posted
I am new to this forum and I have a question about vertigo. I have, for the last few years, experienced spinning vertigo upon waking in the morning which subsides within a few hours of the day, and up until recently it only happened a few times per year and was mild. But lately it has been occuring with more severity and frequency, about twice per month and lasting several days. I just wake from a sound sleep and feel the room spinning, and I can't move my head or it gets severe and I feel nauseated. Once I can get up and moving, it gets better but lately a lightheaded feeling has been sticking with me for days after the initial attack. I as diagnosed with Lyme in late 2004 after many years of illness, but a pregnancy right afterwards and breastfeeding have put my symptoms into remission and prevented me from taking any meds for the Lyme. I have been seeking alternative treatments since then, but have still noticed an increase in fatgiue, dizziness, and weakness in recent weeks. CouldLyme mimick inner ear problems like Meniere's disease or something similar?
-------------------- Jessica Diagnosed with Lyme in 2004 First became sick in 2001 Mom to 2 beautiful, healthy boys Baby #3 Due in May 2010 Posts: 10 | From Florida | Registered: Nov 2006
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hiker53
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 6046
posted
You may have benign proximal positional vertigo. This means that the crystals in the semicircular canals of your ear (which control balance)get moved out of place. If you turn your head and get vertigo that is a major sign. When I rolled over in bed or did sit-ups or nodded I got really dizzy.
It was one of my first symptoms of Lyme. It can be treated. See an ENT and an audiologist. The audiologist does a procedure called canalinth repositioning to get the crystals back in place. I learned how to do the procedure myself so when I got it again I could correct it.
For awhile the doctors thought I had Meniere's Disease, but I don't. Good luck. Hiker
-------------------- Hiker53
"God is light. In Him there is no darkness." 1John 1:5 Posts: 8929 | From Illinois | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I am not a doctor so don't my advice as truth, but I will share my experience.
Before I was diagnoised and about 4 monthes before I became unfunctional I started experiencing virtigo.
I was 20 years old and although I had health issues, my doctors couldn't figure out why I was having veritgo. They did MRI's, CAT scans-etc-I was also having horrible stomach pains when I ate foods with yeast, wheat, and sugar. Again NO explanation despite numberous tests.
Four monthes later, I started vommitting everything I was eating, broke out into hives, and started having severe vertigo.
Eight monthes after that, I was diagnoised with lyme.
Two weeks after I started meds I stopped vommiting and my hives went away (i.e. I vommitted everything i ate and was broken out in hives, and had vertigo for 8 monthes )
I have been in treatment for a year in a half and my vertigo is barely an issue. I get it very rarely and usually only when I am herxing.
Is it lyme related?-I am not sure, but my experience is that it's quite a coinsocendce that treatment made it better.
Good luck!
Feel free to e-mail me or ask questions
Lindsay
Posts: 484 | From Burlingame, Ca | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
from medline(pubmed). HNO. 2006 Nov 14; [Epub ahead of print] Links [Sensorineural loss of hearing in lower registers as the main symptom of Lyme disease.] [Article in German] Mehler K, Emmel M, Petereit HF, Spruth A, Droge A, Brockmeier K. Klinik und Poliklinik fur Kinderkardiologie, Klinikum der Universitat zu Koln, Joseph-Stelzmann-Str. 9, 50924, Koln, Deutschland, [email protected]. In a 9-year-old boy with sudden sensorineural loss of hearing in the lower registers in both ears, serology showed elevated levels of antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi and examination of the CSF revealed a positive antibody index against Borrelia burgdorferi. The boy was treated with antibiotics for 2 weeks. Audiometry performed 4 weeks after treatment was completely normal. Inner ear involvement in Lyme disease has often been discussed. Treating these patients with antibiotics may lead to an improvement in some. PMID: 17103202
Posts: 2708 | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
I have had ear problems without lyme (infection from swimming) and with lyme, so the answer is that it can be either or both. In short, you could have lyme caused ear symptoms or lyme + symptoms caused by something else at the same time.
Will try to post an article from a lyme newsletter, if I get around to scanning it.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Come to think of it, I already posted this article a while back. But when I did a search of the archives, it didn't appear. Search function seems to have gone haywire. Sure hope the webmaster is getting the recent website problems sorted out.
