Maladie de Ménière

Causes of tinnitus include earwax, blockage of the Eustachian tube (it carries air from the back of the tonsils to the middle ear) and Ménière's disease, in which there is fluid build-up in the inner ear.

all definitions of tinnitus agree that it is an involuntary sound or noise in one or both ears, such as ringing, whistling, buzzing or roaring, Further, tinnitus is generally subjective, in that it is in most cases perceived only by the person with the symptoms or disorder. It is a common ailment, with perhaps as many as 50 million adults being affected. Children can also have it. Tinnitus has a wide variety of causes, with exposure to loud noise over an extended period of time being one of the most common. Other causes may include ear infections, head trauma, impacted ear wax, ototoxic medications (aspirin, quinine, some antibiotics, e.g.), or from diseases such as Meniere's disease or diabetes. Sometimes tinnitus is treated by removing the underlying cause.

Researchers have found that people can also become addicted to placebos.

One schizophrenic patient became so addicted that she consumed 10,000 dummy pills in one year. But not all placebos are pills. Danish surgeons divided patients with Meniere’s disease into two groups. 50 per cent received the standard operation, the other half were treated with a small skin incision. An equal number of patients were helped by the sham surgery.

But why had ineffective drugs worked so well in the past? Simply because television commercials claimed they were effective and millions of viewers believed them. Besides, many over-the-counter drugs are used for ailments that are self-limiting in time. So patients will get better whether they swallow a $20 drug, a sugar pill or pour themselves a scotch-and-soda.

Un article de Redorbit

Patients with conditions such as high blood pressure, congestive heart failure or Meniere's syndrome need to eat even less. Take, for example, the case of acclaimed Fresno, Calif., poet Phil Levine. He was diagnosed with Meniere's, a disease in which changes of inner ear fluid affect balance and hearing.

To alleviate his symptoms, Levine cut the salt in his diet _ a move that reduces fluid retention. That prompted his wife, cookbook author Frances Levine, to experiment with dishes such as pork with orange sauce, maffe (an African dish of meat in peanut butter sauce) and mushroom sauce for pasta.

After a year and a half, Phil Levine's bout with Meniere's ended.

"A great many people get over Meniere's disease," Frances Levine says. "My mother had it and got over it. ... I had hopes that he would, too."

Even though she's cooking with salt again, Frances Levine finds her salt tolerance distinctly lower than it used to be.

"Once you cut down on salt," she says, "you get used to it."

Of course, healthy individuals who aren't forced to cut out salt may have a harder time retraining their taste buds. Here are some tips for flavoring food without sodium.

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A possible link between Ménière's disease (MD) and migraine was originally suggested by Prosper Ménière. Subsequent studies of the prevalence of migraine in MD produced conflicting results.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the lifetime prevalence of migraine in patients with MD compared to sex- and age-matched controls.

METHODS: The authors studied 78 patients (40 women, 38 men; age range 29 to 81 years) with idiopathic unilateral or bilateral MD according to the criteria of the American Academy of Otolaryngology. Diagnosis of migraine with and without aura was made via telephone interviews according to the criteria of the International Headache Society. Additional information was obtained concerning the concurrence of vertigo and migrainous symptoms during Ménière attacks. The authors interviewed sex- and age-matched orthopedic patients (n = 78) as controls.

RESULTS: The lifetime prevalence of migraine with and without aura was higher in the MD group (56%) compared to controls (25%; p < 0.001). Forty-five percent of the patients with MD always experienced at least one migrainous symptom (migrainous headache, photophobia, aura symptoms) with Ménière attacks.

CONCLUSIONS: The lifetime prevalence of migraine is increased in patients with MD when strict diagnostic criteria for both conditions are applied. The frequent occurrence of migrainous symptoms during Ménière attacks suggests a pathophysiologic link between the two diseases. Alternatively, because migraine itself is a frequent cause of audio-vestibular symptoms, current diagnostic criteria may not differentiate between MD and migrainous vertigo.

Meniere's Disease : What you need to know (Paperback)

Maladie de Ménière: Tout ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir.

by P. J. Haybach (Author), Jerry Underwood (Author)

Disponible chez Amazon