The hidden dangers of toxic mold and Meniere’s Disease
Mold and mycotoxins may be among the least spoken about serious threats to our health. The possible connections between mold and Meniere’s is not among the most commonly spoken about subjects when considering triggers and causes either.
Yet the possible connections have been known for many years. It is important to understand there can be many possible root causes and what is relevant to one Meniere’s sufferer may have little to no relevance in another.
According to Dr Mercola, “From a toxicity point of view, some mycotoxins (toxic substances produced by mold) are actually far more toxic than heavy metals, in terms of concentration. Mycotoxins also tend to affect more biological systems in your body than do pesticides or heavy metals, partly because fungi have the ability to dodge your immune system by rapidly mutating, while at the same time producing chemicals that suppress your immune system.”
He also says, “If your immune system is stressed in any way, or if you are extremely sensitive and have allergy-like reactions to a variety of agents then you may be even MORE sensitive to mold than the average person and have chronic symptoms directly related to mold in your environment. But even if you are generally healthy, mold can still pose a significant risk if you are caught off-guard.”
You need a healthy immune system to avoid Meniere’s symptoms, that’s a fact. We have seen for over a decade and a half that supporting your immune system with high quality supplements and a good diet has helped many people reduce their symptoms significantly regardless of their root cause.
However if your Meniere’s symptoms are a result of toxic molds, it may take specific nutrients in high enough levels to detox it from your body.
Molds have been associated with health problems that in themselves have been linked to Meniere’s such as sinus problems and autoimmune disease. Diagnostic tests for mold toxicity are very specific and one of those is a hearing test.
Toxic mold exposure has also been linked to neurological damage causing memory loss, insomnia, anxiety, depression, trouble concentrating, confusion. headaches, fatigue, nasal irritation and nausea.
Video: Meniere’s disease – Airborne allergies and Mold
In a study published in the journal Nature, ‘Proinflammatory cytokines and response to molds in mononuclear cells of patients with Meniere disease’ it was concluded that “Aspergillus and Penicillium trigger the release of TNF-? in MD patients and this could initiate or exacerbate the inflammatory response in the inner ear.”
Aspergillus and Penicillium are types of mold. There are hundreds of types of aspergillus molds and mildews that can be inhaled.
Penicillium is a fungus that grows on spoiled foods and can be ingested.
Video: Meniere’s, Tinnitus, Ringing of the Ears driven by Mold?
Solutions to toxic mold and Meniere’s
I personally suffered for 7 years with Meniere’s symptoms [ I am nowcompletely free of Meniere’s disease ]. During the absolute worst period of suffering I searched for mold in my house. It was the rainy season in Japan where I lived and at that time of year the moisture is incredible.
I found a huge patch of mold behind a set of drawers very near where my head would be while I slept. I immediately set about cleaning the mold and as a result very quickly brought on a violent vertigo attack.
It would be advisable to get a professional in to clear the mold because it may be all over your home without you knowing. If a professional is out of the question, then at least get someone else to clean it for you.
According to American mold expert Dr. Jack Thrasher, as many as 40 percent of American schools and 25 percent of homes have mold infestations, unbeknownst to the people occupying those buildings.
He says, “It follows that adverse health effects of mold may be reaching pandemic levels.”
Regarding humidity and mold Dr. Thrasher says, anything above 60 percent is going to lead to growth of mold and bacteria… People have to be very careful about this situation. That’s why I call it a pandemic“
If your home is prone to mold it would be advisable to (after clearing the mold) use an air purifier during the damp periods and make sure your house is well aired naturally in dryer periods.
Glutathione
Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant produced in cells. Research suggests that mycotoxins in mold can decrease the formation of glutathione due to decreased gene expression of the enzymes needed to form glutathione.
Mycotoxin-related compromise of glutathione production can result in an excess of oxidative stress that leads to tissue damage and systemic illness.
Glutathione is needed to detox mold from your body. Your liver is your body’s main detox organ. This is where glutathione plays a major role in detoxifying your mold mycotoxins.
When there is not enough glutathione to eliminate the toxins they start to stack up in the liver and cause mitochondrial damage – your cells’ energy powerhouse – affecting glutathione production.
Glutathione has been shown to improve protein, enzyme, and bilirubin levels in the blood of individuals with alcoholic and nonalcoholic chronic fatty liver disease. A study reported that glutathione was most effective when given to people with fatty liver disease intravenously, in high doses.
Glutathione can be found in foods such as: asparagus, avocado, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, spinach, broccoli, garlic, chives, tomatoes, cucumber, almonds, and walnuts.
However, dietary glutathione is poorly absorbed by the human body. Additionally, cooking and storage conditions can decrease the amount found in food. So if you have been exposed to mold mycotoxins it is worth supplementing pro-glutathione nutrients.
Milk thistle, N-acetyl cysteineand superoxide dismutase supplements can activate glutathione production naturally in the liver.
While all essential vitamins and minerals are important for a healthy functioning, balanced body, some vitamins are better known for their value to the immune system and some vitamins are known to help suppress the symptoms of Meniere’s disease.
Vitamin C, B12 and Magnesium are relatively well known for their benefits to ear function and Meniere’s but what about Vitamin D and Meniere’s disease?
According to studies cited on Mercola.com there is a robust and rapidly growing body of research clearly showing that vitamin D is absolutely critical for good health and disease prevention, in part due to the fact that it influences about 10 percent of all your genes.
Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D upregulates is your ability to fight infections and chronic inflammation. The whole concept behind using quality dietary supplements for Meniere’s disease is to support the immune system enough for it to deal with the inflammation causing Meniere’s symptoms.
So vitamin D would appear to be an important part of that.
It also produces over 200 anti-microbial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic.
Vitamin D is more than just one vitamin. It’s actually a family of nutrients that share similarities in chemical structure.
Sources of Vitamin D
In your diet, the most commonly found members are vitamin D2 and D3. The difference between D2 and D3 is, Vitamin D3 is found in food from animals while Vitamin D2 comes from plant derived foods. The best sources of Vitamin D3 is exposure to sunlight.
