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Approaching Meniere's Disease
Positively.
Understanding Meniere's Disease and the Classic
Symptoms of Meniere's Disease: Dizziness,
Vertigo (or Vertigo Disease),
Inner Ear Pressure, Tinnitus, and
Hearing Loss."
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My husband has Meniere's disease and
he says, "some days, life just wasn't worth living!" If you have
this condition, or if you know anyone who has this horrible condition,
I bet they also feel like that. David still has Meniere's, but he no
longer has the symptoms that made his life so unbearable at times
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Dear
Reader
This website has Meniere's Disease
information and resources to help you understand what you are going through
with this terrible condition. We put this site together from personal experience
of David's suffering with Meniere's Disease. We also did a lot of research
to help us explain Meniere's Disease and it's symptoms. We discovered that
there wasn't a lot of positive information about it on the Internet, so
we decided to share our knowledge and idea with others affected by Meniere's
Disease. It is our goal to help people with Meniere's Disease and its' associated
symptoms of:
As a practicing
nurse, I've seen people with Meniere's
Disease (sometimes referred to as vertigo disease) spending years looking
for relief from this unpredictable torment. And it's even worse to watch
this happen to someone close to you. Meniere's Disease isn't just a condition
for the patient. It affects the entire family. So when my husband started
to get relief, so did we. We feel LIFE is pretty wonderful! And several
years later, things are still like this...pretty wonderful. By now we have
also learned a tremendous amount about this condition and are looking into
some possible causes of Meniere's Disease.
This website was created from two perspectives: from the Meniere's Disease
sufferer's point of view and then the family's. Each section provides brief
overviews of different subjects. It is not our intent to recreate any medical
documents. In our research we came across many excellent in-depth articles
on Meniere's Disease, full of medical jargon. The problem was that I had
to spend time "deciphering" the medical terminology. I suspect it's a challenge
for may others. We put this website together to simplify the jargon
and make it easier to understand Meniere's Disease for the non-medical reader.
It has now been over five years since we
started this web site. And we have learned that there is a lot of mis-information
about Meniere’s Disease and its symptoms. Incidentally, this is not a
true “disease”. The correct medical classification is “idiopathic
syndrome”. That means no one really knows what sets off the symptoms.
But because they are so unpleasant, doctors want to help alleviate them.
Hence the drugs, surgeries, and devices to balance pressure.
So this site is traditional in the sense
that it helps you understand the terminology, the testing, and other
concepts that the medical profession practices. But we have found that
there are many possible underlying causes and to this end, we spend a
lot of time helping people understand what might be happening to them.
This not to say we are treating anyone or diagnosing them. Once you have
some direction to follow, it takes the loneliness and fear away. This is
not as hopeless as you are led to believe.
There is always a reason for the symptoms
of Meniere's Disease and although it may take some time to find them, at
least you know there is something to do. We have found that dental
issues (root canals, mercury fillings, dental decay), sinus problems,
and chemicals seem to be underlying causes for the symptoms. If you
would like a list of our observations, please contact us. Someone will
respond shortly.
But I would like to explain a little as
to why you might have these symptoms.
You have a balance (vestibular)
nerve and a hearing (acoustic) nerve in each ear. When they are
not working as they should, they show up as balance problems (vertigo,
dizziness, etc) and tinnitus (noise) or hearing fluctuations or loss. If
you understand that, doesn’t it then make sense to try and find out what
could be giving you these changes? Your body is all about cause and
effect. Nothing more or less. The cause, obvious or hidden, results in
an effect.
Two additional parts of this
understanding has to include a)
your body’s immune
system and b) the
inflammatory response.
There are many other parts to your body’s automatic desire or plan to
keep you healthy: all are interrelated, but these two play a major role.
The
immune system
plays an enormous role in helping your body to function healthily, as it
is meant to do. It is one of your body’s very crucial protective
mechanisms. It is the main defense and if it not healthy, “things” break
down. It takes ages to break down your immune system. There are several
articles on this site to help you understand what breaks it down and
what helps it to be healthy. Just know it can be restored to health.
That has now been scientifically shown to be possible.
The
inflammatory process
is also a defense mechanism, but it responds much more quickly, almost
immediately. It “simply” tries to wash it out. This is how your body
responds to anything it doesn’t like. For example, if you have dust in
your eye, your eye tears. If you bang your toe, it swells up. The
response is immediate. You have no control over it. But in both of these
cases, there is room for the fluid to expand.
