Overview of Meniere’s Disease, what you may be experiencing:
Who gets Meniere’s Disease?
Anyone CAN get Meniere’s disease, at any age, both male and female. Unlike many other disorders, Meniere’s Disease doesn’t really have a “cause”. At least, no one has discovered one yet.
What is Meniere’s Disease
Meniere’s disease is not really a disease: it comes to its name by using a set of symptoms. These include balance issues such as dizziness or vertigo, and hearing issues such as hearing loss or tinnitus.
A medical professional will ask you some questions. Most often, a person will show up with a severe balance issue such a vertigo to give them a clue. As more follow up is done, the doctor may already have some thoughts as to what might be going on.
They may ask questions such as “do you have dizziness often?”, or “how often does the vertigo show up?” or “Do you ever have any trouble hearing people speak?”
Often you are sent to a specialist called an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist who then books you for several related tests such as:
- Electrocochleography (ECoG) Testing,
- Electronystagmogrophy (ENG) Testing,
- Videonystagmography (VNG) Testing
You are also usually sent to an audiologist for hearing tests.
Sometimes, a doctor would think of just one set of symptoms…maybe related to balance only. In this case, the diagnosis would be considered a vestibular problem.
If it’s hearing related, it could be “hearing loss”.
But it’s the questions you are asked and how you answer, that provide the end diagnosis.
In the case of Meniere’s disease, it is assumed you have both balance and hearing issues. Sometimes your eye nerve is also involved which case it is called nystagmus. (Just for your own little bit of science: there is an optic nerve that is connected to the balance nerve. Your body is a connection of nerve networks.)
The different Symptoms that make up Meniere’s Disease:
- Vertigo is a balance symptom which makes you feel like your body is out of control.
- Dizziness is a balance symptom in which you feel your head is spinning.
- Nausea / vomiting are automatic balance symptoms or feelings and are reactions of your body to some toxin.
- Ear Pain is the feeling that pressure or irritation on the pain receptor cause in the ear. It is often the result of inflammation, which is the result of your body trying to heal you naturally.
- Hearing loss is the body’s lack of ability to connect sounds from one source to your hearing nerve or vice versa.
- Tinnitus is unwanted noise of different strengths coming from the hearing nerve.
Why is this happening to your body?
It is your body’s job to keep you heathy.
Your body is constantly bringing you back to this natural state. It will do that until the day you die. You don’t have any choice or control over that process. It’s automatic and normal.
And science is all about cause and effect…. So KNOW that “something” is CAUSING your balance symptoms.
Look at all this scientifically.
The body is programmed to automatically:
- Protect you: it WILL react if something unhealthy shows up
- Heal you: this is the inflammatory process that, again, shows up automatically.
- Detoxify all your body systems: this is an exchange of healthy nutrients for unhealthy toxins.
- Rebalance itself to keep you as healthy as possible: this is called homeostasis.
So…When your body senses that something “unhealthy is coming at it, it will react. That is its job.
And in this case, as in “Meniere’s disease”, something is irritating the balance and hearing nerves which are situated in the inner ear.
When do the attacks occur and what may set them off.
Whenever an irritant bothers one of these nerves “enough”, the nerve will let you know (by feelings) with the appropriate symptoms.
This is all about “cause and effect”. The irritant is the cause and the nerve reaction, i.e. the symptom, is the effect.
When your nerve is not being bothered, you would not feel anything. Nothing would be happening to you if a cause did NOT exist.
How is it experienced by the sufferer.
Whenever a nerve is irritated, it reacts with symptoms that are related to it.
So if the balance nerve is irritated, it will react with dizziness or vertigo.
If the hearing nerve is irritated, it will react to either loud noise (tinnitus) or “no hearing” as in loss.
Why does not everyone experience Meniere’s disease the same way?
In a way, people do all react the same way.
A person with an irritant to the balance nerve will react with “balance” symptoms. However the “degree” of the reaction of the symptom will differ from person to person.
Every person’s body (and health) will be different…
Where do Meniere’s Disease “attacks” occur?
(Stores with fluorescent lights, computer monitors, stress, etc.)
The episodes can happen anywhere and anytime. It all depends on the health of your body and the strength of the irritant on each nerve.
- If you would like a copy of our Meniere’s Disease Study Guide, please click here. This guide is a step by step journey exploring your symptoms and what may be causing them.
- If you would like more information on the system that David, and numerous others, have used, please click here; What Finally Worked.
- If you have any health questions or concerns, please feel free to Contact Us and we will be happy to share our knowledge and ideas with you.
Karin Henderson, Retired Nurse
(604) 463-8666 – Pacific Standard Time