Hi All, I have just been diagnosed with Meniere's. I seem to have all the problems associated with this disease to some degree . I seem to have 3-5 bad days per week. I have not started any medications yet other than then ones for the vertigo, just working on my diet for now. I have been reading a lot about this and it seems to affect most everyone a little different. Although I have a million questions I just start with a few. How long will it take to figure out if my diet changes are working? Is it really going to be trial by error to find out what will work for me? Since I do work with ladders and staging will I have to stop working? Will this help my crappy golf game?(LOL, sorry but whenever I'm down I tend to make jokes)
LOL Hi Larry welcome If you get vertigo attacks, and have other balance issues, ladders are not your friends and you could get seriously hurt IMO First I would like to know what meds you are taking for vertigo and if they work for you. I would strongly recommend trying an antiviral the majority of us get symptom relief from them. Please read through my thread called Important Publication and read the article that's linked. Also the forums database has great info for you to read through. and read abut MAV there and see if it applies too you as well as MM about 50% of us have both. Food triggers usually let you know soon after eating them. Or sometimes if your threshold is high it may take a day. Yes trial and error for all of us. But try and get a script for an antiviral and print out the that support it to bring to your Dr. Most Drs are resistant to prescribing them for MM. The best type of dr for Meniere's is a neurotologist Next month will be 2 years I will be vertigo free since starting antivirals and I have MM since I am 13 years old. The one good thing about Meniere's it DOES improve golf games.
Larry, I'm really sorry you're here, but you've come to the right place. There are some things you can do right now to try and turn this thing around. I highly recommend you do something now because there is a possibility that further injury to your inner ear sensory may cause permanent damage. For starters, a low sodium diet and taking diuretics works for very few and you will notice very little is ever discussed about that on here. What you'll learn after reading many of the posts and articles posted on here is that many of us believe that this whole thing is either caused by a virus (usually Herpes), or an autoimmune disease. Allergies also can play a part if you have them. Most of the time it's caused by the Herpes Virus and many of us have had a tremendous amount of success using antivirals such as Acyclovir, Valacyclovir, and Famvir, or you can take Lysine (over the counter) on an empty stomach. The taking of Lysine and other important over the counter items are explained by John of Ohio and through a regimen he developed. Many of us have had a great deal of success utilizing John of Ohio (JOH) and/or some combination of antivirals. He is on the web boards and may even respond directly to your post of here. Here is the link to his regimen: http://www.zoominternet.net/~kcshop/JOH.PDF Also look at a new posting by "Vicki." She posted a study that talks about success rates of antivirals, and it says 90% of those with the viral form of Meniere's are able to achieve relief from vertigo while 10% may not be able to attain relief because of a possible mutant Herpes virus that may be resistant to antiviral treatment. If antivirals don't work, it could also be autoimmune in which case they would treat with steroids. My advice to you, and others may disagree, but I would immediately read up on the JOH Regimen and start ASAP!! That's the quickest thing you can do for yourself. Then continue educating yourself on the boards. Make sure you look through the Meniere's Disease Database on here, which has a lot of the meat and potatoes type stuff in it. You'll soon discover all kinds of things try. One more thing, before I go...The medical community is light years behind where they should be with this condition and will argue that there's no evidence to suggest what causes it. They will literally tell you to go home, follow a low sodium diet, take a diuretic, treat the symptoms, and wait for your ear to die. If you follow their advice you will most likely continue to suffer and eventually may completely loose both functions of your ear. Most of us were not willing to go down without a fight and so here we are self treating ourselves. Good luck, feel better, and I'm sure many others will have more to share with you.
Hi, If you are in the Los Angeles area, many of us have had great success at the House Clinic. Worth a visit in my opinion. Good luck, John
Yep trial and error with the benefit of all the trial and error of others posting on thus wonderful site. The JOH regimen and antivirals were by far both more effective than anything the MD's suggested! Just take 60 days to discover...