Meniere’s Disease and Ginger Root
A reader asked me about the effectiveness of using ginger root to manage Meniere’s disease. I haven’t used ginger root to help with Meniere’s disease specifically but get plenty of it in my diet as my wife tends to use it frequently in her cooking.
Despite not taking ginger root myself for Meniere’s, I can still share three points
- The first is that both my wife and my daughter are susceptible to car sickness. One thing they do to effectively combat car sickness is to chew ginger gum. It works quite well for them. Another substance often used to help car sickness is Meclizine which is often prescribed for Meniere’s disease patients. So I think ginger root is worth a look if you are still seeking something to help you.
- There are plenty of studies which indicate that ginger is effective at reducing the ill effects of vertigo and nausea — both companions to those who struggle to control the symptoms of Meniere’s.
- I’m a huge fan of Dr. Weil and he is a big fan of ginger. In his book, 8 Weeks to Optimum Health, he suggests that the reader take ginger during week 5 of his regimen. He puts ginger in the class of tonics and suggests that you take it to increase your overall wellness.
Presenting the Final Results of the Meniere’s Disease Survey
In this final installment of presenting the results of the Meniere’s disease survey, I will cover gentamicin, low-sodium diet, acupuncture, exercise, homeopathy, and the meniett device.
Gentamicin
I haven’t had any experience with gent injections and don’t know much about them expect that they are painful to receive. This is something that you must get from your doctor so they will not be self administered. Results show that some people have received some help from them. For more information on how people have responded to gent injections, check out David Stillwagon’s post.
Low-Sodium Diet
Based on the survey responses, a low-sodium diet is the most helpful for people who have tried it. From the raw data, 46.6% of the people who have tried a low-sodium diet have benefited from it. And noone complained that it made their condition worse. If you remove the 16.7% of people who haven’t tried it from the group and combine the slight improvement group with the great improvement group, you get 44% seeing no improvement from adhering to a low-sodium diet while 56% have benefited. While these are not overwhelming odds, they indicate that you have better than 1 to 2 odds of seeing some relief and this is the best odds of anything from the survey.
Acupuncture
Its no surprise that I am a huge acupuncture fan. I use it to help with ailments other than Meniere’s too. It comes as no surprise to me that the majority of people haven’t tried acupuncture. It is just not a well accepted form of medical treatment. I wish more Meniere’s sufferers would try acupuncture.
I repeated the exercise I did with the low-sodium diet responses, removing the “haven’t tried it” group and combining the “slightly helped” and “greatly helped” group. Of those who have tried acupuncture, 77% report that it made no difference while 23% did receive some benefit.
If conventional medicine is not helping you find relief, I would encourage you to try acupuncture. The real key to getting benefit there is to find a very good acupuncturist. It will require that you do some homework but the upside is great. You have the chance to get your regular life back.
Exercise
Like the low-sodium diet, this one has a strong positive component. 33.3% state the exercising helps their condition but there is also 10% that state that it made their condition worse.
The benefits of exercise are very easy for you to determine. It doesn’t cost any money, just a little time and effort. Give it a try for a few weeks and see how you feel. If you feel better, keep it up.
Homeopathy
Its hard to conclude anything from the results of this section. 3.6% of respondents were worse off with homeopathy while 10.7% got a little better. You can draw your own conclusion.
Meniett Device
This one was the poorest performing treatment of the whole survey. Only 7.4% of respondents have tried Meniett devices and the devices didn’t seem to help or hurt. To clarify further, this section of the survey got the fewest reponses (27) which puts those that have tried the device at only 2 individuals.
Well, unfortunately, there is no overwhelming evidence about what works and what doesn’t. Such is the nature of Meniere’s disease. But hopefully this exercise sheds a little more light on what is working for some people and what is not. Maybe you got an idea or two of something new to try.
A big thanks goes out to everyone who took the time to respond to the survey.
Meniere’s Disease Survey: Supplements
I continue presenting the results of the Meniere’s disease survey. This post will specifically cover the supplements.
Ginkgo Biloba
Ginkgo biloba comes from the leaves of a Chinese ginkgo tree. Ginkgo biloba is most popular for its ability to improve mental functions. It also works to help circulation related problems. Studies in Europe show that the active ingredients in ginkgo (terpene lactones and flavonoids) make the membranes of red blood cells more elastic and thus improve circulation. This improved function applies to the tiny capillaries in the ears.
For some people, ginkgo biloba has helped considerably. The percentage is not great but it may be worth a try.
Bioflavonoids
I first learned about lemon bioflavonoids from “John of Ohio.” Lemon bioflavonoids have the bioflavonoid, Eriocitrin, which dilates the small arteries in the ears. Bioflavonoids have helped me but the survey results don’t make a strong case for them with only 3.4% of the participants claiming slight improvements.
Vinpocetine
Vinpocetine comes from the seeds of the periwinkle plant. It can be very beneficial to the delicate hearing cells of the inner ear. It is used commonly in Europe for Meniere’s disease and is advertised to help reduce tinnitus. It was also used in Russia years ago to help their cosmonauts combat vertigo. Again, a small percentage of people have found some relief by taking vinpocetine but the results are not overwhelming.
Vertigoheel
Vertigoheel (or Cocculus Compositum) is a European homeopathic remedy. I first found out about it in John of Ohio’s post and tried it. Like those taking the survey, it didn’t help nor hurt me.
In my next post, I will finish presenting the remaining results of the survey.
Results of Meniere’s Disease Survey: Things that Helped and Things that Didn’t
I promised that this month, I would share the results of the survey I created over at SurveyMonkey. Lets start with the results of the questions related to treatments that would typically require a prescription from a doctor.
