March 11, 2018
Tips For Living With Meniere’s Disease
I have been living with Meniere’s disease for 3 years. I was getting severe bouts of vertigo (where the room spins so fast, you can’t walk or function, and usually end up getting sick); also I found I had a constant ringing in my ears (tinnitus). My other symptoms developed as well – the feeling like my left ear was blocked and my hearing was up and down. No one really knows what causes it, or exactly how to treat it.
Like so many things in life, this has definitely been a ‘trial and error’ journey for me. There’s also no exact way to get a diagnosis, the Doctors rule out other things, look at the symptoms as a whole and go from there… well, the only true way according to my Ears, Nose and Throat Specialist is by autopsy, but obviously, that can’t happen yet! There seems to be commonalities, like the fact that we have an imbalance of fluid in the ear. Unfortunately, from what I’ve read and researched though, the fluid balance system is independent of the fluid balance system in the rest of the body, so medications like diuretics don’t really help.
To read more about Meniere’s click here.
My Tips For Today
- Decrease salt intake to 1200-1500 mg/day. This is a tough one. Considering 1 tsp = 2300mg, I was looking at less than 3/4 tsp of a salt daily. According to Canada.ca, Canadians eat 3400 mg/day, so I had room to improve! The interesting thing is that a low sodium diet isn’t actually validated as a treatment for Meniere’s, but I think the benefits are still worth it. For example, lowering salt intake helps lower blood pressure, which in turn can help with the tinnitus. The recommended amount of sodium is usually 1500 – 2000 mg so lowering my intake was better for my health despite having Meniere’s. Drinking plenty of water through the day plays a big role in this as well.
- Reading labels became extremely important, and with high sodium in many products (and naturally occurring), it became clear that I needed to step it up and start making more food at home from scratch. I always loved to cook and bake anyway, so this was a.o.k. with me.
- Decrease stress! This is a big one – definitely a trigger of attacks.
- Decrease stimulants like caffeine – I’ve had to put up with a lot of jokes about drinking decaf coffee, but that’s ok! 🙂
- Regular exercise
- Preventing fatigue – another tough one.. how busy are we as women in general?
There are also several supplements and vitamins that are recommended for vertigo prevention and treatment of associated nausea: Maintaining optimal levels of magnesium, calcium, potassium, bioflavonoids, B vitamins. Taking a multivitamin is important.
Natural treatments for nausea also include ginger. Other herbal remedies aim at maintaining good circulation to the brain/ears include Ginkgo Biloba, Ginseng, Coenzyme Q10, Butcher’s Broom (also good for fluid retention). Controlling blood sugar levels are also important, and it’s found people with Meniere’s have a higher level – but I think I’ll keep that discussion for another time.
Last but not least, I have been experimenting with different essential oils lately as well. Still working on this one, but so far I haven’t seen much improvement. The other thing that my Family Doctor stumbled upon lately as well, which is working for me, is taking an antihistamine every day. This means another pill to take, which I really don’t like doing personally, so that has led me to experiment with alternatives like acupuncture. And my journey continues!
Looking at the lifestyle recommendations (minus the specific supplements) you can see that they would benefit anyone, with or without Meniere’s. I look at my diagnosis as a wake-up call to make my health and wellbeing more of a priority. I am lucky that in the spectrum of this disease, my symptoms are fairly mild. I can still work, live and do everything I always did, but I now deal with an ‘off’ day – I listen and respect the messages coming from my body. In that respect and as one last note, self-care, loving myself more and being gentle with myself have been just as important as any of the changes I’ve made!
Stay well my friends,
Erin