So if you are a vegan or living in areas that have little sunlight in winter you run a risk of vitamin D3 deficiency.
Focus on Vitamin D has only really taken off in the last 20 years. In this time, newer and more accessible technology has shown that Vitamin D deficiency is widespread.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 32% of children and adults throughout the US were vitamin D deficient
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 50% of children aged one to five years old, and 70% of children between the ages of 6 and 11, are deficient or insufficient in vitamin D
Researcher Dr. Holick estimates that 50% of the general population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency
In 2015 the WHO reported that Vitamin D deficiency is thought to be a widespread public health problem globally
A strong, healthy immune system means less inflammation and less inflammation means less chance of developing the symptoms of Meniere’s disease, or any other disease.
It is widely thought that vitamin D plays an important role in the modulation of the inflammation system by regulating the production of inflammatory cytokines and immune cells, which are crucial for the pathogenesis of many immune-related diseases.
Vitamin D studies
In a study published in The Journal of Immunology in 2012 ‘How vitamin D inhibits inflammation‘ it wrote:
“Vitamin D has long been known to contribute to bone health by promoting the absorption of calcium. In recent years, much attention has been paid to its possible immune and inflammatory benefits. Low vitamin D levels have been associated with several diseases including asthma, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis.
This study goes beyond previous associations of vitamin D with various health outcomes. It outlines a clear chain of cellular events, from the binding of DNA, through a specific signaling pathway, to the reduction of proteins known to trigger inflammation. Patients with chronic inflammatory diseases, such as asthma, arthritis and prostate cancer, who are vitamin D deficient, may benefit from vitamin D supplementation to get their serum vitamin D levels above 30 nanograms/milliliter”
Vitamin D also help control immune responses though cellular communication. Receptors for vitamin D are found on most types of immune cells. When vitamin D binds to cellular receptors, it sends messages to help support many different natural responses that can help keep you healthy. Sometimes, those responses can include turning on production of even more active vitamin D to increase levels right where and when it’s needed.
Vitamin D is fat-soluble—meaning that the fat in your body is how you collect and store it. So, if you’re overweight, it may mean you need more of it.
According to a 2011 study in the Journal of Investigative Medicine: “It is now clear that vitamin D has important roles in addition to its classic effects on calcium and bone homeostasis. As the vitamin D receptor is expressed on immune cells (B cells, T cells and antigen presenting cells) and these immunologic cells are all are capable of synthesizing the active vitamin D metabolite, vitamin D has the capability of acting in an autocrine manner in a local immunologic milieu.
Vitamin D can modulate the innate and adaptive immune responses. Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with increased autoimmunity as well as an increased susceptibility to infection. As immune cells in autoimmune diseases are responsive to the ameliorative effects of vitamin D, the beneficial effects of supplementing vitamin D deficient individuals with autoimmune disease may extend beyond the effects on bone and calcium homeostasis.“
Can Vitamin D help reduce the symptoms of Meniere’s Disease
A 2018 paper published on NIH, ‘Vitamin D supplementation may improve symptoms in Meniere’s disease’ states: “In the last 4 years the authors observed a trend that correcting vitamin D deficiency in newly diagnosed cases of Meniere’s disease decreased the necessity of the ablative therapy with intratympanic gentamicin. According to their hypothesis, vitamin D supplementation may indeed have a beneficial effect in Meniere’s disease if the symptoms are caused by a local postviral autoimmune reaction. Vitamin D has a strong immunomodulatory role, one of which is the regulation of the expression of pro-inflammatory mediators”
According to study published in August 2020 in ‘Neurology’ “Taking vitamin D and calcium twice a day may reduce your chances of getting vertigo”
A 2016 case study in the Caspian Journal of internal Medicine stated that, “This study indicates that the normalization of serum vitamin D significantly reduces BPPV recurrences.”
In 1983 The Journal of Laryngology and Otology published a study: ‘Vitamin D deficiency–a new cause of cochlear deafness’. It stated, “Ten patients are reported with bilateral cochlear deafness which was associated with vitamin D deficiency. The features of these cases are discussed following an overview of the clinical aspects and diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency.
The most likely pathogenesis is localized demineralization of the cochlea resulting in secondary morphological changes. Replacement therapy resulted in unilateral hearing improvement in two of the four patients in whom the response to treatment could be assessed.
This suggests a previously unrecognized causal correlation between vitamin D deficiency and cochlear deafness. Impaired vitamin D activity may be important in the aetiology of otosclerosis, presbyacusis and the deafness associated with chronic renal failure. Vitamin D deficiency should be considered in the differential diagnosis of unexplained bilateral cochlear deafness. It is important, as this ‘new’ metabolic type of sensorineural deafness may be reversible, and may also lead to the diagnosis of early osteomalacia before more serious generalized skeletal symptoms can occur.”
It would appear that Vitamin D is an important nutrient related to ear health, vertigo, deafness and tinnitus.
It is important to note that if you supplement vitamin D, you also need to take vitamin K2. The biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the correct areas in your body. It also helps remove calcium from areas where it shouldn’t be, such as in your arteries and soft tissues.
Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the consequences similar to vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries. The reason for this is because when you take vitamin D, your body creates more vitamin K2-dependent proteins that move calcium around in your body.
Without vitamin K2, those proteins remain inactivated, so the benefits of those proteins remain unrealized. So remember, if you take supplemental vitamin D, you’re creating an increased demand for K2.
This may have added significance for Vitamin D and Meniere’s disease as it has been suggested that excess vitamin D without K can cause tinnitus.
Would you consider yourself overweight? Studies suggest that obesity can cause issues with vitamin D deficiency regardless of intake from diet or exposure to sunlight.
Dr. Paulette Chandler, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, “Our study highlights that obesity may confer resistance to vitamin D effects.
Chandler is a co-author of the study, ‘Vitamin D reduces risk for metastatic cancer, death by 17%‘ published on the JAMA network in November 2020.
The fact that the more obese you are the less effective vitamin D is utilized in your body has been pointed out in other previous studies. The 2017 study ‘Vitamin D in Obesity‘ pointed out:
“Serum vitamin D is lower in obese people; it is important to understand the mechanism of this effect and whether it indicates clinically significant deficiency … Vitamin D is fat soluble, and distributed into fat, muscle, liver, and serum.
