Ménière's disease success stories


(Richard Morris) #21

I would ask “Am I controlling my glucose by making a LOT of insulin - in which case I could be becoming slowly more insulin resistant and will eventually not be able to make enough to control my glucose.”

If your doctor is interested the function that will determine this is called the HOMA:IR and it uses your fasted insulin and fasted glucose … and it then calculates how much insulin you had to make in the context of the glucose present. You can do the calculation yourself if your doctor orders those tests for you.

If your glucose is in mmol/l then it is

image

if your glucose is measured in mg/dl then it is

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You really want to get a value below 2.


Weight Loss Plateau & Inflammatory hysteresis & HOMA-IR
#22

Is this just a blood test? (not the test where you drink a sugar solution and see how you do?) I get nervous when I get down into the weeds trying to have a discussion with my health care provider who sees me as having good numbers in the pre-diabetes arena.

I guess I will just have to have the conversation about how I have had more vertigo lately and have seen where high insulin numbers might correlate to Meniere’s Disease and ask her to order the test and see what happens. I know nothing about the science of all this stuff so I get completely flummoxed when talking to her. She is a general practitioner not a diabetes specialist.


(Richard Morris) #23

Yeah it’s just a blood test. You just have to be fasted at least 10 hours.


(Kate) #24

I just ask for one. Hba1c is not a definitive marker. I have a lowish hba1c now but my insulin was back up. My GP is used to me asking for tests and usually just does them because every time I have come to him with something and asked him to test I have been correct (example I knew my thyroid was out of whack again even though my tests were normal and it turned out my antibodies were extremely high and I had Hashimoto’s the Autoimmune thyroid disease aon top of my hypothyroidism (which was controlled at that stage hence other tests not showing it).
The only thing we disagree about it cholesterol but I am working on that. lol


(Veronica Morua) #25

I’ve been suffering with Menieres for a year now.
I’ve had surgery, procedures, medications and recently a experimental treatment. I continue to suffer.
I was diagnosed Menieres 2016, thyroid issue and eventually diagnoised with thyroid cancer. I also have celiac disease and tested positive for herpes 2.
I eat gluten free, dairy free and plant based. The plant base diet I started on Monday.

Any suggestions ?


(Richard Morris) #26

Dr Brookler believes there is enough evidence to suspect that Ménière’s disease is another aspect of insulin resistance. In that case a low insulinogenic diet like a ketogenic diet may be an appropriate treatment. Ketogenic diets are necessarily a grain free diet so they make sense for people who also have celiac disease. You can do a dairy free ketogenic diet, and many people do. If milk proteins are the problem, you can also use dairy fats like ghee.

A plant based diet is usually a high carbohydrate diet (but not always) which will likely make insulin resistance progress. It’s certainly worth trying everything to find what works for you. If you find that a plant based diet doesn’t seem to be treating the symptoms then I would try to have the most ketogenic version of a plant based diet as you can to see if the symptoms reduce - if they do then a fully ketogenic diet may be an option.

Good luck finding your solution


#27

The possibility of Meniere’s brought me to the Keto diet, and in general I have been feeling a lot better in a large variety of ways, including losing 18 lbs since the beginning of the year.

However I am occasionally (although less frequently) still having my attacks of vertigo/nausia etc. I have two questions, one for the other meniere’s people and one for the keto people.

Keto first. How long on the Keto diet can you expect insulin to improve and/or a fatty liver to heal?

Meniere’s. Do the drop attacks feel like a lot more is going on than just vertigo? When I have my episodes, I used to think I was dying of something. Vertigo, extreme nausea (sometimes onset before I notice vertigo), metallic taste in my mouth, rapid pulse, weakness, little bile in my vomit, hot and cold flashes, a need to go to the bathroom, a need to breath heavy, mental fog, and weakness… followed by extreme fatigue and a couple of days of reduced appetite.

I am doing low salt in addition to keto and taking a diuretic prescribed by the ENT.


(Paddy Comyn) #28

This is brilliant - thanks so much for this (I also love your podcast)


(Brian Huffman) #29

My experience indicates it can be resolved by identifying food intolerances/allergies and inflammation. For me it was milk. When all milk products were removed :frowning_face:, my symptoms cleared. When it was reintroduced, the symptoms reappeared. So, a strict dairy-free keno diet has me asymptomatic.


#30

As happens we have to revive threads as people newly (for them) experience a condition while eating LCHF.

Vertigo is the latest coincidental biological experience for me. I eat LCHF and have measurable blood ketones. But they are often lower than 0.5mmol/L. So I’m cycling in and out of nutritional ketosis. I don’t take an exogenous ketone supplement. But I do add MCT oil to a once daily cup of coffee.

I’m interested in electrolytes in following LCHF long term. An early thought on vertigo and the anatomy of the inner ear is the role of calcium in forming the crystals in that area.

As soon as we mention calcium in LCHF we open the electrolyte gate of sodium, magnesium, potassium, zinc and selenium. In other words the importance of micronutrient minerals, their salts and the associated vitamins.

