I believe I need to talk to my neurologist before I can confirm for sure this diagnosis. Not that I do not believe my doctor. I do. It is just specialists are the ones that usually diagnosis this sort of thing.
Anyway, it has been a rough ride. I am pretty tired. It is hard to get around. Just standing is difficult without starting to weave around like my body can’t quite understand where I am in the world. And any vertigo attack exhausts me beyond measure, although my medication thankfully has reduced the frequency and duration of those attacks.
Nevertheless, travel and doing things is very limited I find.
So I do not exactly want to wait on the lifestyle changes that may help improve my situation now when those changes will take a while to enact and get in order.
Triggers
- Allergies
- Barometric pressure changes, temperature changes, and humidity
- Bright lights may trigger dizziness (especially florescent lights)
- Scent triggers
- Caffeine
- Alcohol
- Too much salt
- Physical or mental exertion (Sticking to low level exertion may be the key to exercise)
- Smoking
- Stress
- Movement via a vehicle, plane, boat… so forth
Lifestyle changes for Ménière’s disease
No pop
Well, I Do Love my diet coke. So I am conquering this one first. I am down to 4-5 cans a day. Which, trust me, is Very good. I do not know why this is on the list. It might be the caffeine. It might be the salt in them- 40mgs. So this is the first habit I am aiming to change.
No Caffeine
I am decreasing the caffeine slowly. Starting with no caffeine at night. Which is mostly some caffeine free tea and water.
Secondly, I have ordered some David’s tea herbal tea of certain varieties to assist with this. And I have some of their hibiscus tea already to make some cold tea for some selection during the day (other than Water, water, and More water) and I order a cup from them to make it and keep it cold. You can make a lot of teas into ice tea, I just heard about hibiscus tea not needing sugar really and want to give it a go. I’ll let you know if it does or doesn’t.
I have quit caffeine before but I added caffeine free diet coke…and now I can’t. And it is really hard for me to find things other than water that I like. I do not like too much sugar. And diet caffeine free tea in a can at the store? Has salt. Can’t do that. So I have to make my own. Fine. I will.
Low salt diet
You would be amazed how many things have salt added to them. Or maybe not. Thankfully, I do not eat much processed food. Get rid of the diet coke and I should be on par for the 1200 mg I should be at.
No smoking
This is the last one I will conquer. One habit at a time because too many large changes at a time… and you know what happens. It becomes overwhelming and you just give up. So this one, is a BIG one, I smoke way more than I used to now that I am always at home. So it will be a hard one. I want the No Caffeine established as a regular routine before I conquer this one.
No Alcohol
Well, I only ever drank socially and so that was rare and moderate anyway. And not much at all because, well, vertigo. Now it is so much Not a Good idea. So I do not even go there. This is just a done deal already. Easy peasy.
I do hope that all these make a difference in some way. Really hope so. I will rather miss that diet coke and caffeine. I do want to quit smoking anyway, but that will be a rough one for sure.
See other posts
Meniere’s disease diagnosis
Vertigo: I found a treatment related to Meniere’s disease
https://johannayorksr.com/using-parental-love-to-do-good-for-you
It’s been 10 years to the day since the last time that I smoked. I used Chantix for 3 months and it worked. Good luck to you. I know you can do it. I found that quitting smoking changed my relationship to caffeine. I didn’t want coffee any more.
Good luck, it is a worthwhile journey to take.
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I can’t take Chantix… side effect problem. So I’m going to use the mints. I have to do it this time because if it makes the slightest difference in the vertigo that will mean a whole lot of difference to my quality of life right now.
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I was diagnosed with Ménière’s disease in March 2017. The treatment and medications provided no relief. I was to point of being bound to a wheelchair. Finally in July 2017 a neurosurgeon discovered , via an MRI, that I had a (non-cancerous) tumor the size of a ping pong ball on brain stem. Though neosurgery “killed” the tumor, there is permanent, life-long damage from the delay in the appropriate treatment.
I sincerely hope that you don’t have a similar experience!
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I had an MRI and CAT scan while they were trying to diagnose me. To rule out a specific non cancerous tumour a person can get behind the ear? And other potential issues. They Did find a lot of lesions that look like MS but I don’t present with MS symptoms so they don’t think I have it.
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