When these are sorted, I recommend you learn how to do a search of the archives. Lots of great info there, and most of the problems lymies have, have been discussed before and useful posts are available from the past.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
I had it real bad in the beginning ~15yrs ago. Was definately the lyme for me. I used to have to hold on to my desk because the room was spinning so bad. It gets better with tx. Mepron/biaxin/artemisinin has helped me the most.
Posts: 184 | From CT | Registered: Aug 2006
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Marnie
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 773
posted
In lyme, Mg levels drop "significantly" at the outset of this disease.
I will pull up an old file for you:
Magnesium and Hearing - Lyme Symptom #28
``Magnesium May Shield Sensitive Ears
It's true that you won't find laboratory animals handling heavy artillery or using chain saws. But you can thank these creatures for another dietary recommendation for protecting ears: magnesium.
Magnesium-deficient lab animals exposed to noise have much more damage to the nerve cells in their cochleas than animals fed a diet adequate in magnesium, Dr. Attias says.
What happens to these cells when the noise level gets too high? `The tiny hairs on these cells fuse or disappear, and they and their supporting cells eventually disintegrate, along with the nerve fibers going to these cells,' explains Dr. Attias.
Low levels of magnesium combined with noise exposure eventually deplete the cells' energy stores, leading to exhaustion, damage and death of the inner ear cells, he explains.
Low magnesium levels can also cause blood vessels, including the tiny arteries going to the inner ears, to constrict. (Remember, noise-induced vasospasm is thought to play a role in tinnitus.)
Human ears, even young, healthy, normal-hearing ones, can benefit from extra magnesium, Dr. Attias says.
He found that Israeli soldiers who got an additional 167 milligrams of supplemental magnesium daily had less inner ear damage than soldiers getting placebos (blank look-alike pills). According to Dr. Attias, a more recent study showed that supplemental intake has this same protective effect against long-term noise exposure.
If you're faced with a noisy environment, you'll want to make sure that you're getting the Daily Value of magnesium, which is 400 milligrams, Dr. Attias says. Most people fall short in that regard, with men getting about 329 milligrams a day and women averaging 207 milligrams a day.
Green vegetables, whole grains, nuts and beans are packed with magnesium. (If you're considering taking magnesium supplements, be sure to talk to your doctor first if you have heart or kidney problems.)
If your tinnitus includes a sensation of fullness in your ear and balance problems, experts recommend that you get adequate amounts of calcium and potassium as well. These additional symptoms could be a sign of Meniere's disease.''
I had to take the parenthesis out of the above link in order to post it. In front of the word "ear" and behind the word, Noises.
``Tinnitus is sometimes caused by impaired blood flow to the ears, which can happen in two ways, Dr. Seidman says. First, the tiny artery leading to the inner ear can get clogged with cholesterol, causing a kind of stroke in the ear, he explains.
Second, loud noises can send this artery into spasm, reducing blood supply to the cochlea. In either case, an interrupted blood supply can lead to hearing problems.
That's where the antioxidant nutrients - vitamin C, vitamin E, betacarotine and others - come in. `Antioxidants work by helping to prevent oxygen-caused damage to cell membranes,' Dr. Seidman explains. Anti-oxidants also help keep arteries open and free of plaque buildup, experts say.
Dr. Seidman and some other ear doctors suggest that you consider a smorgasbord of antioxidant nutrients: 400 international units of vitamin E daily, 250 mg of vitamin C twice daily, 50 to 200 micrograms of the mineral selenium daily and about 50,000 international units of beta-carotene twice daily. Doses of selenium exceeding 100 micrograms daily can be toxic and should be taken only under medical supervision.'' (5)
``Magnesium, calcium and potassium are other minerals that are critical to the normal functioning of the inner ear, explains Charles P. Kimmelman, M.D., professor of otolaryngology at New York Medical College in Valhalla and a physician at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital.
Because these minerals are so important to healthy ears, some doctors tell their patients with Meniere's disease to make sure they get at least the Daily Values of these nutrients.'' (5)
OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Otolaryngological manifestations are common in Lyme disease, affecting up to 75% of patients. One of these symptoms is sudden deafness. Hearing loss has been frequently described in Lyme disease; on the other hand, titers seropositive for, the causal agent of this disease, have been found in almost 20% of cases of sudden deafness
PMID: 12567088
[Progressive sensorineural hearing loss from infectious agents]
[Article in Italian]
Scasso CA, Bruschini L, Berrettini S, Bruschini P.
Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Universita degli Studi di Pisa.
