Sudden Hearing Loss & Meniere’s Disease

Finally found a cure for my Sudden Hearing Loss & Meniere’s Disease - so I'm sharing with as many people as I can in the hopes it will help others (also helped cure my tinnitus, arthritis, bleeding gums, and other less serious symptoms).

In 2006 I suffered a 60db single-sided sudden sensorineural hearing loss, followed later by vertigo attacks and a diagnosis of Meniere’s Disease. I have since made a *full* recovery after suffering for 3 years. In my case these symptoms were the result a simple but powerful IgG food allergy (which I have also recovered from).

I created a web site to document my own experience since it appears most ENTs have little idea about simple allergies (e.g. food, environmental) as one possible cause of significant & sudden hearing loss.
http://sites.google.com/site/joeyhorowitz/
It includes scans of my hearing tests & allergy results.

http://www.houseearclinic.com/allergies.htm - is an example of a medical practice that acknowledges the connection between allergies and hearing disorders; please note that I am not a patient.

Has anyone else looked into IgG & IgE allergies as a possible cause?

[meniere135]

Hi there.  I started with Meniere's in 1996, when I was 5 months pregnant with my second child.  I started with a numb feeling in my ear and muffling, with difficulty making out what anyone was saying to me in my left ear.  It progressed over time to dizziness, nausea, hypersensitive to sounds (couldn't even stand to hear the sound of chicken cutlets cooking in oil).  I didn't go to an ear doctor for quite a while.  I was bogged down in work and lack of sleep - dragging myself through life.  Typical mom, I never took time to go to the doctor and find out what was wrong with me.   Then I had my third child.  My ears were a disaster.  I couldn't believe I let them get so bad.   I finally made an appt. with an ENT.  He saw nothing and chalked it up to sensorineural loss with tinnitus.  "Nothing you can do"! he said.  Went to another ENT within another year or so due to constant attacks - had one or two a day that would last 6 hours each.  I thought I was gonna go out of my mind  Doc #2 said the same thing.  I finally made my way to an otolaryngologist and he, after many tests, diagnosed Meniere's disease.  He put me on steroids, which stopped the attacks and lowered the noise level to some extent.  Since I improved on steroids, he said he wanted me to see a nutritionist and do food elimination.  My brother, in the meantime, called me with celiac disease symptoms.  He went on the diet, and improved 150% (as he put it).  He didn't have Meniere's.  But it dawned on me that since celiac could be hereditary, then maybe that was the cause of my problem.  I gave the diet a try.  The only screw up was the gluten in my medication.  At first, the tinnitus in my ears got louder, and louder.....like someone removed a submerged buzzing nerve from the water. and the now "exposed" nerve was no longer "dampened" by the water (hope I got my point across).  So I knew I was on the right track for some reason.  So I ended up calling about my medication and low and behold it had gluten.  I stopped taking it and 12 hours later, the attacks completely stopped, the tinnitus was barely audible (even at bedtime in the quiet) and the muffling went away.  It is now ten years later and I haven't had an attack since.  I also cured my Meniere's!  After 4 years of torture and wishing I were dead, I found complete relief.  Go figure.  I've been suggesting to many people on these forums to give the diet a try - gluten free, milk free and possibly sugar free.  Milk doesn't cause my Meniere's, but it does muffle me - it closes up my eustachian tubes .  I read a study that eliminated gluten, milk and sugar from the diets of people with hearing loss and tinnitus.  It was a moderate sized study (don't remember how many people).
Almost all of the participants had decreased tinnitus and improved hearing within the next few months of starting the diet.  So I will go visit your site now and see what you've written.  Just thought I'd let you know that there is something to the food thing.
I hope those that read these notes take this seriously and give the diets a try.  

Good luck passing the message along!

[edsdev1]

What an amazing story and I'm so happy you are cured too!!  :)
It seems that we both had a food allergy as the ongoing impetus for our disorders!

You were very lucky to have such a forward thinking otolaryngologist; I went to top NYC Drs. and not a one made that connection or suggestion (which is why I built the web site).  I found blood testing to be easier than an elimination diet, even if I had eliminated milk, my chocolate allergy would have kept the disorder going.