Can Coeliac Mimic Meniere's Disease

[UnhappyCoeliac]

Seen a few posts about it all fairly inconclusive. I have been diagnosed with Meniere's disease hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo attacks. For the last year I have been ignoring the fact I am Coeliac and not been following my diet. I am now two days into getting back on track.

Is it possible or probable that the anti bodies from Coeliac could be causing my hearing loss in my left ear. At one stage I went on a detox of liquids for two weeks and my hearing improved albeit slightly. I am unsure if it was because my diet was low in salt (which is related to Meniere's disease) or it was the fact I was also gluten free.

My hearing tests show a moderate loss in one ear and the graph follows a 'typical meniere's' diagnosis:

Only a slight variance on this.

As you can imagine though I am still clinging to the small chance that my tinnitus, vertigo and hearing loss is gluten related and when I cut that out the symptoms will disappear and maybe even the tinnitus and hearing may return.

Also since I am 22 spending the next 60 years of my life alcohol free, caffeine free and salt free is fairly daunting. So far I have come up with Vegetables & Nuts which I can actually eat without aggravating these two diseases. I cant do this. I am also unwilling think I wouldn't honestly prefer to be dead then spend the rest of my time eating vegetables and steak, it makes me gag the veggies and the steak you'll get sick of 7 days a week!

ATM I am going gluten free and just HOPING. I eliminated all antibodies in 3 months through strict dieting when I was 19, blood tests proved it, so ATM I am going gluten-free for about 3 months and if the hearing hasn't improved then I have to look at going salt free, although I will simply reduce salt I am not going to stop things all together because what is the point of even living if you cant enjoy the 'moments in life' (any moments no caffeine, alcohol, cake, takeaway absolutely f all, dirt and vegetates for a life time worse than jail) because of disease.

Anyway I saw a bunch of posts on here most from years ago and people who haven't responded to personal contact. In short has anyone had the syptoms did the hearing get better was it related are they two separate things SHARE.

[UnhappyCoeliac]

Food Allergies

Excellent link showing allergies and their relation to Meniere's. Many people diagnosed with Meniere's have been diagnosed with allergies to wheat, gluten, soy, and/or milk. Several people have simply reduced or eliminated these products from their diet and their vertigo and dizziness disappeared. For more information, research Celiac Disease. Experiment.

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Yes this is the hope I cling too. Meniere's is progress I will end up death. At this rate if I could stop it now and it was coeliac related I could perhaps retain near normal levels. Significant difference. Two days gluten free and the ear is as loud and pulsating as ever though had a bunch of Salty chips today, from an uneducated view they seem to have turned up the volume on the tinnitus which means menieres which means deafness, disability and quality of life gone.

[mushroom]

I am sorry to hear about your hearing problems and tinnitus. I know there are degrees of tinnitus and I have mild only in one ear with mild hearing loss. It came on after gluten free. I had severe vertigo prior to recognizing my gluten problem, which was never treated and resolved spontaneously. So I am not of much help to you. My ear problems have been ongoing for over two years now so I do not exoect any improvement. I have also not noticed any further degradation. Occasionally I will get a brief ringing in the other ear but it lasts only a few seconds and then disappears. May it ever be so I have not discussed this with my doctors since there seem to be too many other things to discuss

[UnhappyCoeliac]

thanks for the reply I am in the official denial stage at the moment and desperate for a miracle lol. Ive accepted I have moderate hearing loss in my left ear but if this could stand still and the dizziness disappear I could live with it, minor annoyance. If I am gonna be deaf in one ear by 40 and HAVE to follow a diet of vegetables and dirt I cant take it!

[Simona19]

I had the vertigo, tinnitus twice in the past 4 years. My doctor had prescribed antibiotics to dry out the access "water" that build up behind my eardrum. He also gave me pills for motion sickness to stop the vertigo. I needed them for about 3 days. Everything got back to normal after I finished taking antibiotics.

I think that my trigger to get this disease was Nasal spray to stop allergy. Hmm

[UnhappyCoeliac]

I think I will ask for that. I have tried cortisone and that had no effect though.

[UnhappyCoeliac]

My doctor says I don't menieres because I am young, said go back to the ENT and the ENT sent me to my GP the doctor blame game, it's a world wide phenomenon wouldn't even prescribe decongestions and offered me stematel with gluten :|.

I make better diagnosis's on the internet by myself then this bum!

[Reba32]

if you're so concerned about reducing salt in your diet, it doesn't mean you're reduced to eating only dirt. Not by any means! Just cut out packaged manufactured foods and soft drinks, and eat anything else you want that is gluten free and put salt on it. The human body *needs* salt to survive, but the typical western diet of packaged convenience foods and fizzy drinks gives us way too much salt. Just cut back on those, stick with gluten free, and you may notice your symptoms improve. But don't expect overnight miracles, it can take some time.

[UnhappyCoeliac]

For future reference.

I went gluten free for 2 weeks it did absolutely sweet f--- all I aborted due to waste of time, waste of money, 0 benefits and huge inconvenience.

Hearing is getting worse everyday and got worse while Gluten-Free.

I think I got menires because I had coeliac got a virus and the immune system f'd up and now this menires is permanent one ear's hearing almost permanently gone in one ear in 6 months or so

[GFinDC]

HI Unhappy,

There are many people that have more than one condition, especially with autoimmune diseases. So not seeing improvement with Meniere's after going gluten-free doesn't mean you don't have celiac disease. If you have celiac you need to stay gluten-free regardless of how your Meniere's symptoms act.