The progressive sensorineural hearing loss due to infectious causes can involve different etiological agents like bacteria, viruses, protozoons or mycetes. These infectious agents can act in various ways: directly through a labyrinthitis that may destroy the neuroepithelium; through an ischaemic process secondary to a septic embolus; or through a thrombus.
In some cases the damage can occur in a meningitis context, because of the passage of the germ in the inner through the nerves, the vases or the labyrinthine liquids. Bacterial meningitis is one of the causes of progressive sensorinueral hearing loss.
Among bacteria, the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis has nowadays acquired a remarkable importance which is also due to its considerable diffusion, despite modern therapy, and to its association with HIV infection.
Bacteria can also cause a labyrinthitis acting directly on the inner ear: among these, Treponemas Pallidum, a spirochaete which causes syphilis and Borrelia Burgdorferi, a spirochaete that causes Lyme Disease, must be mentioned.
The viruses that are certainly involved in the etiology of progressive sensorineural hearing loss are Cytomegalovirus and Rubella virus. The virus usually causes a labyrinthitis after the viraemia, wich may be due to the passage of the virus from the blood to the endolymph, through the stria vascularis with the consequent infection of the sensorial cells of the organ of Corti.
Less frequently the viral damage to the inner ear can occur after a vasculitis, a meningitis or an alteration of the cell-mediated immunity. Progressive sensorineural hearing loss can also occur because of some congenital viral infections such as those caused by Cytomegalovirus and Rubella virus.
More recently even the Human Parvovirus B19 seems to have been involved. This virus seems to act through autoimmune and/or immunologic processes, like that causing sudden hearing loss in Lassa fever.
Another viral infection which can nowadays more frequently be considered among the cause of progressive hearing loss is HIV. In the HIV infection the neurological toxic lesions due to the administered ototoxic drugs are added up to the damages caused by the opportunistic infectious agents (virus, bacterium, protozoon mycete).
However, in these patients HIV itself could be the cause of the auditory and vestibular lesions. More rarely, a progressive hearing loss may be due to the action of a protozoon or mycete only.
PMID: 10205933
Source # (5) Prevention's Healing with Vitamins by the editors of Prevention Magazine Health Books, Published in 1996 by Rodale Press, Inc., Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
Posts: 9426 | From Sunshine State | Registered: Mar 2001
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tdtid
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10276
posted
When you talk inner ear disorders, I can't say if this was lyme related or not.
But even in my days of remission or feeling better before I got the lyme diagnoses, I was never able to walk a straight line.
The kind they show in movies of drunks trying to pass the sobrity test with one foot directly in front of the other.
I use to joke it off by saying hopefully I never get pulled over since I would fail the test, but in reality, it wasn't a joke.
I'd walk into things or people when I THOUGHT I was walking straight and BLAMED it on an "inner ear imbalance".
As the illness progressed, I had NO BALANCE but that aspect was said to be caused by injected steroids I was given before my diagnosis.
But my guess as a newbie is that it COULD be lyme or it could be an ear infection type of problem.
Definitely something to get checked out if it persists.
Sadly, with lyme, we blame EVEERYTHING on it and there are times it may actually be something else.
Trying to distinguish between the two is sometimes hard. Good luck and I do hope this phase passes quickly.
Cathy
-------------------- "To Dream The Impossible Dream" Man of La Mancha Posts: 2638 | From New Hampshire | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
I think my room spinning/unsteadiness issues had a lot to do with Babs. Have you been tested for Babesia?
Posts: 175 | From ma. | Registered: Aug 2005
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cactus
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7347
posted
Have you been to an ENT? I have similar symptoms (which become very severe at times), and learned that basically my left and right inner ears are sending different signals to my brain. I can't remember the diagnosis (sorry, brain's not working), but it has to do with damage to the inner ear. My ENT and LLMD both believe it was caused by infection (Lyme & co's). The ENT actually researched this further and personally called me at home to verify that it's likely caused by infection, and likely not reversible.
That said, ENT Rx'd specific exercises to "re-train" my brain. He said this would help, although I might not be biking, etc. The exercises definitely bring on the vertigo, even nausea, and though they've helped some, I still have problems. Due for follow-up testing, so I'll have to wait to see what happens next.
Just my experience, thought it might be of interest.
-------------------- �Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?� - A.A. Milne Posts: 1987 | From No. VA | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Here is the article I mentioned in a post above.
