by Pat McFarley


With many different health problems, there is an associated diet. With Meniere's disease, the most common eating guideline is to lower your sodium consumption. Many physicians endorse low-sodium diets which appear to help many Meniere's disease sufferers. In your mission to manage Meniere's disease, there are other diet considerations.

Something often specified as a trigger to vertigo attacks with Meniere's disease sufferers is allergies. For this reason, it is a good idea to get tested for allergies and recognize if you are allergic to particular foods. The Food Allergy and Anaphlaxis Network declares that eight distinct foods account for 90% of all allergic reactions. The eight foods are milk, eggs, fish, peanuts, shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, and soy. Get tested and learn if your are allergic to specific foods or not. If you learn that you are, avoid those foods. If you find out that you are not, remove allergies from a listing of possible triggers and move on.

An alternative to getting tested for allergies would be to eliminate those eight foods from you diet and see if your symptoms get better. If they do, remove those foods from your diet but do give it some time. It may possibly take several weeks to figure out if you are allergic to a certain food.

Other things that have been reported as leading to vertigo attacks among those with Meniere's disease include chocolate, MSG, and aspirin products.

The Vestibular Disorders Association (VEDA) has published dietary considerations for those with Meniere's disease. In addition to the low-sodium diet, it suggests

avoiding too much sugar
avoiding nicotine
avoid caffeine
limit alcohol consumption


Other activities that the report recommends is distributing fluid and food intake throughout the day. I have personally found this useful. Additionally stressed is drinking sufficient amounts of fluid during the day.

It is strongly recommended to avoid migraine triggers such as the amino acid tyramine or foods that contain nitrites and nitrates. Also recommended is eating more foods with complex sugars than simple sugars. These foods with complex sugars includes vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.

You should learn to examine food labels for sodium content. This VEDA publication goes through a similar exercise with sugar.

There was an article released in the August 2006 issue of The Laryngoscope titled Water May Cure Patients with Meniere's Disease. The study had 18 individuals with Meniere's disease drink 35 mL/kg per day. After two years, they had improved hearing and reduced symptoms of vertigo.

One thing I have learned through the years is that you are your own best doctor. You are in control of what works best for you. As you think about these concepts, you need to evaluate if preventing a few of the foods mentioned improve your health or if increasing your water intake lessens your Meniere's symptoms. These types of things take time to figure out. Don't be too quick in your evaluation. This will take time. You need to be objective over a long period. If your new food strategy decreases your attacks, it is reasonable to maintain that strategy. However, an attack that occurs soon after eating a certain food shouldn't be attributed to that food unless it occurs multiple times.




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