Allergies + Tinnitus + Dizziness

[ArtyPants46]

Hope everyone is doing ok! My tinnitus has remained louder since Covid and my vertigo/dizziness is still lurking, but the latter still better than it was a year ago so that’s something.

I recently had a follow-up phone appointment with my audio vestibular consultant and although my original diagnosis was vestibular migraine, he thinks I might now have endolymphatic hydrops too. Not sure what that is apart from the fact it can be related to Ménière’s which makes me feel anxious.

Something that is really affecting both my tinnitus and dizziness is my allergy - I have had bad allergic rhinitis for over 20 years. It’s really bad right now and when my sinuses are blocked, which is most of the time atm, everything is exacerbated. My instinct is telling me this could be the root/cause of the problem. Anyone else had experience of allergies?

I’m self medicating with antihistamine with decongestant which seems to help a bit and awaiting a follow-up with the consultant. Who knows when that will be but am thinking bethasine might help me. Any thoughts/ideas welcome…

[Happyrosie]

betahistine (if that's what you mean) is prescribed for dizziness and allergies but make sure you don't mix it with other antihistamine products - talk to your pharmacist.

[ArtyPants46 in reply to Happyrosie]

yes, that’s the one. I feel it might work where other meds have failed. Will chat to my doc.

[Beagleears]

Hi I haven't been officially diagnosed yet but my vertigo attacks were awful. I asked to try betahistine as I knew someone it had worked for and it really has relieved the vertigo. Still got tinnitus but at least I can stand upright and walk about without being scared of falling over. Fingers crossed it works for you too. Take care.

[Tanney]

Hi Arty. Your description of your symptoms sounds like Meniere's Disease. I have had bilateral (both ears) MD for nearly 40 years. I've learned a lot over the years from various doctors, support groups, articles and my own experiences. Here are my observations:

1. Nasal Allergy is one of the more common causes of MD symptoms. It is vital that you manage your allergies well and correctly. I highly recommend the following allergy management:

use a commercial nasal flush (with distilled water only) TWICE a day. Then carefully blow each nostril removing any of the water solution still in your nostrils.

Then use a good (preferably prescription strength) antihistamine nasal spray such as Azelastine HCL. Use ONLY a nasal spray....do NOT use oral (by mouth) antihistamine. More on this below.

2. Diet: If you do have MD you must be very careful with your diet. Avoid salt, caffeine, alcohol.

3. Betahistine: If you do have MD start taking Betahistine in the following protocol:

start with 4mg 2-3 times/day for two or three weeks

then take 8mg 2-3 times/day for two or three weeks

then take 16mg 3 times/day there after. Your maintenance dose will be 16mg 3 or 4 times/day

by following the above protocol betahistine will not cause side effects. If you start at a higher dose you likely will have side effects.

do not skip doses and make sure you continue taking Betahistine even when symptoms are not active.

Betahistine is a histamine so you can NOT take an oral antihistamine as it will neutralize the benefit of betahistine. You can only use a nasal spray antihistamine for your allergy (as described above) which will not neutralize betahistine since it does not get into your blood stream and instead stays within the nasal zone.

4. Be diligent: Betahistine and allergy control will eliminate much of your vertigo, tinnitus/ ear fullness and you can live an almost normal life. But you must be diligent in your symptom management

Please let me know if you want to discuss MD in more detail. You can private message me if you like.

Good luck!!

[ArtyPants46 in reply to Tanney]

Thanks so much for your response. All the docs who have seen me so far have insisted it’s not Ménière’s (as I only have a bit of high frequency hearing loss in left ear) but other than that my symptoms are identical. Can I ask is you have hearing loss? And if so, did it come on straight away? Everything you said rings (sorry!) true. I need to get my allergy under control again with steroid spray and nasal cleansing (have done this off and on in the past). I will certainly try all of the above - totally makes sense. Would just like to get a proper diagnosis too!

[Tanney in reply to ArtyPants46]

Meniere's Disease is diagnosed with a hearing test and a balance/eye coordination test. A classic symptom of MD is hearing loss in LOW decibel range. Other classic MD symptoms are tinnitus, ear fullness and vertigo lasting more than 20 minutes. Since your hearing loss is in High decibel range it is unlikely you do have MD. Nevertheless, proper disciplined allergy control done EVERY DAY will do wonders for your specific symptoms. You mentioned steroid spray. That's fine, but most ENT doctors recommend you also use an antihistamine nasal spray too. It's also recommended that you use the flush/sprays twice EVERY DAY even when you feel your symptoms are not active. That's vital for controlling your vertigo and limiting your tinnitus.

In my case Low decibel hearing loss came on early. I have no High decibel loss.

I wish you the best of luck.