Discussed are surgical options for people with Meniere’s Disease, such as an endolymphatic shunt implant and vestibular nerve section, and the implications.
Unfortunately, in my case surgery wasn’t successful. However, within a year of the failed surgery I was able to live free from 95% of the symptoms of Meniere’s disease for 10 years with lifestyle changes and dietary changes. The surgery was in 2001.
In addition to this, since 2012 I have been completely free of the symptoms of Meniere’s disease. It is now 2020.
Surgery for Meniere’s disease is indeed an option. For most, a last resort. But there may more ways to beat this condition, whether it be by managing your symptoms enough to live a normal life again or freeing yourself completely by finding and dealing with your own individual root cause(s).
VIDEO TRANSCIPT: Hi I’m Mike, You may have seen my other two videos that are out there on the internet, on You-tube and a few other places on the internet. And in those videos basically I just explain that, I’ve lived with Meniere’s for about 13 odd years now. and uh, I managed to rid myself of the symptoms, and I’ve been symptom free for the last 7 years I think it is now, through taking very high quality nutritional supplements.
I hadn’t intended on making another video but 1 or 2 things have come up. Basically on the website www.menieres-help.com, which you can see probably down here. There is a page called “triggers” and obviously that is about all the triggers that affect us people with Meniere’s.
The thing about triggers, is, I think, certainly I didn’t take them very seriously or not seriously enough when I was very sick with Meniere’s. And it seems that quite a few people who we advise about these triggers don’t really take it seriously enough either.
One of the reasons for that is I think, you know, changing something in your diet, or your lifestyle, or whatever, it’s not going to give you results overnight and it takes time basically.
People kind of might change their diet for a week or so and don’t see any change and think well that’s not working; what’s the point. I like my chocolate I’ll just eat it. You know things like that (that’s not to say chocolate is a definite trigger for you).
So basically this is just to draw attention to a few triggers and just to explain, yeah, it does take time.
It’s up to you to try and find your own particular triggers, because basically we are all different and some people are affected by some triggers and others are not basically.
So I’ll just give you a quick breakdown of what’s on that page on that site and you can go and visit that site. Click on the link to ‘Triggers‘ and that will give you a lot more information than what is on this video.
Okay, so basically, the first thing: Diet…
There are quite a few things that may, not definitely, but may affect you. So you know every doctor or virtually every doctor will tell you that salt is the main problem for us, because the sodium in the salt retains fluid in the body.
So cutting your salt intake down to a sensible level is the first thing every person with Meniere’s should do.
But not only that, there are things like if you have too much caffeine, if you have a diet full of saturated fats, if you drink alcohol, all of these things can have an affect on us.
If you can either cut those things out of your diet or limit them to sensible levels, I mean obviously it’s common sense with a lot of it, you know for just staying healthy generally.
But you know, more so for us, people with Meniere’s. If you can keep to a healthy diet, full of fresh vegetables and fruits and cut out unhealthy fats, salty foods like processed foods, junk food, in the long run it’s going to help you. In most cases.
Certain things affect some people and certain things don’t affect people. Personally alcohol was a huge trigger for me but I’ve had emails from people, where they say it’s never bothered them, ever.
You know it’s up to you to find out if it does affect you. By the way I think most people are affected by alcohol.
Okay there are other things like lifestyle and environment.
So in your lifestyle, obviously if you are overworked, you’re stressed, if you’re not getting enough sleep, you know all these things contribute to the problems we have.
So you need to get decent sleep.
For your work and your stress, you know obviously there are certain things you can do about that and other times it’s not always possible to cut that out.
But if you cut the other things out, in your life like your diet and your environment, you’re giving yourself a better chance. In your environment, you could be talking about mold or allergens in the air, chemicals in the work place, or in the household; these can all, possibly have an affect on you.
If you’ve had dental work or if you have amalgam fillings. There seems to be a lot of people, for me not personally, but there are a lot of people that have been affected by this. They have found that that is their main trigger, and they’ve done something about it.
Another thing is the weather, because heavy weather, you know low barometric pressure, if there is low air pressure, that is increasing the pressure in your ear.
So again there is nothing you can do about that but if you cut out all the other triggers, you know like the salt, the things in your diet and if you cut out the things in your lifestyle, then perhaps the heavy weather is not going to affect you as much.
Go to menieres-help.com, the website down here and look at triggers. Have a good look and try and figure out what affects you and do something about it basically.
And if you want help with that you can contact us and someone will get back to you and help you out there with advice.
Okay one other thing….in the other two videos I’m talking about high quality supplements helping us get rid of our Meniere’s basically. Or the Meniere’s Disease symptoms I should say; it’s not a cure. But you know, we live symptom free.
A fair amount of people I think, they see that video and they just rush out to the local store and buy, maybe not the cheapest, but they certainly don’t worry about the quality of what they are buying.
A lot of supplements are not very good quality and what it says on the bottle might not be what is in there. You know in that case they are buying these cheaper low quality brands and basically they are not getting any results.
Then they probably think, well that’s a load of nonsense and they are missing out. So just one thing about that, look on the site, look what we use.
