| Meniere's Disease Help

Stress and Meniere’s Disease – The vicious cycle that never ends

A lengthy study paper on the effects of stress on Meniere’s patients was published on the US National Library of Medicine & National Institute of Health website (PubMed) in February 2014.

Stress is a very important factor with regards to Meniere’s and at the very least it is a contributing trigger to Meniere’s attacks. Only those who have never lived with this condition would argue otherwise.

In the paper ‘The Influence of Psychological Factors in Meniere’s Disease‘ the author comes to the same conclusions that I have maintained for 12 years that it is a vicious cycle. Meniere’s causes stress and stress triggers attacks. The conclusions were reached following study of 26 articles and 33 studies.

The Influence of Psychological Factors in Meniere’s Disease – Study

Here are a few extracts from the lengthy paper (view the full paper through link at the top of the page):

“Many physicians have observed that psychological factors play a significant role in the course of Meniere’s disease (MD), with Meniere’s patients being subject to anxiety and tension states.

However, the question whether MD is caused by psychological factors or whether the psychological manifestation in MD is as a result of the illness is still unresolved.

A vicious circle of interaction seems to exist between the somatic organic symptoms of MD and resultant psychological stress. The frightening attacks of vertigo seem likely to produce and increase the level of anxiety thereby worsening the emotional state and the resultant anxiety provokes various symptoms probably through disorders of the autonomic nervous system occasioned by the increased levels of stress-related hormones.

In MD the frightening attacks of vertigo seem likely to produce and increase the level of anxiety thereby worsening the emotional state and the resultant anxiety provokes various symptoms probably through disorders of the autonomic nervous system occasioned by the increased levels of stress-related hormones.

Hence, a vicious circle of interaction between somatic organic symptoms of MD and resultant psychological stress develops. Understandably, those with predisposing psychological personality characteristics are more likely to suffer more impact of this vicious cycle on their QOL (quality of life) than Meniere’s patients whose personalities are in the normal range.

Conclusion

In MD, there seem to exist a vicious circle of interaction between the somatic symptoms especially vertigo and resultant emotional disturbances, which in turn tend to provoke some other somatic symptoms.

The QOL of the sufferers is severely incapacitated by the illness, especially the psychological well-being, which manifest mainly with anxiety and depression, dominating the physical and environmental disturbances. Worse QOL tends to occur in Meniere’s patients with more severe vertigo symptom.”

Other Studies

It would seem that although stress may not be the definitive cause of Meniere’s “Disease” it can cause some of the symptoms. If you consider that Meniere’s is an idiopathic condition then this seems somewhat contradictory. In another paper from PubMed: ‘Microarray analysis of stress-related gene expression in patients with Ménière’s disease‘ it states:

“All these findings suggested that the distinct group of stress-related genes contributed to the development of vertigo attacks of Ménière’s disease and that stress-related gene expression profiles in peripheral leukocytes can be a predictive and therapeutic tool for episodic vertigo attacks in patients with Ménière’s disease.”

In yet another paper from PubMed titled: ‘The relevance of an elevation in the plasma vasopressin levels to the pathogenesis of Meniere’s attack.‘ the author stated,

“Results suggest that the elevation of plasma vasopressin in the acute phase of Meniere’s disease is therefore related to the pathogenesis of Meniere’s attacks”

In at least some cases it may be a chicken and egg question regarding which comes first the stress or Meniere’s but it is clear that stress is a trigger.

How relevant is Stress in the symptoms of Meniere’s Disease?

Absolutely relevant. Stress is at the very least a trigger and in some people it would seem a root cause. Reducing your non Meniere’s related stress would seem vital in reducing the severity and regularity of Meniere’s symptoms.

