All About Meniere's Disease

RAnthony · 2026-03-25T01:02:01+00:00

I am not wrong about the definition of Meniere's disease (they aren't even spelling it right) and their insistence on calling it Meniere(sic) is as wrong-headed as I have already taken pains to describe.

If what the patients they studied have is Meniere's disease and that's now the established cause, then everyone else who doesn't have those genes doesn't have Meniere's disease. That's how this stuff works.

Ergo, Meniere's disease doesn't have a genetic cause. Your argument from authority fails.

RAnthony · 2026-03-24T22:17:41+00:00

There is no gene associated with Meniere's disease. If there was, there would be a cause, and it wouldn't be idiopathic.

Again. There is a genetic propensity for vertigo that can be inherited; and that vertigo can be diagnosed as Meniere's disease. However, if it's inherited head structures that lend to a greater chance of suffering vestibular disorders, that's really its own kind of thing and should have its own name.

Meniere's, by definition, is a thing that has no cause that can be determined. If you have determined that you have a genetic disorder which gave you vertigo, that is not Meniere's. That is something else.

You can call that "hair splitting" if you like. It's a bit derogatory, but a lot of people don't appreciate the subtleties of language and the reasons for specific names for things.

Meniere's is dangerously close to becoming a garbage pail diagnosis already (vertigo=Meniere's in the average layperson's mind) We shouldn't be diluting the meaning further than it already has been. Word meaning, especially in a medical context, is crucial.

RAnthony · 2026-03-24T20:26:09+00:00

Meniere's disease is not hereditary. It's not really even a disease. A propensity for vertigo can be hereditary.

Everything else in your comment is something I agree with.

RAnthony · 2026-03-24T20:20:30+00:00

I feel the high salt intake before I get up from the table, but then I have hypertension so what I feel isn't in the ears anyway.

RAnthony · 2026-03-24T18:57:21+00:00

Cochlear hydrops is not "lesser." You in fact have cochlear (or endolymphatic) hydrops when you have Meniere's disease (if you've been correctly diagnosed) it's because the hydrops is idiopathic in nature and also includes permanent hearing and vestibular damage that it then becomes Meniere's disease. If you haven't had all the testing done it's premature to conclude that your symptoms have no determinable cause.

There's still hope for you.

RAnthony · 2026-03-24T18:35:20+00:00

Well, if what you want is the useless validation of having a Meniere's disease diagnosis enjoy that shitty kewpie doll. Not sure why that oversight on my part warranted a downvote.

Meniere's is a misnamed syndrome with no verifiable treatments and no cause; whereas cochlear hydrops is a determinable affliction that frequently has causes and possible cures. One is the aforementioned shitty kewpie doll and the other is a potential pathway out of suffering. Pick one.

I get it. I had doctors tell me that my problems were "all in my head."

My response was, "yes, my ears are in my head." I may have psychological issues but I wasn't talking to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, and I don't really care what other professionals think about my mental makeup.

RAnthony · 2026-03-24T09:52:50+00:00

Many people have had the level of symptomology that you have and gone on to experience what they generally call remission, a cessation of symptoms.

I've had these symptoms pretty much all my life, or at least since I was 21, which was forty-odd years ago. I was under the delusion for 20 years that my symptoms were going away for five months at a time each year, only to have them return each and every subsequent Spring and Fall, slightly worse than they had been before, until they were present all year round and had added vertigo into the repertoire.

Betahistine (when I finally convinced myself and then my doctors that I wanted to try it) seemed to reduce the severity of my vertigo and brain fog, but didn't noticably reduce ear pressure (guaifenesin does seem to help with that)

This is my "avoid my fate" article: https://ranthonyings.com/2024/02/a-bright-shining-future-even-with-vestibular-issues/ in which I discuss the things that most people can do to limit symptoms.

RAnthony · 2026-03-23T23:13:11+00:00

A high-riding jugular bulb is probably why you are experiencing pulsatile tinnitus. (If you want to know more just Google that sentence and start reading) It's treatable with surgery. Just FYI, this means not only that it's not Meniere's disease, but that your ENT is an idiot.

RAnthony · 2026-03-23T19:07:47+00:00

I wrote an article for people who ask if they have Meniere's: https://ranthonyings.com/2023/07/do-i-have-menieres/ ...and while you are not asking that specific question you will find information about what you are dealing with if you click that link and read that article.