All of these compartments are increased in volume in obesity, so the lower vitamin D likely reflects a volumetric dilution effect and whole body stores of vitamin D may be adequate … Obese people need higher loading doses of vitamin D to achieve the same serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D as normal weight.“
The 2013 study ‘Causal Relationship between Obesity and Vitamin D Status‘ found that for every 10% increase in body-mass index, there’s a 4.2% reduction in blood levels of vitamin D. According to the authors of that particular study, obesity may in fact be a causal factor in the development of vitamin D deficiency.
Considering all of the above information, if you are overweight, have a deficiency in vitamin D and Meniere’s disease, this factor could be even more significant for you to consider.
Help other sufferers. What are your experiences with Vitamin D and Meniere’s disease? Tell us all about it in the comments box below or email Mike at meniereshelp@gmail.com
The official line on Meniere’s disease is that it is treatable but there is no known cause and no known cure. This is what the vast majority of sufferers are told and of course most believe; why wouldn’t they? Tell a patient who has been suffering for many years and believes they have tried everything, that actually there are known causes and therefore known solutions and you could be met with disbelief, disdain and even anger.
This is understandable considering what the sufferer has had to live through and the fact they have constantly been told health professionals that there absolutely is no cure. The literature and online medical websites agree, there is no known cause and no know cure, so it must be true right?
Not exactly!
How do I know? Well read on below, but for starters…..
At the time of writing, I have had a 21 year association with Meniere’s.
I suffered the worst Meniere’s has to offer for 7 years and thought I had tried everything, including very costly, damaging and unsuccessful surgery.
For 10 years I lived 95% symptom free through simple but profound dietary and lifestyle changes.
Since 2012 I have been completely free of Meniere’s.
For 13 years I have been supporting other sufferers.
For 7 years I have been a full time independent researcher and writer on Meniere’s. In that time I have corresponded and spoken to thousands of sufferers, doctors, scientists and other health professionals in regards to Meniere’s.
Most importantly I have watched thousands of sufferers regain their life, either by reducing or eliminating their symptoms or actually eliminating Meniere’s from their life completely. Many of these people had been suffering for many years and most of these people had been told there was nothing more to be done.
So I humbly state that I think I may know a thing or two about Meniere’s by now and I state more strongly that you CAN overcome it, one way or another.
True, there is no ‘miracle cure’, ‘magical super drug’ or any one ‘silver bullet’ that can cure you of Meniere’s but I can confidently say that you absolutely canovercome it.
While nothing is written in stone with this condition and there is no one size fits all, there are some universal truths that apply to all sufferers. You need to gain a true understanding about what you are really dealing with, correlate this with your own individual circumstances, then take the appropriate action and this often needs diligence.
If there were some magical miracle cure I wouldn’t have had to spend so many years researching, communicating with so many sufferers and health professionals or write two books totaling 475 pages to help people overcome this.
In addition to the two self help books published since 2013 , I have been running Meniere’s Help for 13 years, the main website has over 20 pages and this blog over 100 articles and posts. The aim of Meniere’s Help is to help sufferers recover from this horrendous condition or to put it in terms sufferers understand most, help them get their life back.
The sheer numbers of people who have contacted Meniere’s Help alone who have overcome Meniere’s successfully stand as testimony that this can be done, not to mention my own personal case which you might find interesting to read about.
In the past 4 or 5 years, the vast majority of sufferers who have contacted Meniere’s Help, beaten this condition and regained their lives have read Managing Meniere’s Disease and The Need for Balance. Prior to my writing these books, it was often the sufferers themselves who were the greatest sources of helpful information, through both their successful experiences and their problems. Some of their stories are in the books. I correlate their experiences with scientific medical studies, data and statistics to back everything up and prove it is never a case of simply hearsay much less placebo effect.
It can sometimes need a quantum shift in perception and attitude towards Meniere’s in some people before this becomes obvious.
The first two steps in overcoming Meniere’s is to change your perception of what you are dealing with and refuse to accept the entrenched dogma of drugs to ‘treat symptoms’, surgery and the all too often spouted “learn to live with it“.
The next step is to manage your condition, stabilizing your symptoms so you can at least function normally again.
The final step is to identify and eliminate or correct your own individual root cause(s) so you never have to worry about the symptoms returning.
You need to educate yourself, take that knowledge, correlate it with your own particular case then take action, be that something you need to do yourself or take the information to an appropriate health professional to get checked and/or treated.
If you strip away the label ‘Meniere’s‘, see this idiopathic condition for what it is, simply a set of symptoms, then investigate the pathology of these symptoms you soon find both the root causes and more importantly solutions are indeed known. It may be surprising to some that these possible root causes are actually documented in scientific peer reviewed medical studies, data and statistics. Which begs the question then why are treating health professionals not aware of this?
Some are.
It just depends on which health professional you ask. On average, an ENT doctor or a so called “Meniere’s specialist” will be very compartmentalized and concentrate only on a narrow area of expertise surrounding the ear, nose and throat.
Very few will have comprehensive knowledge of and understand the implications of gut issues, a misaligned musculoskeletal frame, immune system disorders, dental and jaw issues, toxicity or allergies. Fewer still will have any real in depth knowledge of nutrition.
Yet any one of these areas could be where the root cause for Meniere’s symptoms begin in any one individual. This is documented fact in studies cited in many articles on this blog and the evidence of testimonials from sufferers who have contacted Meniere’s Help over the past 13 years, you could say are further proof of this.
The simple fact is that everything within the body is connected and once something becomes out of balance or dysfunctional it can lead to a domino effect or knock on effect and result in dysfunctions and conditions that at first glance may seem totally unconnected.
Health professionals who understand this and take a more holistic approach are still relatively rare but the numbers are certainly growing. It surely must be the obvious common sense approach and how medicine should be practiced. Prevention and correcting root causes rather than the perpetual writing of prescriptions for drugs to simply try to treat resulting symptoms.
