Meniere's Disease
Treatment information and medications
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Medically reviewed by Carina Fung, PharmD, BCPPS on November 13, 2019
Meniere’s disease treatment
There is currently no cure for Meniere’s disease. However, your doctor can help you find treatments that may reduce your symptoms. Some medications can be helpful frontline treatments for dizziness and nausea. Diet and lifestyle changes can also provide some relief by reducing the frequency and severity of your symptoms.- Limiting salt intake: Reducing the amount of salt in your diet can affect the buildup of endolymph in your inner ear. Your doctor may ask you to curb the amount of salt in your diet to keep your endolymph in the normal range.
- Diuretics: Diuretics are a class of medicines that help your body flush out excess water and salt. These too can limit the amount of endolymph your body secretes, potentially relieving some symptoms of Meniere’s.
- Lifestyle Factors: Your doctor may also recommend that you change other habits to reduce the severity of your symptoms. These may include quitting smoking and reducing caffeine and alcohol consumption[14]. Avoid or minimize exposure to any identifiable triggers that may cause or worsen your symptoms.
May be prescribed
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Vertigo treatment
Vertigo can be the most stubborn symptoms of Meniere’s disease. If it persists and is not adequately relieved by medication, your doctor may consider more invasive measures:- Intratympanic Injections: Your doctor may suggest injecting one of several medications directly into the inner ear. The goal of these injections is to preserve the parts of the inner ear that are functioning, though each medication has advantages and drawbacks.
- Surgery: In severe cases, your doctor may recommend a surgical procedure. These can range from making cuts to relieve inner ear pressure to severing affected nerves to removing the affected labyrinth. This last procedure called a labyrinthectomy, causes total loss of hearing in the affected ear but is most successful for treating vertigo as all balance signals to the brain then come from the unaffected ear[15].
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