Ménière’s Treatments: Natural and Medical Medication

Ménière’s Disease

When someone suddenly experiences several symptoms including headache, nausea, loss of hearing, he may have experienced a Ménière’s disease. This Ménière’s disease is defined as a disorder in which the person feels a vertigo, sensory hearing loss, tinnitus, and a feeling of fullness in the ear. The name was given to dedicate the French physician, Prosper Ménière’s, who was the first person in explaining this illness in 1861. Another term of Ménière’s is idiopathic endolymphatic hydrops.

Patients with Ménière’s disease have frequent and periodic attacks characterized by four major symptoms:

1. Vertigo. This is a spinning or whirling sensation that affects the patient's sense of balance; it is sometimes violent, and is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting.
2. Fluctuating loss of hearing.
3. Tinnitus. This is a sensation of ringing, buzzing, or roaring noises in the ear. The most common type of tinnitus associated with Ménière’s is a low-pitched roaring.
4. A sensation of fullness, pressure, or discomfort in the ear.

Some patients also experience headaches, diarrhea, and pain in the abdomen during an attack.

Meniere's Disease Treatments

As the illness is indicated by the presence of spinning sensation, nausea, and discomfort within the ears, the treatments are performed into two steps, which are medical and surgical treatments.

Medical treatment

Medical management of Meniere's disease involves prophylaxis (prevention of acute attacks) as well as direct treatment of symptoms. Prophylactic treatment begins with diet and nutrition. A low-salt diet is recommended for almost all patients with Meniere's, as reducing salt intake helps to lower the body's overall fluid volume. Lowered fluid volume in turn reduces the amount of fluid in the inner ear. Patients should avoid foods with high sodium content, including smoked or pickled fish, and other preserve foods. Other foods that commonly trigger acute attacks include chocolate; beverages containing caffeine or alcohol, particularly beer and red wine; and foods with high carbohydrate or high cholesterol content. Since nicotine also triggers Meniere's attacks, patients are advised to stop smoking. The doctor may also prescribe a d diuretic, usually Dyzaide or Dimaox, to lower the fluid pressure in the inner ear. Diuretic medications help to prevent acute attacks but will not stop an attack one it has begun.

Medications that are given to treat the symptoms of an attack include drugs that help to control vertigo by numbing the brain's response to nerve impulses from the inner ear. These include such benzodiazepine tranquilizers as diazepam (Valium) or alphrazolam (Xanax), and such antinausea drugs as prochlorperazine (Compazine). The doctor may also prescribe steroid medications to reduce inflammation in the inner ear.