The problem with this condition is, simply because of the general perception of “Meniere’s” and its definition as “idiopathic” it means if you do find your root cause, correct or eliminate it and no longer suffer from any symptoms then you will be told you didn’t have “trueMeniere’s“.
There can never be a definitive cure because there is no definitive cause. So then what is needed is to find your own cause, or causes (there can be more than one) in your own particular case. Do that and you have found the key to your own particular cure. The question is, do you stubbornly stick with the official line and continue to suffer or do you take things into your own hands and free yourself from this horrendous set of symptoms?
You might ask, “but where do I start once I have changed my perception?”
This is one of several reasons why I spent 7 years researching and writing books on the subject. There are too many variants and differences in each sufferer to do anything else. If there weren’t we could be shouting “we have the cure” and write it in one blog post. That is not the case though.
Meniere’s Disease has several possible root causes, many triggers and contributing factors in each individual case. Find your cause and you have in effect found the key to your solution, cure, answer or what ever words you want to use to describe eliminating these symptoms from your life.
Make no mistake, this can be done, it has been done and is being done all the time. Thousands have done this to my knowledge alone, including myself of course.
The need for Balance is not only true for the inner ear but everywhere in your body, from micro cellular level to musculoskeletal level.
When something is out of sync elsewhere inside the body, this can lead to a knock on effect, or domino effect that ultimately can result in inner ear dysfunction. This is in fact must be true for many disorders and diseases. You do not have to dig that deep to discover this is a simple biological fact.
The problem both doctors and patients face is that modern medical culture is geared almost exclusively to treating the end results, treating the symptoms; never looking for the cause.
Dr Amy Myers, New York best seller with her book ‘The Thyroid connection‘ explains this very well regarding how autoimmune disease is treated. You can read her comments in the article: Can Meniere’s disease be caused by Autoimmunity?
To paraphrase her: autoimmune disease attacks different organs. The sufferer will be sent to a doctor or specialist connected to that specific organ. Treatments will then be administered to stop the symptoms. These drugs will often have side effects in other parts of the body and then the sufferer will go through the same process again. Yet the root problem is what is causing the autoimmune response. Autoimmune disease is a dysfunction of the actual immune system, not the targeted organ. So if the sufferer wants to free themselves from the symptoms completely, the immune system in general is what should be concentrated upon.
The same goes for Meniere’s. The ear is the targeted organ, or the dysfunction of the inner ear is the end result. You need to find what the root cause of that is in your particular case. And it may be rare that it is in or around the actual ear.
From the endocrine system, metabolism and thyroid, the gut, blood flow, the back, the neck, the jaw, dental issues and importantly the immune system in general. Any one of these and more, if dysfunctional or out of balance, may lead to the symptoms of Meniere’s eventually manifesting. Balance in your lifestyle and diet is also important. Poor diet can lead to many dysfunctions and disorders, while prolonged stress can manifest poor health in many different ways, including Meniere’s.
When you have Meniere’s disease, you lose balance in inner ear equilibrium but, as stated above, this loss of balance can be a result of imbalances elsewhere within your body or even your life. Learn how to bring your body and lifestyle back into balance, regain homeostasis and you can stop the symptoms of Meniere’s.
Given the right conditions, the human body can be the best hospital possible. It needs you to create the right conditions and be the best doctor.
Can you really reduce or stop your symptoms? Moreover, can you free yourself from Meniere’s completely?
The evidence from thousands Meniere’s Help has supported over the past 13 years shows us without doubt that yes, absolutely you can.
The answer to this in your own case, can very much depend on you. As stated above, it may take a quantum shift in perception and attitude to what you are dealing with, so then the next question is……..
Do you think you are ready or prepared to do whatever it is you need to overcome Meniere’s?
What value do you really put on regaining your health and your life? Are you willing to actually do what it takes? You may be thinking to yourself, “of course I am ready, why wouldn’t I be?”
Consider the fact that a huge percentage of smokers, when told they have lung cancer continue to smoke. Why is that? We really can be our body’s own worst enemies sometimes, and I do not exclude myself when saying that.
When readers of ‘Managing Meniere’s’ and ‘The Need for Balance’ email Meniere’s Help and say things like, “You saved my life“, this is something money cannot buy.
To me such words are priceless. Not the somewhat over the top flattery of these words but the fact that yet another sufferer has beaten this condition. I suffered horribly for 7 years, I know how you feel if you are a sufferer and I would not wish Meniere’s on my worst enemy.
I rarely publish these types of emails on Meniere’s Help for fear of giving the impression of hype and sensationalism. Trust and integrity is very important in what I do. After all, this is a condition where most fear they are stuck with Meniere’s and often get told they have to learn to live with it, there is nothing more to be done.
The fact is, nothing could be further from the truth.
These flattering messages are slightly embarrassing for me and not really true; it was the sufferer who refused to accept they would just have to ‘learn to live with it”, they got proactive, took the appropriate action in their individual case and got themselves healed . They just needed the right information and pointers in the right direction.
You can read some messages from readers I actually do publish here and here.
If you are suffering from Meniere’s, I know you feel like you would do anything to get your life back; to feel normal again, right? There came a time when I would have drunk kitchen bleach if I thought it would have helped; I was that desperate. I also know how you feel if you are somewhat skeptical or your BS detector is flashing. I was once in the same mindset as you and I have seen a lot of nonsense so called ‘cures‘ come and go on the internet over the years. Healthy skepticism is a good thing in my eyes, but at the same time a closed mind will never free you of Meniere’s or any other ‘dis’ ‘ease’ either.
Simply put, you need to know the how and why, then the what you can do about it. This is what theNeed for Balance is there for. Ultimately to give you the information you need to free yourself of Meniere’s.
It may sound like a strange question, but are you really, honestly, ready to do whatever is needed in your case, to live symptom free or even overcome Meniere’s completely, despite all the negativity and naysayers surrounding this condition?
Many sufferers are convinced overcoming Meniere’s disease is simply not possible. This is what they have been told, what they have read. So the very first hurdle to overcome is this understandable, yet wrongly held belief.
How about you?