[JaneWhoLovesRain]

Hi Unhappy (I'm unhappy too if it's any consolation)

I started having severe vertigo attacks almost 5 years ago (hours long, can' move). Was diagnosed with meniere's, mav, virus, bppv, etc. Every doctor said something different, nothing conclusive. I went gluten free almost 2 and a half years ago after hearing people at menieres.com say it helped them. So in the first 2.5 years of this vertigo stuff I had I think 6-8 severe attacks. In the second 2.5 years, after going gluten free I've only had two attacks. One of them was after an extremely stressful day, possibly the most stressful of my whole life, and the other was when I was quite sick with influenza. I cannot say with 100% certainty the gluten-free diet helped but I'm not willing to risk going back on gluten to test it. I've also gone very low sodium which may be helping - that was about a year or little more before going gluten-free.

However, what I haven't noticed a big difference in is the way I feel between attacks, motion sick and kind of off balance. My hearing is not too bad, it's worse in the high end than low end, which is opposite of menieres. I do have a lot of tinnitus which hasn't changed much over the last 5 years. It comes and goes.

Two weeks isn't long enough to give your diet time to work, you have months and months worth of damage so it will take time to heal. Be patient. If you are confirmed to have celiac you must stay away from gluten, no exceptions.

Vertigo is an extremely difficult symptom to get a correct diagnosis for and often both the doctor and patient end up very frustrated. The doctor because he can't fix it or even figure out what is causing it and the patient becaue she/he wants to be well and live a normal life like everyone else.

You are young and I feel so bad for you that you have to go through this at your age. Eating a special diet may make you feel like you are missing out on a lot. It is so hard to eat out when you can't eat anything on the menu and things like a barbeque may seem out of the question. It will get better. Please don't give up, there is no certainty that your hearing will get any worse. If it is found that gluten is the source of your problem then it most likely will not get worse and will probably get better, as long as you give up the gluten. I admit it is hard to eat gluten-free, especially when I see all these yummy recipes I want to try, I used to love cooking but not so much any more. I'm eating an anti-migraine diet, anti-meniere's, anti-celiac and anti-cholesterol, rather boring at times, but if it will keep the vertigo away it will be worth it.

[Anne]

I was fortunate and found an excellent audiologist. Best to get the best one, as that is most of what
 you pay for with hearing aides if you can use them. I was amazed and laughed all the way home,
 stopping to run errands. I was amazed at the lyrical quality of ladies' speech that I had not heard for years. I was so glad to hear that half the world was not 'mad' at me. I had been 'talking in email' without voice inflection sounds that add so much meaning to the conversation and light-heartedness and sense of humor. I just added a long post under Vertigo. Not to duplicate information here. But, on Doc Martin on the 12th there is an episode where a lady is diagnosed with Meniere's. It sent me researching today. I had no idea I was dealing with most of the list of Meniere's symptoms. Not sure who to go to with this information. None of the specialists I have been seeing the past few years had connected any of 'the dots' for this.

[HannahR67]

Stay gluten free. I have gone off it a few times and regretted it. More autoimmune diseases can come. I have no thyroid/thyroid cancer and type 1 diabetes and I blame gluten. But, I did feel a lot better when I started taking refrigerated Probiotics (at the health food store in a fridge). I think your body will heal quicker with these.

[cyclinglady]

5 hours ago, HannahR67 said:

Stay gluten free. I have gone off it a few times and regretted it. More autoimmune diseases can come. I have no thyroid/thyroid cancer and type 1 diabetes and I blame gluten. But, I did feel a lot better when I started taking refrigerated Probiotics (at the health food store in a fridge). I think your body will heal quicker with these.

Be sure they are gluten free!

Was going to paste a link....ugh!  Google probiotics not gluten free.  Study done in MA.  

[Anne]

Thank you, HannahR67 and cyclinglady,

My dad had thyroid probs and his mother had goiter. His dad had mastoid, which is on the list for Meniere's also. I always check my TSh's numbers and have tried to get the extra test they say is important now. All those numbers are good. But you are correct, Meniere's can be auto-immune related and one of the tests can test for antibody presence. They aren't sure what 'kicks it off.' But does cause tissue damage in the inner ear and/or fluid build up there. Treatment is a script for nausea (have that, the only script I have for anything) and a very very low sodium diet. I found a connection with that this year tracking my diet on myfitnesspal. When I accidently had a high-sodium intake, that's when the non-headache migraine occurred. And, watching my sodium, I have not had one since. Before that it was common occurrence, with 'visual disturbance' spots that also were helped with baby aspirin. Which makes no sense, I know. If baby aspirin could cure migraines, we would all be on the six-o'clock news.

My primary doctor is an OD. I looked that up and he is basically an MD that believes the body is wonderful and is going to heal itself and his role is to pat people on the shoulder and smile and do nothing. I will look up the refrigerated probiotics. I have been cutting back on all my vitamins, as they just sit like in a lump in my stomach, it feels like. I have some Papaya tablets that are supposed to increase stomach acid (getting old, here). (which is good considering the alternative:)  )  

Hannah was my great great grandmother's name. It was handed down in one form or another to all her children's children as the name of the 'first daughter' / Anna, Johannah, Hannah. Lovely name. (It is not really my name, I just chose it for a name here, years ago when I was first diagnosed.)

Until I started researching Meniere's this week, I had no idea that the low-sodium treatment was connected to anything. So, Watson, I think we are on to something/ we may have a culpret here.

Stay healthy and if you can't be healthy, be happy. (sublingual B-12?)  And praise and thanksgiving helps me. I am getting to be an old crank if I don't watch it. God Bless.

[Anne]

Hi, I found a link: <Open Original Shared Link

that is interesting. Was it on this forum that someone said they had symptoms related to how they

sat and drove?  There is information here about the vestibular system and coordinates the eye sense of

space and the bodies holding of itself upright and the balance. I was looking up the word vestibular, as in vestibular migraine. I did not know the term.

Best wishes, all, Anne