{"id":31154,"date":"2021-01-16T01:58:27","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T06:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losgatosaudiology.com\/?p=31154"},"modified":"2021-01-16T01:58:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-16T06:58:46","slug":"hearing-loss-and-vertigo-all-about-menieres-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losgatosaudiology.com\/hearing-loss-and-vertigo-all-about-menieres-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearing Loss & Vertigo: All About Meniere’s Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hearing loss affects over 48 million Americans today. While it can start from birth or come about through injury or illness at any point in a person\u2019s life, it is most common for hearing loss to become a problem for older adults. Indeed, nearly 100% of centenarians have hearing loss, suggesting that if we live long enough, all of us will lose our hearing at some point.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meniere\u2019s disease is a special kind of ear ailment that can cause hearing loss and a number of other problems related to the inner ear. While it is far less common than other forms of hearing loss (it affects about 615,000 people in the U.S., accounting for about 1.28% of cases of hearing loss), one should be on the lookout for its symptoms in order to aid in diagnosis and treatment when it does occur.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Meniere\u2019s can happen to people of any age, it most commonly strikes those in their 40s and 50s. While there are techniques to manage the condition, it is unfortunately incurable.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Is Meniere\u2019s Disease?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Meniere\u2019s disease is characterized by an excessive amount of fluid in the inner ear. While our inner ear is full of fluid under normal circumstances (a fluid called \u201cendolymph\u201d), Meniere\u2019s seems to be an excess and overflow of this fluid, or could be the result of other fluids breaching the inner ear and becoming trapped there. In addition to or possibly because of this excess fluid, the condition can also involve a swelling of the cochlear tissues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meniere\u2019s disease almost always occurs in just one ear, and symptoms tend to be episodic, meaning they occur for a while and then stop for a while (usually they last for 20 minutes to four hours). Here are the symptoms, usually presenting in this order:<\/span><\/p>\n