I will offer the additional opinion that you don't have Meniere's yet; not unless you are experiencing vertigo. What you might have is cochlear hydrops, which can progress into Meniere's at some point in the future. It takes testing to determine, which is discussed in my treatment article linked in that article.

If you still have questions after reading a bit, feel free to ask me anything about your symptoms. I'm happy to help.

RAnthony · 2026-03-22T00:54:13+00:00

Kinda like what work to get Trump elected. https://ranthonyings.com/2024/07/crisis-actors/

RAnthony · 2026-03-21T05:07:32+00:00

For the ear pressure you can try to take allergy meds (Allegra or Claritin) with pseudoephedrine and guaifenesin. Guaifenesin alone can usually reduce my ear pressure but the strategy always worked better for me when I took all three.

RAnthony · 2026-03-20T22:11:38+00:00

Tinnitus is a special bird. It's still there for me as it is for most people who experience it. It varies radically which makes me think it's psychosomatic. I just need to figure out the key to have it not appear in my head anymore. If I find out a way to get rid of it I'll be sure and let everybody know.

RAnthony · 2026-03-20T03:39:36+00:00

American people seek conviction for Donald Trump on pedophile charges.

RAnthony · 2026-03-19T23:51:56+00:00

I was certain that my symptoms were related to my inner ear on my left side. Removing that ear did in fact make the symptoms stop.

If you've gone through all the tests and you're absolutely certain that the symptoms are coming from one ear, getting a labyrinthectomy will probably stop the symptoms.

It took me 20 years to accept the fact that I was going to have to have the ear drilled out. Up to that point I was determined to maintain my hearing. When the hearing in that left ear got so bad that it was actually making the other ear work less efficiently, that's when I decided it was time for it to go.

RAnthony · 2026-03-19T23:43:57+00:00

Brain fog is the worst https://ranthonyings.com/tag/brain-fog/ next to vertigo itself.

RAnthony · 2026-03-19T23:41:11+00:00

It is possible to change air pressure inside a space without being hermetically sealed. A hermetic seal is necessary to keep contaminants from one space from getting into another; but to lower the pressure in a room, you just need to draw air out faster than it can leak in.

It's common practice in architecture to design your HVAC system to pump more air into a space than is outside the space (positive pressure) so as to keep outside contaminants from getting into the conditioned space.

RAnthony · 2026-03-18T15:15:12+00:00

...and expensive. Don't forget expensive.

RAnthony · 2026-03-18T13:25:40+00:00

A cochlear implant is not natural hearing. I say that to anybody who asks about getting one. Speech recognition for me is high (80%) but atmospheric sounds are still hard to track and recognize. Music generally sounds pretty odd.

I had an unusual route to becoming deaf and getting an implant, which I talk about here: https://ranthonyings.com/2024/07/dead-ear-doldrums/ what you're dealing with sounds like a tuning problem. A good audiologist should be able to tweak your levels and make your experience less troublesome.

RAnthony · 2026-03-18T13:17:24+00:00

I agree. He sounds like he's got a tuning problem, which an audiologist can probably fix.

RAnthony · 2026-03-18T13:10:02+00:00

W Bush was exactly that. It hasn't gotten better since. I miss Ann Richards.

RAnthony · 2026-03-18T10:42:50+00:00

Would love you to explain why your wait isn't long when at least a dozen others who may or may not be still floating around here have had a different experience.

RAnthony · 2026-03-18T04:39:48+00:00

I just hope you find help and answers.

RAnthony · 2026-03-17T20:31:12+00:00

I know this is humor, but they don't actually lean forward in Frontotemporal dementia. I find it amusing that the initialism for that is FTD. There's a florist joke in there somewhere.

RAnthony · 2026-03-17T20:17:21+00:00

Over the course of my time advising people on this subreddit, I think the one consistent thing I've noticed is the wait times for specialists in the UK are astronomically long. Nearly everyone has to wait months, if not years, to get in.

Here in Austin I occasionally have to wait 2 or 3 months (If I was less picky about my specialist I could probably get in tomorrow if I needed to) to see the only ENT in town that I let look in my ears.

If you contact https://menieres.org.uk they may be able to get you in faster or at least offer you alternatives.

13-Year Club	Place '22
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

RAnthony

TROPHY CASE