By Mike Spencer
Betahistine For Meniere’s Disease – Efficacy and Safety Study
Table of Contents
Can Betahistine stop vertigo in Meniere’s Disease?
Betahistine is a very common drug used to “treat” Meniere’s Disease. A new paper was published online in January 2016 on the long term effectiveness and safety of using the drug. The study was supported by grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Having suffered with Meniere’s Disease for seven years (and beating it), having used Betahistine, supporting Meniere’s sufferers for 12 years and researching triggers and root causes for 7 years, I have to say the effectiveness of this drug in my view is very questionable at best. Anyone who has read through Menieres-Help.Com will know we view the drugs used to treat Meniere’s with a LOT of skepticism. This is born out of our own experience and the experiences of thousands of people who have contacted us over the years.
It is our view based on experience and again, thousands of testimonials, that by supporting your immune system through a healthy, organic, wholefood diet and quality supplements you can live symptom free and moreover, by finding and dealing with your root cause (there are several possibilities here) you can give yourself more of a chance of living a normal life again
“Treatments” are only focusing on the “symptoms”, which are a result of the root cause and knock on effects throughout the body. Treating the symptoms can go on for decades with little to no success and cost a lot of money.
Do you really want to spend another 10, 15, 20 years or the rest of your life living with the horrendous effects of Meniere’s and spend a fortune in the meantime on useless or questionable drug treatments?
We have received emails from people who had lived with these symptoms for up to 30 years and nothing had helped, only to find they could have rid themselves naturally all along. Make no mistake you CAN get your life back. It is just a matter of informing yourself and taking appropriate action.
By letting your body deal with the problem efficiently through a comprehensive, healthy, strong immune system and eliminating the root cause(s) you will can rid yourself of Meniere’s forever and it will take a LOT less time and money.
The added bonus of this route is that there are no concerns for the long term effects of synthetic drugs being pumped into your body. Long term use of some drugs used to treat Meniere’s can actually cause some of the same symptoms.
Read through Menieres-Help.Com for information related to all this and Click Here to learn more about how you can free yourself of Meniere’s forever.
That aside we try to give as wide and comprehensive information on all things related to Meniere’s, so below is a summary of the study. Note in the abstract the author states “Current evidence is limited as to whether betahistine prevents vertigo attacks.“
I am sure you will agree if you suffer from Meniere’s that the vertigo is the worst of the many debilitating symptoms of this condition.
Study
Abstract
Study question What is the long term efficacy of betahistine dihydrochloride on the incidence of vertigo attacks in patients with Meniere’s disease, compared with placebo?
Methods The BEMED trial is a multicentre, double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, three arm, parallel group, phase III, dose defining superiority trial conducted in 14 German tertiary referral centres (for neurology or ear, nose, and throat). Adults aged 21-80 years (mean age 56 years) with definite unilateral or bilateral Meniere’s disease were recruited from March 2008 to November 2012. Participants received placebo (n=74), low dose betahistine (2×24 mg daily, (n=73)), or high dose betahistine (3×48 mg daily, (n=74)) over nine months. The primary outcome was the number of attacks per 30 days, based on patients’ diaries during a three month assessment period at months seven to nine. An internet based randomisation schedule performed a concealed 1:1:1 allocation, stratified by study site. Secondary outcomes included the duration and severity of attacks, change in quality of life scores, and several observer-reported parameters to assess changes in audiological and vestibular function.
Study answer and limitations Incidence of attacks related to Meniere’s disease did not differ between the three treatment groups (P=0.759). Compared with placebo, attack rate ratios were 1.036 (95% confidence interval 0.942 to 1.140) and 1.012 (0.919 to 1.114) for low dose and high dose betahistine, respectively. The overall monthly attack rate fell significantly by the factor 0.758 (0.705 to 0.816; P<0.001). The population based, mean monthly incidence averaged over the assessment period was 2.722 (1.304 to 6.309), 3.204 (1.345 to 7.929), and 3.258 (1.685 to 7.266) for the placebo, low dose betahistine, and high dose betahistine groups, respectively. Results were consistent for all secondary outcomes. Treatment was well tolerated with no unexpected safety findings. Without a control group of patients who did not receive any intervention to follow the natural course of the disease, the placebo effect could not be accurately assessed and differentiated from spontaneous remission and fluctuation of symptoms.
What this study adds Current evidence is limited as to whether betahistine prevents vertigo attacks caused by Meniere’s disease, compared with placebo. The trial provides information on symptom relief on placebo intervention which is relevant for the design of future studies on potential disease modifying treatments in patients with Meniere’s disease.
Conclusion
So is Betahistine For Meniere’s Disease the best way to go? That is for you and your treating health professional to decide. There are many options available to you. Betahistine is commonly prescribed and some say it helps. In my case it didn’t. Anything that reduces vertigo is welcome to the Meniere’s sufferer but as alluded to above, there are many ways to eliminate your vertigo.
Read the full report here
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Have you used Betahistine? Tell us about your experiences in the comments box below or email Mike at: meniereshelp@gmail.com
