Herbcraft - Meniere's Disease

meniere's disease...

I had a client come by one day to talk with me about Meniere's Disease. When he asked, I had to do that quick mental run-through-my-head... Meniere's, Meniere's... I was blanking... Oh! The ear thing...

He was late 30s, and had begun having symptoms the a month or two earlier and had recently been diagnosed with this. He has had instances of mild vertigo, and a few more severe episodes, will occasionally get tinnitus, says he can sometimes feel a bit of "pressure" in the ear, and says sometimes he hears what's going on as if he were inside a big glass (maybe he's having flashbacks of a past life as a goldfish?). He said that symptoms started immediately after a bad cold, and when I asked if he felt the infection from his sore throat reached up the back of the throat towards the ears he said yes, he thought so, retrospectively.

Initially, I suggested he use a blend of Red Root and Mullien flower tinctures, taken internally and applied mixed with a bit of Mullien flower oil to the ear to address any swelling or lymphatic congestion that may be in the ears (figuring that might account for the pressure). I've used this combination before for abscesses in the ear canal, and have seen a very rapid resolution of the swelling and discomfort. I also gave him some Ground Ivy tea and tincture (the tincture to bolster the tea, which was a couple years old and not as vital as I'd have liked) because that's what I like using when a throat cold goes up the back of the throat towards the ears, and it's been used for tinnitis.

He talked to me a couple weeks later; the Mullein Flower/Red Root seemed to have plateaued the vertigo spells, which were increasing inn frequency, but hadn't reduced them notably. Damn, I really had thought that would work.

So I did some inquiring, and got some nice ideas to consider from David Winston, Michael Tierra, Phyllis Light... thing was, they were mostly suggesting plants I wasn't so familiar with, and while I'm well aware of the fact you get familiar with an herb by using it, mixing up a bunch of new ones together just wasn't sitting right in my head; no... maybe my gut.

And so time passes. I talked with a friend educated in TCM about Gastrodia (which both David Winston and Michael Tierra said excelled in addressing vertigo), and figured maybe I'd get some and work that one herb into the picture.

And it was then; about two and a half months after I'd last talked to him about it, that the guy called me up and told me he was so happy with the Red Root & Mullein Flower; as he hadn't had a single attack of vertigo or auditory abnormalities since, and sensations of pressure/fluid in the ear had also dissipated almost entirely.

He said he really hadn't been drinking the Ground Ivy tea, but had been consistantly using the Mullein Flower/Red Root tincture (fresh 1:2) and Ground Ivy tincture (fresh 1:2) daily; 5-10 drops of each, 2-3x daily.

He discontinued the blend of the Mullein Flower/Red Root tincture mixed in Mullein Flower oil as a topical application after symptoms improved (about a month of use), and they haven't returned.

Nice.