Acyclovir/valacyclovir Great for vertigo! What is great for aural fullness?

Ah. I got your intuition and intellect switched up. It can be hard to tell via writing. Yes, all the discussion helps. It has sure helped me. I hope you find some combo that works in all the ways you want it to soon.

To my understanding, you are correct that the val (amino acied, L-valine) in valacyclovir makes it stay in the system longer and that is why it works better.

 

Valtrex works better because it crosses the blood-brain barrier faster, acyclovir slowly crosses the blood-brain barrier.

 

Fwiw, my dr prefers famvir based on the blood brain barrier thing.

Antivirals do not suppress symptoms, like aspirin kills a headache. They get to the root of the problem suppressing the virus. After the virus is suppressed there is healing that needs to take place as well. This takes time. As time goes by, various symptoms go away. The fact that the symptoms do not all go away immediately and at the same time does not mean they will not in time be taken care of.

 

good point June.

 

It's so interesting and great, June, that your doctor has thought through this and has a thoughtful opinion. Is your doctor treating several MM patients and/or doing some research in this area? Makes me wonder why Dr. Gacek chooses valacyclovir over famvir, but I think I've bugged him with questions enough recently. Do you remember if it was it famvir over acyclovir or famvir over valacyclovir?

 

I beleive it was famvir over all the others. Yes, dr derebery who is at house ear clinic in la, has done research with antivirals and mm among other things and treated many mm patients over a long period of time. She is also an allergist.

 

Oh My! I have my appointment in 4 hours, prepared to make my case for valacylclovir and now it looks like I should be gunning for valtrex? Seems like anything that indeed crosss the bloodbrain barrier would be superior. Was this written in Gacek's repoert? It seemed like he highly recommended Valacyclovir.

Before I run to the copy store who has printed my pitch to hand her, maybe I shoud make a quick edit?

What do ya all think?

 

Do you mean switch to famvir? Valtrex and valacyclovir are the same. Former is brand, latter is valacyclovir.

It sounds like they both cross the blood-brain barrier. It seems to me that you have the Dr. Gacek article mentioning valacyclovir and that is going to be helpful. You could keep your pitch as is, but mention this came up today and solicit her opinion of famvir v. valacyclovir. Meanwhile do a little research. I just did and see that Dr. Derebery is leading the way on Menieres and allerigies research. You were so lucky to find her, June.

Here is a link comparing famvir and valtrex: https://drugs-pharmaceuticals.knoji.com/famvir-vs-valtrex/

And another: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16540883

Of course, neither directly relates to meniere's.

Good wishes with your appointment, Holly!

 

My Migraine-Meniere's confusion..is it still that obvious! Ha!

Thanks bytheBay for jumping in! I read the links and it seems to come down for me to what I can convince my Dr to prescribe. There seems to be no best according to all or even most.

What is the comparitive dosage of Famvir id that is what she wants? June, what was yours?

What I copied out of the first link is this:

With both Famvir and Valtrex, the most common adverse effects in adults are headache, nausea and abdominal pain.

Scares the heck out of me since nausea and headache are very intense for me

 

I had no side effects at all from famvir or acyclovir for that matter. Both were effective for me. I dont know if famvir was more effective or not, no way to compare to what may have been. I think a big thing is to realize if you want complete relief, the antivirals will have to be taken for months at least.

I believe i was taking 500 mg three times a day for a week, the. 250 mg twice a day from there are out. Usually some indication of whether there will be any success comes in a month or six weeks. If there is any improvement during that period, then continue for several more months or longer as needed.

 

All the antivirals i took were generics. I just say famvir because it is easier to spell

 

I know, I was so scared of those side effects, too. I started the valacyclovir at a time where if that happened it wouldn't interfere with my life too much. Luckily, that did not happen. In fact I am just realizing I have had less nausea in the last week. Yay!

 

I believe i was taking 500 mg three times a day for a week, then 250 mg twice a day from there on out.

Sorry for the typos

 

Thanks June and bytheBay for holding me in this. Thought to look one more time before heading to the copy store to pick up my documents to take, including the public Gacek report. I emailed my ENT the link but never heard anything.

Onward!

 

Good luck!

 

For benefit of new readers ...
Above refers to famvir. Acyclovir needs to be taken 5 times a day spread out throughout the day.

 

Hello Fellow Travelers!

Victory! My ENT Dr read Dr Gacek's paper in prepartion for our appointment and we discussed his and her perspectives. Although she wasn't optimistic, she could tell that I was intent on giving AV's a go so I came home with 2500 200mg capsules of Acyclovir! She checked my most recent labs, talked to the pharmacist and requested that I come in for a kidney and liver blood tests in 6 weeks just to monitor. When she finally converted the protocol to 200 mg caps, I heard her have a very directive conversation again with the pharmacist making it clear her prescription was not to be altered unless he gave me more pills, not less. I felt really good to have her support me and go to bat too! About an hour ago, I took only 400 mg just to see if I have any reaction per Vicki's approach. So far, so good.

I am a bit puzzled about the post by June suggesting Acyclovir be taken 5 times a day since the Gacek paper doesn't indicate this. What are others' view on this please? Giving this a good shot and want to optimize the time trying this yet do not like to go against prescription protocols without some medical resource suggesting otherwise…no offense June. Did your Dr prescribe that way?

Also for those of you who hae been of JOH regimen and started taking AV's, did you also stay of L-Lysine too? If my logic holds, it would seem that one would restart L-Lysine after stabilizing with a maintenance dose but would love to get opinions on this!

@Santa, I had black beans and brown rice with kale for breakfast! How will I know if its's the Acyclovir or the rice and beans that casued the abdominal pain if it shows! Of never mind, just got the answer in an old childhood song…beans beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot! hahehahehehaheh!

 

Hooray, Holly!! I hope it works great for you!!

I don't know where that 5x/day initial dose of Acyclovir comes from. I am guessing that it is the prescription given for either Herpes Simplex or Herpes Zoster and doctors are doing that because they are just guessing. Maybe June will know. This was the prescription I got originally and only for 10 days. It was not enough. I would go with what is in Dr. Gacek's paper (as your doctor prescribed) since he has documented success with that.