You may wonder how this relates to
Meniere’s symptoms. Suppose something causes this sort of action in your
inner ear, with its very limited space. It could be a chemical reaction
or some other irritant, or something else (trauma?). So your body tries
to wash it out: its normal response. The resulting fluid has little room
to expand, but the build up is relentless as it tries to wash away the
irritant or problem. And that equates to pressure. Where is it to go? It
can only put pressure on any soft tissue. It can’t put pressure on bone
or cartilage as they aren’t flexible. And the soft tissue could include
either the acoustic nerve or the vestibular nerves: one or both. Would
it not then make sense to see that this nerve(s) could easily be
distorted? And that any messages to and from the brain, would also then
be distorted? I know this is very simplistic, but sometimes the simple
explanations give you more hope and more insight. But this explanation
is correct.
The letters we receive are obviously from by people who are looking for
help and support. People don't usually search the Internet for
Meniere's Disease or the symptoms
of vertigo and symptoms of
dizziness, sudden falls,
loss of hearing, etc., without a very good
reason. Then they want this information quickly, without complicated language...without
confusing sentences. Or by using words which require a dictionary.
Sometimes it is not easy to get a clear understanding of what is happening
in our body. As a clinical instructor, it is my job to clarify such these
ideas, treatments, and procedures. Many times if someone has a better understanding
of why their body is behaving in a certain way, they can accept it or find
a different way to cope. At least they have some choices.
We also thought that Meniere's Disease
should be "demystified". It's a fairly common set of symptoms, and people
should know about them and what they can do to help themselves. (A Meniere's
Disease episode in public causes quite a scene.) Several million people
in North America suffer from symptoms that are said to make up the definition
or diagnosis of Meniere's Disease. (Dizziness,
Vertigo, Inner Ear Pressure,
Tinnitus, and Hearing
Loss.) That means that many, many families are affected by this problem.
Can you imagine all those people plus their families trying to live normal
lives with Meniere's Disease?
Our life is pretty representative of everyone else's with Meniere's Disease.
We felt our experiences are there to provide additional insight. Having
personally handled the thousands of emails and phone calls from Meniere's
Disease sufferers, I have found so many commonalties, that it is time to
speak out about them.
As human beings, we have a lot of ability. Often our brains just need to
be exposed to different concepts. Then our creative juices take over and
we come up with very workable and practical ideas. It also helps us take
back control of our lives.
We have had this web site up since April 2001. Throughout all this time,
we have been very privileged to meet and work with many, many people whose
families have been affected by Meniere's Disease. And in July 2002, the
American Medical Association released a statement acknowledging the role
of nutritional supplements in the reversal or prevention of degenerative
conditions in adults.
Now finally, the medical community is acknowledging the value of nutritional
supplements for disease prevention. Or more accurately, allowing your immune
system to be healthy enough to handle possible problems. And if "optimum"
amounts of a "balanced and complete" nutritional supplements can be seen
to prevent this sort of thing, would it not be an idea to try it?
The term "degeneration" is defined as the gradual deterioration of normal
cells and body functions. That explains Meniere's Disease to me. Does it
to you? Your ear was working nicely and now through some occurrence, it
isn't. In other words, the ear function is gradually or suddenly deteriorating.
One thing I find in my calls is that few seem to equate balance and the
inner ear. Your inner ear has TWO nerves: not just the hearing nerve. And
the balance (vestibular) one is just as important as the hearing (acoustic)
one. In fact, if I had a choice, I would choose a healthy balance nerve
over a healthy hearing one. It would mean standing up without loosing my
balance, and maybe not hearing very well. A personal choice for sure, but
did you know you had these two nerves?
If you would like to be kept up to date on them, please
subscribe to our newsletter. If you
would like a copy of this news release about the American Medical Association's
acknowledgement, please email us. We will also be adding a glossary
shortly: it will help with descriptions of more medical terms for sufferers
of Meniere's Disease.
If you would rather call us and talk to us about your concerns relating
to your experiences with Meniere's
Disease, we would be very happy to talk with you. We are always willing
to share our Meniere's Disease information and experiences.
We can be reached at 604-463-8666 (Pacific
Time Zone)
Thank you for
taking the time to visit our website.
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