Albert Einstein allegedly once said, “The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one that walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.“
If you simply accept the commonly held belief that there is no known cause or cure and that there is no getting over Meniere’s then that is exactly where you will remain, stuck in a cycle of vertigo attacks, brain fog, tinnitus and everything else that comes with this condition. You will be stuck with too many other sufferers going round in circles dependent on drugs that at best give negligible levels of relief and possible side effects, or worse, you will end up gambling with intrusive or destructive surgery as I once foolishly did. You will be entrenched in hopelessness. In short, you will be stuck with Meniere’s ‘disease’.
If you are ready to stop accepting the little to no hope dogma of treat the symptoms with drugs, “nothing more to be done” and “learn to live with it“. If you are ready to educate yourself and take the appropriate action needed in your own case. If you are ready to take your life back, you are in the right place to start.
If your treating health professionals have told you there is nothing more to be done, then it is down to YOU to get proactive. As stated above overcoming Meniere’s completely can be done, has been done and is being done all the time.
Are you ready to start getting your life back? Contrary to popular misguided belief, overcoming Meniere’s disease is very achievable.
Help other Meniere’s sufferers. Do you have a success story to tell? Have you reduced, managed or completely freed yourself of Meniere’s symptoms? Email Mike at: meniereshelp@gmail.com or tell us all about it in the comments box below
Can Meniere’s Disease be caused by Autoimmunity? And if so what can you do about it?
In October 2014 a study paper on autoimmunity and Meniere’s was published from the University of South Florida: ‘Autoimmunity as a candidate for the epiopathogenesis of Meniere’s Disease’
The study concluded:
“The findings of this study suggest that autoimmunity could be one of the pathologic mechanisms behind Meniere’s disease. Multiple autoantibodies and antigens may be involved in the autoimmune reaction.
Specific antigens that caused immune reactions with patient’s serum in Protoarray analysis can be candidates for the diagnostic biomarkers of Meniere’s disease.
Further studies with mass screening using candidate antigen-antibody reactions are needed to identify future treatment modalities and to determine the true prevalence of autoimmune pathologic mechanisms underlying Meniere’s disease.”
For a long time autoimmunity was often overlooked as a possible cause of Meniere’s symptoms in some cases. That said, it seems in recent years there is more awareness both among treating doctors and many sufferers that this may be the case, at least in a significant number of people.
In a different study it has been claimed that 6% of patients with unilateral Meniere’s disease and 16% of patients with bilateral Meniere’s disease show signs of autoimmunity.
Are the symptoms of Meniere’s a result of an autoimmune response?
It is certainly a possibility to consider for at least some sufferers.
Have you been checked for this possibility?
If not, ask your doctor for a “Functional Immune System Evaluation” . You can present the studies linked from this blog as evidence that you need to be checked.
You may think that if only 6 – 16% of sufferers show signs of autoimmunity this doesn’t prove it is the definitive cause of your symptoms. Herein lies one of the problems in finding the causes of idiopathic conditions such as Meniere’s.
Tests and studies may focus on trying to find the causative factors when we now know without doubt that there are several root causes and it can be very different in each case. Therefore such studies will always have inconclusive results. Nevertheless these findings prove useful in creating a list of possible root causes to tackle in your own particular case.
There is no one size fits all with Meniere’s and nothing is written in stone, but with knowledge and a process of elimination you can find your cause or causes and deal with them. Autoimmune factors should be on your list of possibilities to consider.
This may well lead you to other factors that are causing autoimmunity and therefore the symptoms of Meniere’s. These causes may seem to have no obvious link to Meniere’s unless you are aware of how everything is connected and how the knock on effect can mean the resulting symptoms may, at first glance, seem far removed from the initial problem.
What causes autoimmunity in Meniere’s sufferers?
Autoimmune diseases refer to problems with the acquired immune system’s reactions. In an autoimmune reaction, antibodies and immune cells target the body’s own healthy tissues by mistake and attack them. This is part of the reason irregular T-cell activity is also a suspected cause. In both cases, this has to be a result of something else triggering this response, something else at root cause making the immune system act in such a way.
When unwelcome material or an ‘intruder’ invades your body your immune system protects you. It tries to identify, kill and eliminate these unwelcome invaders . But sometimes problems with your immune system cause it to mistake your body’s own healthy cells as invaders and then repeatedly attacks them. This is called an autoimmune disease. (‘Autoimmune’ literally means immunity against the self.)
The classic sign of an autoimmune disease is inflammation or swelling. How an autoimmune disease affects you depends on what part of the body is targeted. If your immune system is attacking your inner ear then the resulting swelling is causing the symptoms you feel.
For you the sufferer, it is a matter identifying the cause or causes in your individual case and correcting it or eliminating it from your life. (see below). It is generally accepted that it is unknown what causes autoimmune diseases.
In most cases, a combination of factors is probably at work. For example, you might have a genetic predisposition to develop a disease and then, under the right conditions, an outside invader like a virus might trigger it. Below you will read how the gut is the vital link to all of this and what you can do to correct it.
Regardless, you can re-balance your immune system naturally by getting to the root cause of the autoimmune response that is ultimately resulting in your Meniere’s symptoms. Drugs are aimed at suppressing your immune response and this can result in all kinds of side effects and more poor health.
Medical doctor and New York best seller with her book ‘The Thyroid Connection’ Amy Myers, herself a ‘former‘ sufferer of autoimmune disease, generally agrees with the above statement. She says,
“There is a huge disconnect between what actually causes autoimmunity and how conventional medicine treats it. The first thing to understand about autoimmune diseases is that they are a disease of the immune system. No matter what part of your body is under siege, the culprit is your immune system. This means that in order to treat, prevent, and reverse autoimmune disease you’ll need to get your immune system back under control.
However, under our current medical system, autoimmune diseases are not recognized as diseases of the immune system as a whole. Instead they are treated as diseases of particular organs. If you have multiple autoimmune conditions, as many people do, you will see several different specialists, each of whom will likely prescribe a different medication. And, there is a good chance that none of these specialists will look at how to strengthen and support your immune system, which leads me to my next point.