If you found this article useful Click here to support Meniere’s Help paypal.me/menieres

Meniere’s Disease and Anxiety

Stress And Meniere’s Disease

Low Salt Diet for Meniere’s Disease

By Mike Spencer

Founder of Meniere’s Help
Researcher and author of Managing Meniere’s Disease and
The Need for Balance – Dealing with the Causes of Meniere’s

Help other sufferers:

What are your experiences with stress and Meniere’s. Tell us your experiences in the comments box below or email Mike at meniereshelp@gmail.com

References/Further reading:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3952292/

Stress And Meniere’s Disease -New Study

Does stress trigger Meniere’s symptoms? New study

According to ClinicalTrials.gov a new set of trials are set to begin at Osaka University, related to stress and Meniere’s Disease.

One important aspect of this is that, while many doctors in the west may dismiss stress as a major factor the researchers in Osaka had this to say,

“Attacks in Meniere’s disease, characterized by vertigo and hearing loss, are well known to occur repeatedly under stressed environment.

Hitherto, its pathology was revealed to be inner ear hydrops through human temporal bone studies in 1938″

Stress And Meniere’s Disease – The Vicious Cycle

A 2013 study published in Acta Otolarygol, ‘Psychological condition in patients with intractable Meniere’s disease’ states:

“Physicians should consider additional treatment strategies for Meniere’s disease patients with a long history of disease and hearing loss in the secondary affected ear and also provide psychological support regarding future progressive bilateral hearing loss.”

This conclusion was based on the following:

“Between 1998 and 2009, we enrolled 207 patients with intractable Meniere’s disease in this prospective study. We used the Cornell Medical Index and the Self-rating Depression Scale to evaluate their psychological condition.

We also obtained demographic and background information relating to sex, age, duration of disease, vertigo frequency, hearing level in bilateral sides, and plasma vasopressin level.”

Vasopressin is stress hormone that was was initially viewed as strictly a beneficial hormone to help prevent water loss. It is also referred to as ADH, meaning ‘anti- diuretic hormone’.

This means when stress produces this hormone fluid is being retained. The most common medicine to given to Meniere’s patients is a diuretic. This is meant help reduce the fluid in the inner ear causing Meniere’s.

Vasopressin is a very damaging hormone to the body. It has been implicated as a mediator of renal injury, and acute effects including glomerular hyperfiltration and albuminuria.

Side effects of producing vasopressin include:

slow heartbeat
dizziness
headache
nausea
vomiting

Poor blood flow has been linked to Meniere’s disease. The vicious cycle of stress = Meniere’s = stress = Meniere’s is well known. If you have Meniere’s disease, there will be accompanying high stress and anxiety and in turn this will produce more Meniere’s symptoms.

Dizziness, headaches, nausea and vomiting with vertigo are all symptoms of Meniere’s.

Fight or flight fear literally turns the immune system off. A constant drip feeding of fear then, must impair the immune system constantly.

Stress, anxiety, fear and anger are extremely detrimental to human cellular health. The body has to be constantly in a state of building, regeneration on cells. Stress hormone impairs that process and can result in disease states developing.

This is why people who are calm, happy, meditate often are usually much healthier than constantly stressed or angry people.

It would seem stress can be both a contributing trigger and perhaps a root cause of Meniere’s disease.

The results of the above mentioned study were:

“Neurosis and depression was diagnosed in 40.1% and 60.4%, respectively, of patients with intractable Meniere’s disease.

Our results showed that surgical treatment significantly improved vertigo and hearing ability in patients with no psychological symptoms compared with those exhibiting psychological symptoms.

Patients with a longer duration and worse hearing level in the secondary affected ear had a significantly higher incidence of mental illness than those with a shorter duration and better level of hearing.”

If you found this article and site useful Click here to support Meniere’s Help paypal.me/menieres

Stress and Meniere’s Disease – Symptom or Cause?

Food Allergies and Meniere’s Disease

Meniere’s Disease and Anxiety

Click here to read Managing Meniere’s Disease

Click here to read The Need for Balance – Dealing with the Causes of Meniere’s

Do you suffer from stress and Meniere’s disease ? Use the comment box below or email Mike at meniereshelp@gmail.com

References/Further reading: Psychological condition in patients with intractable Meniere’s disease

Table of Contents