My Meniere’s Diagnosis

Currently there is no single item labeled as a cause of Meniere’s disease. In my case there are things that seem to trigger symptoms. From what I’ve read of other peoples experience, that would seem to be typical. There are triggers. The cause though is the million dollar question.

Most of the conventional treatments for Meniere’s disease center around lowering salt intake and increasing the amount of fluid expelled because the endolymphatic sac which is supposed to regulate fluid levels in the inner ear is typically extended in patients with Meniere’s so fluid seems to accumulate and not be regulated well.

Meniere’s disease is also known as endolymphatic hydrops because of this failure of fluid regulation that seems to be the primary cause. However, what causes the excess fluid, or failure of fluid regulation is not known.

My suspicion is that there are many things that can affect the inner ear. We’re talking about a small area of tissues, the slightest change in a number of things (swelling from allergic reactions, chiropractic problems, etc.) could cause many of the same symptoms and create a cascade of problems including sporadic hearing loss, tinnitus, spells of vertigo and the feeling of pressure in the ear. (Eustachian tube disorder is something that the last is commonly blamed on.)

Like I say, each of us are different and it is a very small area of the body that is affected. Research is ongoing and maybe at some point we’ll read that there are some definitive answers that x% of people with Meniere’s can point to xyz cause and another % can point to abc or def causes.