In conventional medicine, the belief is that once you have an autoimmune condition, there’s nothing you can do to reverse it, only ways to manage the symptoms. While medications can be effective at reducing some of the symptoms of the disease, since they suppress the entire immune system.
In contrast, functional medicine sees the body as a whole and works on the principle that the health of one system impacts the health and function of the others. Instead of focusing on disease symptom management, we focus on supporting and strengthening the immune system by getting to the root of why the immune system went rogue in the first place.
I have been able to successfully help hundreds of patients lower and reverse antibodies, get off their harsh medications, and become symptom free.”
Doctor Myers believes there are 5 underlying causes of autoimmune disease. All five of which can be linked to Meniere’s disease and are written about elsewhere on this website and discussed at length in the book The Need for Balance – Dealing with Causes of Meniere’s
Leaky Gut 80% of your immune system originates in the gut, and you can’t have a healthy immune system without a healthy gut. See more on gut issues and Meniere’s disease here and here
Gluten Gluten contributes to autoimmune disease in three key ways: it is the primary cause of leaky gut, it is highly inflammatory, meaning it stresses your immune system and the gluten protein has a similar chemical structure to some of your body’s tissues (specifically your thyroid). See more on gluten and Meniere’s from the two links above.
Toxins Toxic molds (mycotoxins) and heavy metals such as mercury are the two main toxins Dr Myers sees in those with autoimmune conditions. You will see many articles on this blog and on the main website regarding toxins and Meniere’s. Read more on mercury and Meniere’s disease hereand also in an article on thyroid and Meniere’s disease here.
Infections There are now a number of infections, including Epstein Barr, Herpes Simplex 1 and 2, E. coli, that have been linked to autoimmune diseases.
Stress Dr Myers says, “Levels of stress-related illnesses are on the rise, and stress, both of the emotional and the physical variety, has been shown to trigger and intensify autoimmune disorders. Stress disrupts immune function through several distinct pathways. Stress is the body’s response to a threat–a wound, injury, or infection. Chronic stress (the kind we face in this day and age) leads to long term inflammation that never really shuts off, creating autoimmune disease. Once the autoimmune response is in place, immediate stress only exacerbates it.” The links between stress and Meniere’s are well known and well documented on this site and in the book ‘The Need for Balance’.
All of the above are correctable.
Having spent many years hammering the fact on this website, in emails, conversations and having written two books on the subject, that getting to the root cause or causes of Meniere’s and correcting or eliminating that cause from your life can allow you to overcome this condition completely it is nice to have such a prominent health professional singing the same tune. It is all about “root causes“.
If you’re looking to calm down an overactive immune system that continually attacks healthy body tissue, then you must address the underlying causes for cellular inflammation. Ask your doctor about tests for hidden infections like yeast, viruses or Lyme disease. Have you been checked for any food allergies and heavy metal toxicity? You may be surprised at what you find.
As mentioned above when autoimmune factors are suspected, immune suppressing drugs are usually prescribed. Apart from the fact that suppressing the immune system can obviously lead to more poor health, many come with undesirable and even dangerous side effects.
The steroid Prednisone is often used in treating Meniere’s disease.
The possible known side effects of this drug is too extensive to list in this article. But among them are: dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headache and pounding in the ears. All of which would be totally counter to what the Meniere’s patient would want. A decrease in urine, another side effect, would also be the opposite of what the Meniere’s patient needs.
Other listed possible side effects of Prednisone that could be directly damaging to a Meniere’s sufferer are:
Decreased carbohydrate and glucose tolerance
Increased requirements for insulin
Potassium loss
Sodium retention with resulting edema
Hypertriglyceridemia
Hypercholesterolemia
Adrenal insufficiency
Hyperthyroidism
Hypothyroidism
Allergic reactions
Candidiasis
Sensory disturbance
Anxiety
Prednisone is also what is known as a glucocorticoidbecause of the effects on glucose metabolism. Glucocorticoids can cause increases in blood glucose. Long term use of these steroids can result in type 2 diabetes. See more on Meniere’s and diabetes here.
Dr Myers talks about leaky gut being one of the main root causes of autoimmune disease. In this scenario, there is inflammation of the lining of the gut. This leads to a malabsorption of nutrients such as zinc, Vitamin B12, iron and magnesium. The immune system is triggered into a response. This can lead to gastrointestinal issues and many food intolerances and then autoimmune disease.
In this scenario things like gluten, bad bacteria, undigested food particles and toxic waste can leak from the inside of your intestinal wall into your bloodstream causing an immune reaction.
If this were to ultimately lead to Meniere’s symptoms then it could be said that the cause would be the inflammation within the gut. But beyond that, the inflammation in the gut has a root cause and that could be stress, toxins, drugs, pathogens or other organ malfunction.
The most common causes of leaky gut are thought to be poor diet, chronic stress, toxic overload and bacterial imbalance. All of which can be linked to Meniere’s disease.
To heal a leaky gut you would need to remove foods from your diet that damage the gut, replace them with healing foods and rebalance your gut bacteria with probiotics.
What to do about it
The immune system needs to be balanced and functioning as it should for you to be healthy and for it to deal with inflammation within your ear or anywhere else in your body. Detoxing, eating the correct food and supplementing with the appropriate quality supplements can strengthen and balance your immune system so it functions properly.
You may want to get your thyroid and endocrine systemchecked. These are two factors that are also often overlooked. Toxins in foods, drinks, beauty and skin care products and the environment are often major endocrine disruptors and estrogen mimickers that can play havoc with the body’s hormone system thus leading to dysfunctions and resulting in an autoimmune response.
Iodine deficiency is also a chronic problem according to many studies. All of these problems can have a knock on effect, weaken and cause imbalances in the immune system as a whole.
In May 2017 the WHO reported that, “Iodine deficiency is the world’s most prevalent, yet easily preventable, cause of brain damage. Universal salt iodization – the practice of adding iodine to salt – is the most cost effective way to tackle iodine deficiency disorders.”
There was a time when this iodine deficiency was recognized and iodine was added to table salt. Somewhere along the line iodine was inexplicably removed in the USA.
In countries such as Japan where iodine is plentiful naturally in the diet, they have much healthier citizens that enjoy the highest levels of longevity .