Of course I think you should use what we use, because we know it works.
But you know if you don’t use what we use because it is expensive, and it is expensive by the way.
If you don’t use that make sure you find the equivalent, you know I mean as close as you can and certainly the best quality you can get hold of.
Because otherwise you’re kind of wasting your money, and kind of wasting your time I guess. So yep, that’s the two things that came up recently…so go to menieres-help.com and best of luck…
What is Meniere’s Disease from a treating doctor’s perspective?
Table of Contents
The explanatory video “What is Meniere’s disease?” below has the full transcript underneath for people who are either hard of hearing or can not view the media for some reason.
You can also read a more in depth explanation by clicking this link:
Dr. Steven D. Rauch – Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary – Boston .MA. explains just what Meniere’s disease is in simple easy to understand terms. People are naturally anxious to get a real diagnosis and have explained what causing their symptoms. In a sense Meniere’s is a name or a label given to a set of symptoms your treating doctor doesn’t know the root cause of.
This is called an idiopathic condition, of which there are many. There could be several root causes that are triggering inflammation within the inner ear and the consequent build up of fluid. They only refer to it as “Meniere’s Disease” or “Meniere’s Syndrome” once they have ruled out other more sinister possibilities such as a tumor.
The name comes from Prosper Ménière, the physician-in-chief at the Institute for deaf-mutes in Paris in the 1800’s.
So in a sense, what the doctor is saying when he or she says you have “Meniere’s disease” is that you have symptoms for which they don’t know the cause. That is where the doctor usually has to palm you off with various drugs.
These usually consist of a mix of anti-histamines, anti-inflammatories or diuretics, sometimes mixed with tranquilizers and occasionally what are essentially travel sickness pills).
Sufferers are too often told to take the drugs and live with it. Occasionally sufferers who are persistent enough are referred to “specialists” for various invasive surgical options, or steroid injections. So does that mean you are stuck with the horrible symptoms of Vertigo, deafness, tinnitus and everything else that comes with Meniere’s for the rest of your life?
Absolutely not. But it will usually need you to take your health into your own hands if you want to rid yourself of Meniere’s symptoms and live a normal life again.
The truth is, very few look for the actual root cause. This is rather shocking because there is a cause for everything that happens in the body; it’s called “cause and effect”, a simple law of nature.
There are many possible causes for Meniere’s, vertigo and other vestibular conditions. The trick is finding the root causes and triggers in your individual case. If you identify your root cause or causes then you have found the key to your cure.
When you read the statement above, understand that this can be done, has been done and is being done all the time. Mike Spencer, the founder of Meniere’s Disease help, the author of Managing Meniere’s Disease – How to Live Symptom Free and The Need for Balance – Dealing with the Causes of Meniere’s, in fact did this himself.
You can read Mike’s story by clicking the link below.
By giving the body all the nutrition it needs (and rarely gets in today’s society) the body can usually take care of itself and a as a result keep Meniere’s symptoms at bay. We see this all the time. For more information on the nutritional supplements used to support the immune system and ultimately keep Meniere’s sufferers free of symptoms click here.
The use of supplements is not a cure, neither is it a treatment. The right quality supplements, a good healthy diet and lifestyle can support your immune system enough for it to deal with the inflammation causing your symptoms, therefore keeping you symptom free.
You can take that further and actually eliminate the root cause of the inflammation that is causing of your Meniere’s symptoms. This takes knowledge and effort on your part, as well as ignoring those who tell you it can not be done. As mentioned above, it most certainly CAN be done and is being done all the time.
Ultimately, it is your choice.
Below, Dr Rauch’s analogy of an old car is perhaps not the best but you can understand what he is getting at. And certainly it is NOTsomething we “have to live with”.
At the bottom of this page is another video explaining the workings of the balance organs in the inner ear.
A doctor’s perspective: Video
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
“Menieres Disease. In order for an ear to work normally, there are a number of regulatory systems.
These systems manage the production of the two different flavors of the inner ear fluid.
They manage the chemical composition of those fluids, the recycling of those fluids, the nerve signals entering the ear, the nerve signals leaving the ear, circulation entering the ear, circulation leaving the ear, communication between the different parts of the inner ear.
All of those systems have to be working perfectly, for the ear to be working perfectly. If anything goes wrong with any of those systems, the ear may fail.
Since the inner ear houses organs of hearing and balance, the failure can affect hearing or balance, or both. If the pattern of failure affects both hearing and balance, and if the pattern of failure is intermittent, if it comes and goes, it’s called Meniere’s Syndrome.
We don’t know what’s wrong in there, it may be different in different patients, it’s all called Meniere’s Syndrome. And that name simply means that the ear is unreliable or unstable or fragile.
The best analogy is to an old car. When you bought the car it ran perfectly, some day it wont run at all, but as the car is aging there may be a period of time, days or weeks or months or even years where that car is not dependable.
There are a million different things that could be wrong under the hood; what you have to live with is an undependable car, sometimes it will start, sometimes it wont, sometimes it runs sometimes it stalls.
If you have Meniere’s Syndrome, you have an ear like that.”
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