What is Meniere’s Disease?
Posted Under: General Information on Meniere's Disease / Syndrome
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:
What is Meniere’s Disease and what does it mean for you the sufferer?
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 NOT something 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.”
VIDEO EXPLAINING THE BALANCE ORGANISM IN THE EAR
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Related articles:
Click here to read Managing Meniere’s Disease
Click here to read The Need for Balance – Dealing with the Causes of Meniere’s
email Meniere’s Help at: meniereshelp@gmail.com
Further reading:
