Meniere’s disease and the burnout question

Whether Meniere’s disease actually burns out after a period of time or not is a common question. Unfortunately like most things dealing with meniere’s there really isn’t a definitive answer. I know that many folks believe that meniere’s runs in stages where the last stage is the burnout; while there may be some truth to that I don’t think that it holds true for everyone. From the numerous comments that I have received over the years it seems that meniere’s may go away for a while but eventually comes back, which I know is very disheartening.

Another thing to consider is what treatments you have pursued to control your meniere’s disease. Maybe starting out with a low salt diet, that helps some folks, or maybe going through the gent injections (which didn’t seem to help me) or even the drastic measure of having surgery, surely all these would somehow change the course of meniere’s.

Peggy also found this information about Meniere’s disease burnout on the web. I’m not sure what the link is.

“Some doctors say that Meniere's "burns itself out," leading patients to erroneously conclude that Meniere's will simply fade away and that they will be "cured." However, "burnout" does not mean this at all. "Burnout" refers to a condition where Meniere's Disease has progressed to the point where it has finally destroyed the entire (or nearly the entire) vestibular function in the affected ear. At the point of burnout, the patient has little or no vestibular function left and the body may or may not compensate in other ways. The vestibular function in the other ear may take over and/or the patient may learn to balance through visual cues (with some degree of difficulty occurring during darkness). However, nothing stops the relentless progression of Meniere's Disease, and it will continue to destroy hearing, produce the sense of fullness, and produce tinnitus -- even in patients who are "stone" deaf (because of Meniere's Disease or otherwise). While some patients reach a rotational vertigo-free, or nearly rotational vertigo-free, state of burnout, burnout is a progression, not a cure, and there is no certainty of any one patient reaching burnout. Not all doctors (and not all patients) believe that "burnout" can happen.”

One also has to wonder what people did many years ago when no one had ever heard about meniere’s let alone any of the treatments of today. I can’t imagine how anyone could deal with the attacks and dizziness without even knowing what was going on. It would be interesting to find out if in later years their meniere’s burned out.

Hopefully with more attention on Meniere’s today there will be breakthrough in treatments that will control this menacing disorder.

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Quick Meniere’s attack

I always find the comments that the blog receives very informative and though provoking. A couple comments from the past week made me think about a kind of meniere’s attack that I have had in the past. The feeling that the head is being pushed backward extremely hard without warning apparently is familiar to other meniere’s sufferers.

The first comment is from Ali describing an attack that he had after playing a video game on his phone…

I was on my smartphone, and i downloaded this game which was very visually active. After 5 minutes i had this attack for 15 seconds. It was the worst level of spinning i have ever had in my life, if it had carried on for the usual 4 hours meniere’s style attack i would have been sectioned as i was shouting in fear when it happened. Has anyone ever had this is this a drop attack?).

And Lauri responded…

When you had the fast/furious attack, did you have the sensation of being smacked hard backwards? I did. I never actually moved backwards. But the sensation was there.
NO warning for me with this attack.

 My attacks that have been similar have usually occurred when I am on the computer. I will be looking at something and all of a sudden my head will jerk uncontrollably to the left leaving me rather dazed.  It was frightening to say the least.

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Meniere’s, vertigo and lotion

We all by now know the big differences between Meniere’s disease and vertigo. The cause of Meniere’s disease is unknown, although there a lot of theories about what brings it on and the cure for meniere’s is also unknown. Vertigo on the other hand is caused by an inner ear disorder that creates a false sense of movement. Vertigo can be corrected by a type of therapy called canalith repositioning procedure which moves particles around in the inner ear to stop the motion sensors in the ear from sending the wrong signals to the brain. But is there any other treatments, such as lotions that help with the dizziness?

The reason that I am writing about this is a commercial that I saw the other day for a lotion that is applied behind the ear and it supposed to curtail the vertigo. I am not going to write about any specific products but you have to wonder if anyone has found any relief from them. The commercial only mentioned vertigo and not meniere’s which is not surprising because most folks have heard about vertigo, whereas, unfortunately meniere’s still isn’t very well known.

I have a rather healthy skepticism about any claims that certain products are cure all for whatever ails you, especially when it comes to inner ear disorders such as vertigo and Meniere’s disease. However I always want to hear about anything that might help with these dreaded problems.

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Timing your Meniere’s disease

Predicting when your next meniere’s attack is like timing the stock market, in other words it really isn’t effective. I know that at one time I thought I knew when the attacks were about to happen and it usually was after I had forgotten to take my medication or I had just taken a long ride in the car or a plane ride. In the past these things have made me lightheaded and prone to start spinning. Unfortunately meniere’s isn’t all that predictable, I have had many attacks out of the blue even when I was in a situation where I didn’t have much stress. Of course I’m not saying that stress doesn’t play a big part of Meniere’s disease because it does, I am saying that meniere’s is very unpredictable.

At times we all have to scratch our heads and wonder why the spinning and dizziness comes on at certain times. I’m not really sure myself because meniere’s has been such a mystery to me and most folks that have it. The really strange thing is that there seems to be a lot of information out about vestibular problems such as meniere’s but there is nothing solid on why it happens and nothing on how to stop it. Although there is some research going on right now that looks promising.

I would be really interested to hear your opinion on meniere’s unpredictability and how you try to keep it all in perspective.

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