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Meniere’s Disease Symptoms and Chemical Reactions Within Your Body

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Chemical Reactions and Your Symptoms – Could There Be Any Connection?

It is important to realize that your body already has a preset chemical structure. When you make a decision to take any chemical (ANY chemical), you are doing it to change this chemical structure: to feel differently, to maybe get relief from your Meniere’s disease symptoms. But maybe this is also causing a chemical reaction that could be creating your symptoms…

You may choose to do this yourself or have a health professional advise you on what might be, in their judgment, the best way to create a different feeling. You are seeking a different outcome. You may do this consciously knowing you may have some side effects.

Or you may do this completely unaware that side effects and chemical reactions within your body might be an issue and possibly be the cause of your symptoms. The body always reacts to chemicals going into it or onto it. That is the entire purpose of taking them.

Some common forms of chemical “applications” that could be triggering your Meniere’s disease symptoms might be a drug taken orally (by mouth) or by injection, hair color, inhalants (sprays), acne or skin care preparations, dental procedures, “adjusted’ bottled water, or eye drops. There are many ways to get chemicals into your body: all of them are meant to create a change.

What you may not realize, though, is that this ‘planned” change has other (side) effects. And these effects come with different levels of severity. In the medical literature, it is common to find three levels of reactions: mild, moderate (a little more serious) and very serious. This is something you want to be aware of because it is possible that these chemicals, or applications, may be the cause of your attacks.

MedlinePlus mentions these phrases for any drug:

  • XXXXX may cause side effects.
  • Tell your doctor if any of these symptoms are severe or do not go away: Some side effects can be serious.
  • The following symptoms are uncommon, but if you experience any of them, call your doctor immediately: Symptoms of overdose may include:

There are some everyday drugs, and other products, that people use BEFORE they show up in a doctor’s office with their symptoms.

You can check each out the level of severity and their side effects. I want you to look closely at these results. Is there any relation to your symptoms? Even more to the point: how can you get a diagnosis of Meniere’s disease when these SYMPTOMS show up as side effects.

Because they show up as side effects, they are now “assigned” a new term, a disease. No attempt is done to explore the possible causes of these symptoms! I have seen this over and over! Many people are on drugs for high blood pressure. Yet they now have low blood pressure and all the symptoms that go with that. So you need to know what is going. This is after all your body.

Now that you have become aware of the different levels of side effects, pay close attention when you read “balance and hearing symptoms”. The classic symptoms to arrive at a diagnosis for Meniere’s disease (balance and hearing issues) are:

Describing these sensations, or symptoms is always subjective, meaning that only you can feel them to the level of your awareness. That means that you can look fine, but feel awful.

You can prove” (sign) that you may be a bit pale and your pulse may be fast or slow, but no one can tell from your appearance how you feel. (Feelings are recognized as SYMPTOMS: you can see them.)

The medical world uses the terms “signs and symptoms” to describe situations. You can read a more detailed explanation about this on our Meniere’s disease symptoms page.

Once you have gone over a few and spotted these balance and hearing symptoms, ask yourself if you may be having a reaction TO something and maybe not really have Meniere’s disease after all.

If I have corresponded with you, most likely I will have sent you to one or both of these drug sites: RxList.com and the U.S. National Library of Medicine, (The World’s Largest Medical Library), known as MedlinePlus.

So it is possible that you may be taking a drug that has listed side effects, but you are now being diagnosed with Meniere’s disease.

If you were aware of this information, you would simply discuss this situation with your health care professional. You obviously don’t want that side effect. You certainly don’t want the unnecessary diagnosis. So take some action: educate yourself. And always keep in mind that this is YOUR body and YOU have to live in it.

Here are some common drugs and their links. These are everyday drugs I hear about. Look at the side effects. Most of the time, only two levels of severity are noted. The third one, listing the serious one, could be describes as “anaphylaxis“. I have asked a lot of medical professionals for some insight into what makes them use this term or “a serious side effect”, but I really cannot find any definitive answers.

While taking beta blockers, patients with a history of anaphylactic reaction to a variety of allergens may have a more severe reaction on repeated challenge, either accidental, diagnostic or therapeutic. Such patients may be unresponsive to the usual doses of epinephrine used to treat the allergic reaction.

If you have gone through all the drugs or are least a few of them, you may have noted a lot of balance-related symptoms, but few hearing-related ones. And how does one test for “hearing fluctuation? That is truly a personal decision.

If you search for the word “tinnitus” (hearing, noise), you will find many possible causes. However, the purpose of this article is to show you the different levels of severity for chemicals. If you would like to learn more about side effects of drugs that CAUSE hearing loss and maybe hearing fluctuation, look up the term “Ototoxicity “.

I mentioned above that drugs often have “multiple” uses: again, this is where the levels of severity again come into play. Medline Plus says (quote) “Other uses for this medicine”. If you Google the term “ototoxicity drugs”, you will find over a million responses. If you search for “ototoxic drugs”, you get 8 responses!! (The power of words!)

Here is a direct quote from VEDA (Vestibular.org). Incidentally, this is a great site to explore.

“Ototoxicity (“ear poisoning”) is due to drugs or chemicals that damage the inner ear or the vestibulo-cochlear nerve, which sends balance and hearing information from the inner ear to the brain. Ototoxicity can result in temporary or permanent disturbances of hearing, balance, or both.”

A further quote from their site says:

”Many chemicals have ototoxic potential, including over-the-counter drugs, prescription medications, and environmental chemicals. If you are taking any drugs on the advice of your physician, do not stop taking them just because you see them listed below. Speak with your doctor or other health care advisor about your concerns.”

But please look at the fact they mention BOTH hearing and balance effects which are the primary conditions of Meniere’s disease.

As an example from my nursing days, when it is “flu season” and flu shots are promoted, please do your own research on them before you get your jab. No matter what you are told, they do have side effects. And again, levels of severity of the symptoms come into play. From my own experiences in administering them, I have witnessed these levels of side effects.

Health is your natural state. Your immune system is your body’s natural protection. This is your overall defense mechanism. It reacts automatically. And it reacts because it doesn’t like things that are not natural to it, like chemicals. It works “behind the scenes” all the time to keep you healthy. It allows certain things, but reacts to others, sometimes “irrationally”.

If your body is healthy, it can withstand many more intruders than an unhealthy body. A healthy body is strong enough to handle these intruders. It doesn’t like intruders because they could harm you. So it does its best to keep them out. The ones it can’t keep out, it reacts to by trying to wash them out (inflammation) or by getting you to vomit.

Help your body by being aware of what you put into or onto it. When you are happy and healthy, your body is in its right place. If you are not, try to figure out what you are doing to it. You have some valuable and easy to use tools to do your in-depth research.

  • 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