Autoimmune disease? Check. Allergies? Check. Viral infection? Check. Stress? Check.

So anything that impairs the healthy functioning of the immune system, in my opinion, can lead to where we are now. Excessive salt, excess sugar, etc. all impair the immune system. Eating food you are allergic to has your immune system running in circles. Stress, hormones, vitamin deficiencies, etc. all lead to the same result.

Yellowboy, in your case you found no difference with the strict Spartan diet you were on. But at the same time you were recovering from surgery which is a major stress on your body and that would be lowering your immunity. Not to mention that inflammation (if MD is the result of that in the vestibular apparatus) often takes a lot more than four days to calm down.

If someone said, hey, I was at a wellness retreat in Bali for two weeks with no stress, fresh air, healthy food, etc and still experienced the same symptoms then that's a different story but I'm not sure to say that four days with your body under post-surgical stress may not give an accurate picture.

Trust me, I would love to head off to the local all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet but I don't see that in my future....

 

I’ve tried it all different ways and for me food has never made a difference as of yet.

 

Years ago I went through a weird time. I was dizzy 24/7 for 2 months. I would get the bad vertigo if I moved around too fast. I stayed away from salt and caffeine. Just walking was weird. I broke up my foodplot for deer hunting with a tractor and would have to stop to vomit every once in a while. Lol. But this went on for 2 months and then it finally started easing up enough where I could go back to work. Now I'm back off work having vertigo spells 3 or more times a week. And I have had several spells early in the morning, so I feel like the low salt low caffeine doesn't help me, but I could be wrong.

 

After a vertigo free year (antivirals and diet) I had a bit of a blow-out over the Easter break with the kids, I was feeling great, we had friends stay, they brought chocolate and CHEESE (I hadden had cheese in the last year!), I'd been sugar, dairy, caffeine and gluten free where possible. I ate cheese, even blue cheese, chocolate and coffee at breakfast!!! A few days after my tinnitus spiked and earfullness returned after a year of none. It scared the crap out of me as I thought an attack would be next! I immediately cleared up my diet and the MD symptoms subsided after a few weeks - phew

 

Salt will rev up the run of the mill tinnitus for me but didn’t seem to be the cause of the horrible distortion, roaring tinnitus and hypercusis I had with CH. Caffeine did make it worse. I never knew about the nut connection at that time so I never tested that out. I don’t drink much alcohol but never noticed that the little I did occasionally made any difference except that it didn’t help my balance any.

 

As soon as one concedes stress to be a trigger, they unavoidably & simultaneously concede poor nutrition to be a trigger also—that what you do or do not eat & drink matters; as poor nutrition causes physiological stress which subsequently enters division by manifesting psychologically.

Poor nutrition can cause tiredness, reduce work capacity, decrease concentration, cause mood swings, depression, erode overall health & wellbeing, & over time, increases the risk of developing illnesses & other health concerns: which in turn cause additional psychological & physiological stress.

 

I agree with what you say, but at the same time it is obvious that Meniere is not cured by following a perfectly healthy and nutritious diet. Maybe it helps, I think it helps me, but this month I had two vertigo attacks, today I have tinnitus through the roof, etc.

 

My opinion/understanding is there is no cure for menieres. One can however try their best to control the beast. You can choose to live a clean diet, take antiviral medication, use JOH method, exercise, meditate, surgery etc. and maybe find relief maybe not. You will still have menieres. There is no cure.

 

True that, hence the distinction found separating "tigger" from "cause".

See Dr. William B. Young's article Trigger is Not Cause for further explanation.

 

I’ve been on the HMR Weight Loss Diet administered through Hillcrest Hospital here in Tulsa. I have eliminated caffeine from my diet, my sodium intake is extremely low. In fact my last blood panel indicated a 38 sodium level. I’ve had no sugar, salt, caffeine, chocolate since January 23rd. My stress level is lower than it has been since I was 18.

Yet the dizzy spells continue and today I had one of the worst ones I’ve ever had. If it had been a workday I would have taken off. I thought some years ago that certain frequencies of light set it off with daylight fluorescent lights being the worse. Yet today I’ve been home all day, except for a trip to the cemetery. So light doesn’t seem to be the trigger. What has changed was my sleep pattern. I usually go to bed at 8:30 and arise at 5:00. Last night I went to bed at 11:30 and arose at 7:00. I’ve noticed lately that a change in sleep seems to precede an attack. But, I don’t get how sleep has anything to do with an ear issue!

 

I believe that trigger threshold control is the key. The difficult part is working out one's triggers. It is the different triggers such as ingested, olfactory, stress, sleep deprivation, barometic pressure, light sensitivity and others that can all play a part. Keeping a diary does help. Exceeding your own individual accumulated trigger threshold is when we struggle. Those triggers could be any combination of the above. I believe the secret to a degree of control over menieres or mav is by trial and error for ourselves because everyone is different.

For example if my trigger threshold is 100 and sensitivity to light is 80 food triggers say 20 and sleep deprivation say 10 I would be over my threshold and would struggle.

 

I’ve been thinking lately that not only type and quantity of light is a trigger, but also barometric pressure. Other things may factor in as well. A journal is a good idea. I’ll need to start one.

 

My big time triggers are pickles (probably the high sodium) and dark chocolate.

 

Hi Yellowboy....diet also has zero effect on me as i eat and drink almost every thing with no effect on my vertigo and ear fullness

 

I was in denial about dietary triggers for years while i explored all the OTC options like JOH, antivirals and the usual ENT pharma. My OtoNeuro was running tests on me in prep for a laby when he discovered my hidden migraine activity which only manifested in vertigo. So yes, you can have MAV with Menires as i have both. Diet can play a huge role in triggering undesireable migraine activity. Read Buchholz’s “Heal Your Headache” if you want to read some facts on this matter. It changed my life as i have not had vertigo attacks for a year and a half.