Iodine can be found in seaweed such as nori and kelp, pure natural unprocessed sea salt and in season, fresh organic cranberries. Supplementing with the purest form of Nascent Iodine has proved very beneficial to immune system function and overall health.
Autoimmunity is only one of several possible causes for you to get checked for and as stated above, can be a result in itself of a different root cause.
Among others, amalgam fillings that are leaking mercury into your body, TMJs, neck and spinal misaligments and metabolic problems are all things you should investigate and check off your list of possible causes.
All are fixable.
Just like Meniere’s itself, autoimmunity is another ‘health’ condition generally believed to have no known cause and no known cure. However, as you have read above this is not the case. Despite the fact that mainstream medicine is usually of this ‘opinion’, it is simply a case of awareness. The more you are aware, the more you know, the easier it becomes to seek out the right medical professionals and make the right lifestyle choices.
The book ‘Managing Meniere’s Disease – How to Live Symptom Free’ gives comprehensive details on how to suppress the symptoms through nutrition and allow your immune system to function as it should, how to avoid triggers and other factors that may be contributing to your condition. The Need for Balance – Dealing with the Cause of Meniere’s is a much more in depth look at all the possible root causes, how to identify them and eliminate them from your life, giving you the opportunity to overcome Meniere’s completely.
It is a message we repeat ad nauseam on Menieres Help: “It can be done, hasbeen done by thousands and isbeing done all time.” Unfortunately, it may take a quantum shift in attitudes towards Meniere’s among treating health professionals and patients alike before we see overcoming Meniere’s as the norm. For now I will have to keep hammering away and making baby steps with the undeniable truth, and that is:
You CAN overcome Meniere’s and get your life back.
Help other Meniere’s sufferers. Have you been told your Meniere’s is due to autoimmune disorder? email Mike at meniereshelp@gmail.com or tell us all about it in the comment boxes below
Are the two connected at all, is it all coincidence or are the two a result of the same root cause in some people?
A sizable number of Meniere’s sufferers who contact Meniere’s Help also suffer from Diabetes. Glucose metabolism, and insulin irregularities have both been linked to Meniere’s in some way or another.
The biggest problem with trying to link diabetes and Meniere’s is that the huge number of people suffering from diabetes means that by law of averages there will naturally be a sizable number of people suffering from both conditions.
According to the WHO: 422 million adults worldwide have diabetes. That is 1 person in 11. While type 1 is thought of as genetic, 90% of sufferers are actually type 2. These statistics are predicted to double over the next 2 years. Since 1980 the number of adults living with diabetes has almost quadrupled.
In the USA 2012 figures show us that at least 29.1 million Americans, or 9.3% of the population, had diabetes. 1.4 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes every year. In 2012, 86 million Americans age 20 and older had prediabetes; this was up from 79 million in 2010. These statistics are staggering; clearly this is not going away soon.
Although the main focus on the tackling of this rise of diabetes is aimed at the obesity epidemic, and rightly so, it has to be taken into account that diabetes is on the rise in places like Asia where obesity isn’t so prevalent. The rise of forced farming practices in recent years practically runs parallel with the increase of diabetes and many other avoidable diseases.
In the 2016 WHO ‘Global Report on Diabetes’ the director general of the WHO points out that diabetes is, “No longer a disease of predominantly rich nations, the prevalence of diabetes is steadily increasing everywhere, most markedly in the world’s middle-income countries.”
The globalization of fast food chains, growing global demand for wheat grown on soils depleted of its mineral content through the overuse of NPK artificial fertilizers and the demand for overly polished rice must all play its part.
White bread can turn to glucose inside the body faster than sugar! White, polished rice can turn to glucose very quickly also if not balanced with fats or proteins. Add to this the empty carbohydrates being proudly stuffed down kids throats throughout Asia where it is a sign of wealth to go to the most unhealthy fast food chains simply because they symbolize the monetary richness of the west.
Sugary sodas, alcohol, candies and the prevalence of processed foods are all contributing greatly to this problem. This bombardment of sugars strains the pancreas so much that it cannot keep up with the demand for insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.
There are several aspects that link all of this to Meniere’s without looking at the diabetes connection itself. Firstly the pancreas is part of the endocrine system. Endocrine dysfunctions have been linked to Meniere’s. The thyroidis part of the endocrine system and has been linked to Meniere’s. T-cellregulation has been linked to Meniere’s. T-cells are regulated by the thymus which in turn is regulated by the thyroid. Metabolism has been linked to Meniere’s. High triglyceride and cholesterollevels have been linked to Meniere’s.
Are you seeing a pattern here?
Diabetes and Meniere’s Disease studies
A multitude of studies can be found on each of the individual links stated above but not enough focus on the obvious solution to most of this. Diet. It really is that simple.
What you eat and do not eat makes all the difference in every case, and of course the same is true of diabetes.
Both hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) have been linked to and investigated in Meniere’s and vestibular diseases. This suggests that any alterations in insulin can cause issues. Insulin regulates both sodium and potassium retention, something very relevant in the functioning of the inner ear.
A 2009 study in the Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology, ‘Blood glucose and insulin levels in patients with peripheral vestibular disease‘ found that:
“The four-hour glucose-insulin index showed 87.7% of patients with dizziness and suspicion of peripheral vestibular dysfunction having glucose and insulin metabolism alterations.”
The International Tinnitus Journal published a study in 2005, ‘Glucose and insulin profiles and their correlations in Ménière’s disease.’ It stated that:
“Changes in carbohydrate metabolism, admittedly one of the most prevalent etiologies of Ménière’s syndrome, can be diagnosed early by 5-hour glucose and insulin curves with a 100-g glucose load, a test more sensitive than those traditionally used in investigating impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes mellitus. This study investigated carbohydrate metabolism characteristics in 64 patients with typical Ménière’s disease. We demonstrated that 72% of them had some variable degree of hyperinsulinemia as shown by their plasma insulin curves, whereas alterations on the glucose curve (reactive hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia) were found for only 21%.”
