Triamterene hctz and Meniere’s disease

When I was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, the first ENT that I saw put me on a diuretic. As I discussed in an earlier post, the meniere’s patient inner ear structure doesn’t have the normal flow of fluid in them. Therefore having too much sodium in their diet will cause excess fluid causing hydrops, which in turn causes all the bad side effects of MM, such as tinnitus, dizziness, hearing loss, and imbalance.

The first diuretic that I was put on was Furosemide. At first it seems to work along with a low salt diet. I did have to take a potassium pill along with it because you will lose potassium through your urine and with diuretics you go to the bathroom quite a bit. There are foods such as bananas and tomatoes that are rich in potassium that you can eat but I took the pill anyway.
It wasn’t too long before the attacks started again and I stopped taking the diuretics. I wasn’t unhappy about that because the many trips to the bathroom each day were getting old and the potassium pill was hard for me to swallow.

Last year when I went to a specialist, I told him how difficult it was for me to take the diuretic. He suggested Triamterene hctz also called Dyazide. The difference between this medicine and the Furosemide was the Dyazide didn’t cause so many trips to the bathroom and it didn’t cause the potassium level to go down.

Well, I have taking it for about 7 months and it seems to help. Of course you never really know what helps with Meniere’s disease.

It is always good to check with your doctor and see which medicine is right for you.