Huey Lewis diagnosed with Meniere's disease

I’ve suffered with Menieres for over 15 years.  It is not genetic. It’s caused by a malfunction of the body’s immmunodeficiency system that attacks the inner ear.  Symptoms include tinnitus, vertigo, nausea, loss of hearing, and can eventually result in deafness in some cases.  A fellow sufferer eventually had his inner removed because of non stop vertigo.  Treatments vary and results vary and it can remit but it never goes away.  At its worst, in my case, unexpected violent onsets included vomiting, falling down, and horrible headaches.  Really nasty stuff.  Genetic? No.  I’ve seen the best doctors and it confuses them all, like many immunodeficiency diseases.  Bonus!  I have another immunodeficiency disease:  alopecia totalis!  Docs can’t figure that one out either!  

One of more the interesting treatments I received was an injection of steroids directly into my inner ear through the eardrum.  Needle was human hair thin, about 4” long.  Doc said, ‘don’t move!’  No problem doc! 

I have had Meniere's for 17 years, it's a terrible syndrome but doesn't necessarily mean you lose your hearing. Vertigo is the telltale sign of this horrible disease with no cure or medication to relieve symptoms.

Seeing how many people have posted here, I wonder if there is any link between the volume at which one listens to music, or the frequencies that good audio might reproduce better than run of the mill equipment. That would truly be ironic -- higher quality audio causing low end frequency loss and Meniere’s . . .

I’ve had Meniere’s Disease for 9 years. First year, every 3 months or so I had intermittent bout of horrible vertigo where, within 15 minutes of first symptoms, I was so dizzy I couldn’t stand or walk, and would then vomit until I managed to pass out. Moved from San Diego to Miami year 2 and it stopped for 7 years. Last year, tinnitus started, and the vertigo attacks again. Now it has stopped again for the last 6 months, but the tinnitus in my left year remains and I have low frequency loss (common in Menieres) and high frequency loss in that ear. Ironic that someone that gets a lot of pleasure from high quality audio has now lost some hearing in one ear. Could be worse. Could be both ears, I guess. Sometimes I can’t tell whether the recording sucks or its just my left ear sucking! :)

@zebra9, I had acupuncture for the last year. I also reduced my salt intake and alcohol intake. Don’t know if those were factors. However, now, if I feel the slightest bit lightheaded, I take promethazine, which seems to stop anything before the whole wonderful experience starts.

@moto_man 

Sustained overly loud music can cause hearing damage in anyone.

Meniere’s disease is unrelated to that. 

Unfortunately like your eyesight - hearing eventually deteriorates over time too - so some of what may be blamed on loud music or exposure may simply be aging.

I lost some left ear ultra high frequency hearing in my left ear from a head to head collision in a rugby match many years ago. I don’t notice it anymore but the shift was quite apparent when it happened. Fortunately my loss is very slight and also well outside the mid range. I guesstimate about 3dB to 6 dB loss in the highest frequencies (close to CRT TV range which is so high - around 16 KHz - that you tend to lose that range over time anyway - I am around 14 KHz now)

There is no solution for many hearing issues. So just listen to music as much as you can while you can - life is short and there is so much beautiful music out there...