Friday December 15, 2000

Meniere's Disease

Here's some dizzying facts now about an illness that affects thousands of people. It effects everyone from astronauts to TV hosts and it's often misdiagnosed. It's today's RXtra report.

He's the host with the world record personality, the Los Angeles weather forecaster with a very sunny disposition. But one day three years ago a cloud passed over Mark Thompson's life. He started to lose hearing in one ear and heard a maddening ringing that wouldn't go away. But when mark had a vertigo attack things literally started spinning out of control.

He says, "If I laid down it would get worse if I stood up it would get worse."

His doctors thought it might be exhaustion, but then they started looking for something much worse. He says, "I was tested for a brain tumor at one point."

The results were negative, but Mark still didn't know what was wrong. He ended up at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. That's where Dr. Jennifer Dereberry told him he has Meniere's disease. She says, "Meniere's is a tough disease to have and I really do feel for the patients that I treat that have that."

With Meniere's disease excess fluid builds in the inner ear throwing off a person's hearing and balance. It can be so severe a person can be confined to bed for days at a time. Doctors believe Meniere's is caused by either a virus or allergy. Since there's no one cause its more difficult to control.

Dr. Dereberry says "There's no one simple cookbook way of treating this that works for everybody."

Mark tried steroid injections, herbal remedies, even acupuncture - nothing worked. He says, "I mean just to wait here and wait for it to clear up... It's like can't I do something?"

Finally doctor's discovered Mark's condition was triggered by both food and airborne allergies. He says, "I'm allergic to lettuce, tomato, peanuts, wheat, sugar, corn, etc. and when you put all that stuff together and dairy products it becomes tough to put a meal together after a while."

He even uses an air purifier to clean the air he breathes. With that and a daily dose of diuretics and allergy shots, Mark says he finally has his symptoms under control. He says he would like to be off the medicine but until then he still considers himself very lucky.

Having all those symptoms doesn't necessarily mean you have Meniere's syndrome. They can be symptoms of a lot of different things. You should check with a specialist to be sure.

And here's some extra info on Meniere's. The first American in space, Alan Shepherd, was grounded because of it. But surgery allowed him to walk on the moon with Apollo 14.