Reply to Ess77: Roughly 80% of people diagnosed with Meniere's Disease (MD) do not actually have it. However, it is one of only a few codes that docs can use to get compensated by ins., so it gets overused. Further, an exact diagnosis of any inner ear disease is partly damned good guesswork. MD is incurable--that is, you'll have it until you die. There are some related diseases that are "fixable." One discovered fairly recently is MAV (migraine-associated vertigo), which can be treated with standard migraine meds, a far kinder/better diagnosis than MD! You do not need to have head pain to have MAV, not do all people have severe vertigo.

A very fixable disease is sticky platelets...has many of the symptoms of MD but is fixed simply by taking a baby aspirin every day. Literally, the platelets in your blood stick together. Once you've started the baby aspirin, both hearing and balance are relatively normal.

True MD is almost always followed by a program of strict low-salt diet, with Valium to offset crises. This is unfortunate; I've only met one person among all the true Menierians I know who benefitted from this regime. If you're a woman, esp, if you're 40 or older, there's a good possibility you have abnormally low hormone levels; a safe program of HRT (hormone replacement therapy) can actually restore some or all hearing and balance function, if it's started early enough. The safe ratio: 1 part estrogen balanced by 2.5 parts progesterone. The huge fear of cancer was caused by docs prescribing estrogen without any progesterone decades ago. I first became really ill with MD in my mid 40s, after quitting birth control pills (hormones). Initially, I had ever-worse crises every month within a day of the onset of a period, until I was on the bathroom floor in a pool of vomit for hours. Not a pretty sight at all! I lost almost all hearing and balance function in one ear (I started out with unilateral MD, or disease in only one ear), spent four years searching for the correct dosage of HRT. By the time I found the right combo, the loss was permanent. I then went bilateral (both ears) 1.5 years ago, finally found a doc to prescribe HRT 11 months after losing almost all hearing in my hearing ear...and in less than two weeks hearing in that ear returned to the level where it had been prior to going bilateral. I did go to a VRT (vestibular rehab) specialist to brush up on the daily exercises I'd done for over 30 years in order to regain balance function (I'm 78).

There are also cases of MD caused by an allergy. Although inhaled allergens (dust, mold, mildew, pollen) are most likely, some people with MD are okay if they eliminate some particular food from their diet. I know someone who's perfectly okay as long as he stays away from dairy. These allergies or sensitivities (stress, for example) we refer to as TRIGGERS. They don't cause MD but result in really bad days.

Best way to see what might trigger MD is to keep a diary or calendar where you use a color to indicate the kind of day you've had (good, so-so, bad, awful). Then note the smallest things you did/ate/experienced that are not usual for your lifestyle. Over a few weeks you'll probably be able to pinpoint your trigger or triggers. Then the trick is to eliminate them, if possible.

A really important part of living with MD is to do daily VRT. If possible, go to a VRT specialist--a PT with additional special training. What you need to do is to learn to rely on your third balance system, proprioception, or the sum of what all the parts of your body feel, esp. your feet. (Your inner ear is your primary balance system, followed by vision, which you should never rely on because every time you move your head or move about you lose your focal point. Relying on vision is one thing that causes multi-hour V&V crises. (Vertigo and vomiting.)

At this point, I have very little natural balance from my inner ears, but, by practicing and relying on proprioception, I still do very difficult instream work for our state fish & game agency. I hike and wade miles up the wild little river I adopted nearly 30 years ago, entirely by myself, with absolutely no cell phone reception for entire days. I also drive two hours each way once every week to load, on average, 500 loaves of bread donated to our local Backpacks for Kids program...that's about 800 pounds, plucked off trays, loaded into totes, totes loaded and stacked in the van...and then unloaded into freezers and frozen bread from the previous week delivered around our small town. I wouldn't be able to do any of this if I didn't do VRT every stinking day, but the result is well worth it.