Meniere's Disease: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment Options

When your world suddenly spins out of control, your ears ring like a alarm, and your hearing fades for no reason, you might be dealing with Meniere's disease, a chronic inner ear disorder that disrupts balance and hearing. Also known as endolymphatic hydrops, it doesn’t just cause dizziness—it rewires how your body senses motion. This isn’t just ordinary vertigo. Meniere’s disease hits in episodes, often without warning, and leaves you feeling drained, nauseous, and off-balance for hours. It usually starts in one ear but can spread to both over time.

What makes Meniere’s disease tricky is that it’s made up of three main symptoms that stick together: intense vertigo, a spinning sensation that can knock you down, ringing in the ear called tinnitus, a persistent noise like buzzing or roaring, and fluctuating hearing loss, often low-pitched and temporary at first. Many people also feel fullness or pressure in the ear, like it’s stuffed with cotton. These symptoms don’t come from stress or lack of sleep—they come from fluid buildup in the inner ear, though doctors still don’t fully know why that happens.

It’s not rare, either. Around 600,000 people in the U.S. have it, mostly between ages 40 and 60. Women get it slightly more often than men. While there’s no cure, treatments focus on reducing how often episodes happen and how bad they feel. Some people find relief with low-salt diets, diuretics, or vestibular rehab exercises. Others need injections or surgery if things get severe. And yes—some of the same meds used for migraines, like topiramate, can help if Meniere’s overlaps with vestibular migraine, a condition that mimics Meniere’s but stems from brain nerve activity.

You’ll find real, practical advice here—not just textbook definitions. We’ve pulled together posts that compare treatments, explain why certain meds work (or don’t), and break down how vertigo connects to other inner ear issues. Whether you’re trying to manage daily symptoms, wondering if your tinnitus is linked to hearing loss, or just trying to understand why you keep falling over, this collection gives you clear, no-fluff answers. No guesswork. Just what works.