Devastated

Have you ever tried an AIP diet to see for food based triggers? I was able to remove all of my symptoms of MD with diet change. Not saying it works for everyone, but it worked for me. Just can't eat tree nuts, dairy, oats, black pepper, and keeping my salt in a healthy range, also no processed foods.

my brother is having the same drop spells, we have an appointment with a CERVICAL CHIROPRACTOR Monday. there is new thinking that the causes of MENIERE'S are the symptoms & the C1 & C2 vertebra are causing nerve issues. IF YOU (my caps lock is acting weird!) are interested in his results, check back in, in a few weeks. sorry you are going thru this

Hi Dadlew. I'm so sorry you are again struggling with your MD. Please tell me what meds you are taking for MD. Also, do you have any allergic symptoms.....such as heavy mucus, congestion, eye's tearing, etc?

glad to hear you are on betahistine and diuretics. You might now need higher dosage of both. What dosages are you now taking of both meds?

Hi Dadlew, I'm really sorry to hear about the drop attacks. Very disappointing after such a long spell. Try to not get too despondent, and think of it as hopefully just a setback. Feeling stressed is only going to add to your problems.

I last spoke to my consultant about seven weeks ago and told him about My Big 5 approach to getting healthy, which I've been following for the last nine months. I was really surprised that he totally supported it, and said that I could certainly hold my symptoms at bay with this approach. My Big 5 are really just the basic building blocks of good health and well-being:

A good balanced diet

Plenty of daily exercise

Adequate quality sleep

Looking after my gut health

Looking after my mental health

When I listed the 5 to the consultant, he immediately zoned in on the last one, saying how unhealthy stress was. He said stress increases the chemical Cortisol which increases the fluid in the inner ear, thereby causing a direct problem for anyone with menieres. Cortisol also suppresses the immune system.

I don't know whether you were experiencing stress prior to the drop attacks or not, but the stress that you are probably experiencing now is definitely not going to help. I know that's easier said than done when you're in the middle of having symptoms.

Last year I was very unwell with my menieres and had reached a very low point. Then in November I decided that although I didn't have control over my menieres, that I did have over my general health. I decided that I would get myself fully healthy by using My Big 5, and that hopefully it would ultimately have an impact on my menieres. I can now say that it certainly has.

I am now the healthiest I have been since getting menieres almost five years ago, and for probably even a long time before that. I still have a couple of lingering symptoms, although they too suddenly improved just five days ago. Those symptoms were pressure that was cutting off my hearing to quite a degree, and a certain amount of sound distortion, with music sounding out of tune. Then last Thursday both of these symptoms suddenly improved. Music isn't fully perfect, but almost. I also have tinnitus, which I suspect I will always have. A lot of people have tinnitus, quite apart from those of us with menieres.

My big 5 is something that everyone can do. But for those of us with menieres, being physically and mentally/emotionally healthy can, at the very least, help us to cope better with our attacks and symptoms.

I've worked hard these last nine months on all aspects of my health. But the hardest task was looking after my mental health. I know I'm not alone in having 'stuff' from my childhood which I had repressed for decades. But the repression of emotional hurt or trauma eventually does harm to us, it actually makes us sick. So last November I started counselling and started dealing with my 'stuff'. This journey culminated in events nine days ago where I truly felt healed. It was so interesting that just four days later, my remaining symptoms suddenly improved.

The thing that menieres took from me was a sense of control or agency in my life. I felt at the mercy of its cruel, unpredictable symptoms. But in looking after my health - mind and body - it has returned to me a feeling of empowerment and agency and it has felt really, very good indeed.

I want to give you encouragement here. Definitely go to see your consultant, and hopefully they can do something to help you. But perhaps in the meantime, you could start to take back some control and responsibility for your own body and try to get yourself as healthy as you possibly can. It can do no harm, and can only do good.

Wishing you all the best.

Hi Dadlew, I'm really glad you got an appointment so quickly, it's great you won't have too long to wait, and hopefully it goes really well for you.

It sounds like you've a healthy lifestyle, which is great.

If you feel there might be room for improvement in your diet, then maybe there is and so that would need attention. For me a good balanced diet is not just about what I eat, but also what I don't. So I've cut out all sugar, and have it only as an occasional treat.

We probably all require different amounts of sleep depending on a whole variety of factors. Although six hours sounds a bit on the low side.

I Don't know if you're looking after your gut health or not. In looking after my own gut health I take some natural, live yoghurt every day, plus a half litre of water kifir which I make myself. Kifir is a fermented drink full of good bacteria.

It's great your job keeps you fit, walking a couple of miles every day is great!

It's good you're not a stressful person and are quite laid back most of the time.

Doing the Big 5 requires investigating each of the 5 properly because it is essential that they are all fully attended to. Doing any 3 or 4 of them properly will just not be enough. Think of the Big 5 as a three legged stool - all legs are needed equally. So the 5 need equal attention and investigation, difficult as that can sometimes be.

So in my own case, I had to have a good hard look at the issue of stress, which of course is a mental health issue.

There are two different types of stress: acute and chronic.

Acute stress is the stuff of every day life - work, family, sickness, bereavement, etc - and can be very difficult and challenging.

Chronic stress is the kind of stress that one may not even be aware that they have. It's held in the body and is often linked to events or times in the past, often right back to childhood. And because it is unacknowledged and unresolved, it is much more dangerous and damaging to our health.

My own life has thankfully been fairly stress free and I'm a fairly low-key sort of person. But I hadn't realized that I had been suffering from chronic stress for a number of decades. Last year when I was very sick and came to that point where I desperately needed to get well, I started counselling and it was only then that I realized I had in fact carried chronic stress in my body for all these years. The reason why people are often not aware of it is because it isn't happening at a conscious level. The stress is held in the body, right down to the level of our cells.

When bad things happen in a child's life it is usually repressed, because they are in the business of getting through it and surviving. The things that can have an impact on a child doesn't always have to be dramatic - it can be a simple case of the child being made to feel by their principal caregivers that they are not good enough. The child will internalize this and probably repress it as they grow into adulthood. They may forget it at a conscious level, but their body will never forget it. And if undealt with, will cause problems in some shape or form at some point in the adult's life. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that have been repressed will eventually have implications for the health of the adult.

I find the writings and youtube interviews of Gabor Maté very informative and helpful around these issues. He's a Canadian GP with a lifetime of accumulated wisdom behind him.

Take care and all the best.