The thread comments of the general “insulin resistance” cause indicate that the condition is deemed complex without a root cause diagnosis. It will be worthwhile, for me, to revisit the general insulin resistance information.

I did get a blood panel done in the midst of these vertigo symptoms, so they will be interesting results. I’ve also noted my blood glucose (and carb cravings) have increased this week. Symptoms started 3 days ago, and my blood glucose was between 6.1 mmol/L and 6.3mmol/L for the past 3 mornings. My morning fasted blood ketones have been 0.1 mmol/L. These are fasted blood glucose and blood ketones before breakfast. Today the blood glucose reading is 5.8mmol/L. My usual result is between 4.9 and 5.5 mmol/L. I think, partly, it is quite distressing/ stressful, having vertigo and dizziness, so cortisol has likely risen in stress response, and brought blood glucose with it.

I have concurrent tinnitus, which I observe increases as the vertigo symptoms increase. But it also decreases in volume in times I feel better. The symptoms come and go.

I’ll just note this for now while I’m experiencing a form of vertigo and get excited about researching it, and see if any other stories or thoughts emerge in response.

Thanks for the research sign posts in this thread.

My first instinct is to fast and to walk to enhance any innate nutritional ketosis state that I have. The nausea is a definite benefit for moving in to a fating period.


Keto and vertigo (Meniere's Disease)
#31

A week later and I feel fine.

The things I did:

  • Saw my general practitioner doctor and he gifted me the provisional diagnosis of Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) with some tinnitus in the background and prescribed diazepam
  • I discovered a tiny dose of diazepam is great as a passenger on a long car ride (n=1). Only took it on the road trip.
  • Visited the physiotherapist for some hands-on treatment and the Epley manoeuvre to try to reset the balance organs. It felt much better after that appointment
  • KETO gave me another thing to do. I took much more care with my eating. Festive season non-keto ‘traditional’ family treats (served with a big glop of “you have to try some” emotional sauce) were mindfully excluded on doctor’s orders (doctors are good for lots of things)
  • I measured my blood glucose and blood ketones while unwell and then in recovery. While I was unwell my fasted BG was regularly 6.0 mmol/L or greater. Yesterday felt much better correlated with 5.7. Today feel normal correlates with 5.3. Blood ketones have been oscillating between 0.1 and 0.6.

Electrolytes: How long ...forever?
(Naomi Klahn) #32

Veronica,
Richard is right - Keto or Zero-carb (I’ve started this) are the way to go. Very interesting that you have been diagnosed with Herpes, as a specialist (Prof. William Gibson) in Sydney, Australia, is researching/trialing that cause as I speak! Are you taking Lysine for the Herpes?
I take Serc (Betahistine) 6 x 16mg per day as well.
I also take a Natural Dessicated Thyroid, as I only have half my thyroid left.
I recommend watching the video above, with Dr Brookler - great information!
Cheers from Oz


(Naomi Klahn) #33

Hi,
answering the Meniere’s question: apparently we all experience the ‘attacks’ differently, but your symptoms sound very familiar. There are some great support groups on Facebook where you can hash out your problems. For instance, I am Zero-carb (1 month) so my salt/sodium levels are pretty low, but I found out from one group member that it is a bit like “carb-loading”, in that if you have fluctuating levels of salt/sodium it is difficult for the inner ear to regulate the level there. So, “low salt” is fine, so long as you even it out during the day. The Dr Brookler interview above is really worth watching.
Cheers from Oz


(Naomi Klahn) #34

Really surprised you are drinking coffee - didn’t the specialist tell you to avoid caffeine?


#35

True Naomi. Just one cup in the morning, not multiples throughout the day. The heart specialist mentioned caffeine as a potential trigger for atrial fibrillation. Initially, I stopped drinking coffee to clear the decks for investigating (n=1) potential causes. Low magnesium and possibly alcohol were the riskiest triggers. That was a few months research. I brought coffee back because mixed with heavy cream and MCT oil it is a great ketone/caffeine combination ‘high’ and helps when I have tasks with high cognitive load (my paying job requires lots of thinking and problem solving). Luckily I fell within the bell curve that showed coffee was not strongly implicated as an atrial fibrillation trigger. The trick is to stay well hydrated and supplement for the daily electrolyte losses and potential diuretic effect.


(Naomi Klahn) #36

One of the lucky ones!! I even dropped tea! When I am a few more months into Carnivore, I hope to bring back decaf coffee (NOT the instant one!) with heavy cream (no coconut oil on Zero Carb, but before Meniere’s I drank Bulletproof coffee that was to die for. Smile


#37

After many N=1 experiments and not being strict enough with my eating, I am being led to go zero carb (carnivore) to reverse Meniere’s disease. I am trying (for the last 3 days) to cut out dairy and see if it makes any difference in tinnitus. Since going keto the vertigo has stopped. But I want to reverse the disease all together. hgA1C is 5.4 but I want to get it to 5.0. Has anyone had luck doing this? Would love to hear more success stories! Thank you.


(Juliana Gates) #38

Have you tried intermittent fasting


(Juliana Gates) #39

How are you doing now with all of this