It concluded that:
“These findings confirm the need to include 5-hour glucose and insulin curves in the diagnostic routine when investigating Ménière’s disease. In that way, an early diagnosis of hyperinsulinemia, the metabolic change most often involved in the pathogenesis of cochleovestibular disorders, can be made.”
An earlier study published in Acta Otolaryngologica in 1984, ‘Blood levels of glucose and insulin in Meniere’s disease‘ stated the following:
“It has been reported that a very commonly overlooked cause of vertigo is disorder of glucose metabolism. This may not be reflected in the glucose tolerance test alone, but becomes obvious when the insulin levels in blood are evaluated simultaneously.
Thirty-one patients with Meniere’s disease underwent a 5-hour glucose tolerance test with radioimmune assay of insulin. It was found that 67.7% of our patients showed some abnormality in the relationship between the blood levels of glucose and insulin.”
The studies above, in addition to several others connecting insulin and glucose to Meniere’s are all cited on PubMed.
More specific to diabetes is the 2013 study published on Science Direct from the Journal of Otology, ‘Effects of Diabetes on Hearing and Cochlear Structures’.
“Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic systemic disease characterized by hyperglycemia, with various pathogenic mechanisms. From absolute or relative insulin deficiency, patients with DM often demonstrate various levels of metabolic disorders. Major clinical manifestations of DM include metabolic disorders, vascular lesions, circulatory disturbances and neurologic complications. Along with advances in DM research, reports of DM related tinnitus and hearing impairment have increased continuously.
DM is closely linked to hearing damage. Both large and microscopic size blood vessels are affected in DM. Metabolic disorders, atherosclerotic changes and micro vessel diseases result in ischemia and hypoxia in neural tissues, leading to nerve damage. When such pathological changes involve the cochlea and auditory nerve, cochlear and/or neural hearing loss follows.”
Although this study does not mention ‘Meniere’s disease’ it shows us how blood flow, insulin and metabolic disorders can affect ear function.
It is a fact that Meniere’s help has received many emails from people who suffer from both Meniere’s disease and diabetes. In some cases diabetes preceded the symptoms of Meniere’s, while with others it was the other way round. So proving a link between Meniere’s and diabetes itself is hard to do. However, several of the factors that lead to diabetes can also be linked to Meniere’s.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to what you eat and do not eat. If the onset of Meniere’s is related to metabolism, endocrine disorders or thyroid dysfunction for example then the same reasons these problems occur could be the same reasons at root cause that Meniere’s symptoms manifest. Poor diet and lifestyle causes dysfunctions throughout the body that can lead to various conditions including both Meniere’s and diabetes.
We have received updates from Meniere’s sufferers in the past where, when they changed their diet, lifestyle and in many cases used a specific supplement regimen they not only reduced or eliminated their Meniere’s symptoms but also improved their condition related to diabetes.
This underscores the importance of the right nutrition. No remedy or drug can compensate for a poor diet. However a good healthy whole food (organic where possible) diet supported by quality supplementation can reduce the symptoms of, reverse or eliminate many conditions, Meniere’s and diabetes among them.
At precisely the same time I was writing this article The Express news paper online published a report, ‘Removing bread and pasta from diets ‘can reverse Type 2 diabetes’
Diabetes.co.uk, the world’s largest community of sufferers revealed that 7,000 Type 2 patients using a low refined carbohydrate dietary program saved £6.9 million on medication in a year. They claimed that,
“Slashing consumption of rice, potatoes and sugar has the potential to halt one of Britain’s biggest health epidemics. Switching to a healthier lifestyle could save the cash-strapped NHS £10 billion a year – the amount spent treating the condition – and change people’s lives in just 12 months.”
Co-author of the book this study is published in, Dr Aseem Malhotra said,
“The good news is it’s entirely preventable – but also reversible – and simple dietary changes through cutting refined carbohydrates can at the very least help patients come off medications. Simple diet changes have rapid and substantial benefits not just for patients with Type 2 but for high blood pressure and heart disease too.”
Charlotte Summers, of Diabetes.co.uk said,
“We are seeing phenomenal results from people taking a lifestyle first approach on the low carb program which is saving NHS budgets and lives.”
Type in “diabetes diet” or something similar into your search engine and you will find a plethora of diet plans online for diabetics.
Can type 2 diabetes be reversed?
In a simple 12-minute presentation to the U.K. Parliament, Zoe Harcombe, Ph.D., who spent years researching dietary guidelines as they relate to nutrition and obesity, succinctly demonstrates how bad science supports rising rates of diabetes and other nutritionally triggered diseases.
For Meniere’s the right diet and supplementation can help the immune system deal with the inflammation causing the symptoms. Dealing with the cause of the inflammation on the other hand often needs more than simply the correct diet. This depends on the root of the problem and there are several for you to consider.
Finding the root cause or causes of Meniere’s in your own individual case can be done though. If you find your root cause, you have found the key to your cure or solution, whichever words you choose to use. Eliminate or correct the root cause and you can overcome Meniere’s completely. This is something we have constantly seen among sufferers over the past 13 years of support work.
Finally, it is important that if you are both a diabetic and have Meniere’s you should be careful using steroids as a treatment for your Meniere’s. Increases in blood glucose are common among people taking prednisone and other steroids. These steroids are referred to as ‘glucocorticoids’. Perhaps of even more significance is the fact that long term use of these steroids can produce “Steroid induced diabetes” and a host of other very serious conditions.
According to a study ‘Steroid-induced diabetes‘ cited on PubMed.gov in 2014, “Glucocorticoids have various common metabolic side effects including hypertension, osteoporosis and diabetes. As the therapeutic benefits of glucocorticoids continue to expand across medical specialties, the incidence of steroid-induced or steroid-exacerbated diabetes will continue to rise.”
There are plenty of ways to reduce inflammation naturally to tackle your Meniere’s symptoms. If you have the choice of steroids or the right foods, which will you choose?
Help other Meniere’s sufferers. Do have experience with Meniere’s and diabetes? Tell us all about it in the comments boxes below or email Mike at meniereshelp@gmail.com
The need for Balance is not only true for the inner ear but everywhere in your body, from micro cellular level to musculoskeletal level.