LYME DISEASE AND HEARING
Lyme disease can cause a variety of hearing problems:
● Tinnitus - ringing in the ears ● Hyperacusis - ordinary noises seem abnormally, even painfully loud ● Vertigo and vomiting ● Hearing loss ● Fluid in ears
Invasion of Lyme bacteria in cranial nerves may account for some of these problems. Of the 12 cranial nerves, the vestibulocochlear nerve (#VIII), would be most closely associated with infection-caused symptoms in ears. There may be more involved, but this aspect of Lyme needs research.
Most ear, nose, and throat specialists know little about the effects of Lyme on ears; however, medical journals have documented such cases. In Sweden, researchers tested 98 patients with hearing dysfunctions: sudden hearing loss, disorders similar to Meniere's disease, or hearing loss in combination with acute facial palsy or with vertigo.
Out of this group, 17% tested positive for Lyme disease and were subsequently treated with an IV penicillin. The hearing of about one-third improved on treatment.
Authors of a New England Journal of Medicine article in 1990, including Allen Steere, wrote about chronic neurologic manifestations of LD. Among 27 patients, associated symptoms included fatigue (74%), headache (48%), arthritis (37%), and hearing loss (15%) They concluded, "... chronic neurologic abnormalities usually improve with antibiotic therapy."
Researchers at the NY Medical College say that the otolaryngologist may be called upon to evaluate head and neck symptoms of LD, which they identify as otalgia, tinnitus, hearing loss, TMJ pain, vertigo, and many others. Furthermore, the Ear, Nose, and Throat Journal printed an article written by researchers at the Medical Center at Princeton, also documenting these symptoms, as produced by LD.
French physicians state that a large number of cases of deafness are due to infection--both viral and bacterial. They include LD as one of these agents. In Sweden, patients with sudden hearing loss and positive serology for Bb or pathological proteins in CSF were associated with better hearing recovery than those with negative serology. It may be treatable, in other words, if caused by an infectious agent such as LD. This is good news for those of us with hearing problems.
One young woman with LD, Jessie, who has been treated for the past two years and still needs a wheelchair, has had many hearing problems. Her mother writes, "Since last summer she's had moderately severe loss of low tones and mild loss of high tones in one ear. After the hearing test, her doctor said she qualified for a hearing aid for one ear, if not both." At the time, he believed that her hearing wouldn't ever improve and worried that it could get worse. She also has tinnitus and hyperacusis and finds that the latter is the worst to live with ---cringing in pain and plugging her ears when the phone rings, the microwave beeps, or the dishwasher is unloaded. According to Jessie's mother, they can't vacuum if she is at home.
In a more recent test, however, the same doctor found Jessie's hearing to be normal, at the bottom end, but still normal! So, keep the faith Lyme patients. Sometimes these things are reversible.
Another Lyme patient developed fluid in one ear after several years of tinnitus, and has occasional spells of hyperacusis. Clapping of a concert audience sends her looking for earplugs. Other people hear sounds that are not audible to her.
On a Lymenet post, Sarah says: "My ears have been through a lot with Lyme! First they hurt- then they popped a lot- then they hurt more- then I began to lose hearing in my left ear- that was scary- then I had tinnitus for over a year non-stop- it drove me CRAZY! Now my ears are normal again with IV. I am so glad!"
And Lisa posted: "I definitely had hearing loss from Lyme; lost one ear totally five years ago (before they knew what I had) and lost the other one in November. It came back with treatment with IV rocephin, but the ear that went deaf five years ago is still deaf. Lyme seems to have an affinity for the nerves associated with hearing, balance and vision. I still have lots of tinnitus, which is a given when there's been damage to the eighth cranial nerve."
So, what can you expect from a visit to the ENT specialist? In the case of Jessie's doctor, he didn't know anything about Lyme and hearing (in an endemic state), but was willing to learn and had an open mind.
If you are going to an ear, nose, and throat doctor for Lyme related hearing problems, it might be worthwhile printing out some medical abstracts on the subject and taking those to the appointment. If a doctor knows nothing and is offended by your collection of information, this is probably not going to be a very helpful doc. Reaction to a collection of abstracts might just be the best way to quickly determine attitudes, and help you find a good doctor.
To print out a listing of medical abstracts: go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi, then in the search box, type in lyme + hearing. It will bring up two pages of abstracts.
(Printed in Spotlight on Lyme, a patient newsletter, several years ago.)
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
yes
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