Prednisone
Prednisone is a steroid used to treat inflammatory diseases. From the results shown, the majority of the survey participants had not tried it, yet of all those who did, no one complained that it made their situation worse.
Meclizine
Diuretic
Diuretics increase the excretion of water from your body (they make you pee alot). This helps reduce some of the fluid pressure in your inner ear. It helps some. It does not help others. It did not help me but you can see that is did help some greatly.
Betahistine
Betahistine is an anti-vertigo drug first used in Europe in the 1970′s for Meniere’s disease. I have not tried this personally but it looks to help some and does not appear to make anyone worse off for using it.
There was nothing in the survey that everyone had tried. An unfortunately, there was nothing that helped everyone tremendously but there are some lifestyle changes that have helped people out more than the drugs talked about today. I will talk about those in a couple of weeks.
More Meniere’s Disease Successes
Meniere’s is a terrible ailment and I love it when people share what is working for them. Meniere’s is such a complex disease because what works for one person may not work for others. I have shared what has worked for me but that may not always help you. So I love to pass on what others have shared with me.
I have been running a survey for a while to gain some insights into what has been helping people. I will share those results this month. A by-product of the survey is that some generous folks have shared some thoughts about what is working for them. I pass those ideas along
- I did have the Shunt surgery which helped TREMENDOUSLY, however as my doctor stated it is no cure. I wish more people would look into this because I would do it again. I have Meniere’s in my right ear and although it is very frustrating and I am constantly fighting depression over it, the surgery was a great step. I still struggle with vertigo spells occassionally but they are a few minutes as opposed to hours. That is worth it!
- Chiropractic. It did help me tremendously with the vertigo, although not hearing loss. My vertigo returned after not going to the chiro for about 6 months. Returning has lessened the frequency and intensity of my vertigo attacks.
- I have great success with meditation (Holosync from Centerpointe).
I have always been an advocate of meditation to help those with Meniere’s disease. I am not familiar with Holosync but am happy for anyone that finds something that helps.
I have not had any experience using chiropractors to help with Meniere’s disease symptoms. I’m not even sure how I would go about it. I’d imagine that if you picked a chiropractor at random, showed up in their office and asked for help with Meniere’s disease, you might get met with a blank stare. I suspect you need one who specializes in something or you need to ask for some specific treatment. If you have had success using chiropractors to help with Meniere’s, please leave a comment below and tell us how it is done.
Share Your Meniere’s Disease Story: Grape Seed Extract
A few weeks ago, I asked you to share your success stories. I received a response from Inna who has had Meniere’s disease for 30 years. Inna has taken 100 mg of grape seed extract twice a day and been free of Meniere’s symptoms for 8 years. Awesome advice. Thanks for sharing.
I have written about John of Ohio before and how his analysis of supplements had helped me out. If you aren’t familiar with John’s article, you can read about it over at menieresfoundation.org. He does mention grape seed extract
The MM he is referring to is Morbus Meniere, the latin term for Meniere’s disease.
What is grape seed extract?
Managing Meniere’s Disease by Managing Stress: Tai Chi
For over 2000 years, tai chi continues to be one of the most popular and effective exercise programs on the planet because of a number of health benefits it provides. It is a gentle physical exercise which is composed of a defined series of movements and postures. These are executed in a slow and graceful manner without pausing. Performing this gentle yet powerful exercise brings improvements in the general health of an individual.
The most common styles of tai chi include chen, zhao bao, wu, yang, sun and hao. Each style varies in intensity and speed. It cannot be denied that tai chi is one of the natural, holistic and effective methods to deal with stress. Other benefits of tai chi include increased flexibility, improved muscle definition and strength. You can also gain increased stamina, agility and energy and more importantly, reduction of anxiety, depression and stress.
Stress can be beneficial to the body but too much stress can cause an individual to suffer from a number of disturbing symptoms. Stress attacks a body at its weakest part. That may be your ear and cause problems like Meniere’s disease.
Today, tai chi is considered to be an effective method in managing stress and reducing the occurrence of its symptoms. Even the western societies now recognize the power of tai chi as a stress reduction method.
Basically, tai chi works by conditioning the body and mind to achieve inner peace and calmness. It is considered as a ‘meditation in motion’ because it connects the mind and body and promotes serenity through the execution of gentle postures and movements. A performer of tai chi puts emphasis on the inflow of energy, relaxation and concentration to benefit the human body.
Tai chi movements are often executed in circular motion because it embodies both inactivity and activity which is represented by yin and yang, respectively. Tai chi is all about balancing the chi or the breath energy. Furthermore, advocates of this health exercise believe that stress is actually an expression of imbalance in the body. Hence, as tai chi provides balance in the body, it follows that tension and stress are also reduced. Tai chi is also capable of deepening breathing, reducing muscle tensions and improving postures which make it an effective mean to reduce the level of emotional stress.
A number of studies revealed that tai chi is really an effective mean of stress reduction. It reduces the stress by increasing the vitality of every cell that comprises the body. It is also capable of improving the mood and positively affects the quality of life of an individual. It provides a renewing feeling, deep relaxation and self sufficiency. If you would like to read some of the research, go to Google Scholar and type in “tai chi stress.”
The harmonious and continuous flow of relaxed movements of tai chi promotes deep physical relaxation that helps the body obtain a relaxation response and completely eliminate stress toxins. This results to a reduced anxiety and cortisol production. Furthermore, the gentle coordination of movements of the upper and lower extremities of the body paired with deep breathing also result to achievement of internal and physical balance which is effective in reducing stress.
Please remember to fill out our Meniere’s disease survey if you have not already done so. Next month, I will roll out the results of the survey.
