Meniere's Disease.

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Location
Kent UK
Hi, I have recently been diagnosed with Meniere's disease, I wan to know if I will still be able to dive? My vertigo and tinnitus are controlled with medication...and my deafness only becomes profound if my husband is nagging me!! In all serious I will be devastated if it wills prevent me from diving..I have not attempted it since being diagnosed.

Ménière's disease is a rare disorder that affects the inner ear. It can cause
vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and a feeling of pressure deep inside the ear.
 
Last edited:
I have a friend who was diagnosed and frequently passed out. Don't know what triggered it or what precipitated it.
 
I have a friend who used to dive quite a bit and was diagnosed with Menieres disease. As the it progressed she started experiencing severe vertigo on dives. She doesn't dive much anymore, because of the vertigo. I'm not sure anyone has ever told her she couldn't, but it's not as enjoyable for her anymore.
 
My wife has had Meniere's for a long time, fortunately now under control. When she had episodes of vertigo she could not function at all. The best she could do is lie on the floor with something to throw up in and lie perfectly still. It often took hours for the vertigo to subside. If vertigo isn't part of your Meniere's symptoms than I guess diving should not be a problem. I would tend to stay on the shallow end and always have an informed, prepaired buddy ready to do a rescue.
 
Hi, I have recently been diagnosed with Meniere's disease, I wan to know if I will still be able to dive? My vertigo and tinnitus are controlled with medication...and my deafness only becomes profound if my husband is nagging me!! In all serious I will be devastated if it wills prevent me from diving..I have not attempted it since being diagnosed.

Ménière's disease is a rare disorder that affects the inner ear. It can cause
vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and a feeling of pressure deep inside the ear.

I have severe problems and incipient vertigo. Caused by an explosion in Vietnam. Both drums blown out and have a prosthesis in the left ear. Straight connection between the eardrum and oval window. 34 reconstructive surgeries and always have a pinhole in the left eardrum. I can mitigate the pinhole.

Depends on how you handle it. If you have trained yourself (or will have too) to believe your eyes rather than your ears, you will be fine. Don't forget that you may driving and get hit. I have had some bad rushes brought on by the inertia. The tinnitus is no big deal, just bothersome. If your eardrums are intact and you can equalize, there again no problem. Sometimes really clear water can give you an enhanced "giddy" feeling and the sensation of "flying is more pronounced. Just makes my dives more thrilling, especially drifting or in springs. I would not recommend next to zero visibility dives since you also run the chance of ramping up the fear factor if you get hit with the vertigo too. Night dives are fine, just shine your light around to orient yourself. Mid ocean drift dives can be tricky, but you still have the bubbles and the SMB line to reference.

By the way, if you are treating the vertigo with Valium, ask for something else because it will cause mood swings. You could be Superman one minute and Minnie mouse the next. It can also cause dependency.

Now after saying all that, I have been 40+ years diving with this issue and it has become second nature. This is new to you and I remember with great apprehension and care resuming diving and driving. Everyone of course handles things in their own way. It will take discipline and courage to resume... since even the boat ride can screw you up before you even get to the dive site. I'm not even going to address the medical aspect, that is best left to your doctor, but you should seek advice from a specialist in diving medicine.

My doctor used to dive (recreational) but he is a couple of years older than me and now thinks he is too old. He tells me to stay out of the water, I don't and when I have another issue, I show up, tell it is broke again and fix it. I guess there is an upside... there is nothing like a fast downhill ski with hard turns and a little airtime while getting that vertigo rush!!!
 
I was diagnosed with Meniere's many years ago. I have had bouts of vertigo that last well over 6 months or more. Mine were brought on by triggers such as stress, water retention, and probably other stuff. It's horrible and if you have never experienced this you have no idea what its like. I was afraid to go anywhere or do anything for a long period of time for fear of being stuck and unable to get home. One morning I woke up in bed and the room was tilting and I threw myself out of bed on to the floor. Not a fun experience but all I did was open my eyes to bring it on. Not only does it cause vertigo and tinnitus but will make you very foggy because your brain is working overtime trying to figure out your balance issue.

I cut out as much salt as possible from my diet, took diuretics for awhile as well as valium, antivert (bonine) and anything else that would help. Figure out your triggers if you have them. Try Physical Therapy as there are doctors who can help with this. I know if I was to have an episode now I would stop diving until it went away. Since I have been diving my left ear has lost a bit of hearing but lucky for me no vertigo for at least 8 years now.
I could not imagine having a bout of vertigo that severe underwater and hope I never do. You need to decide whats best for you based on how severe your symptoms are.
 
I don't know what the volume shifts associated with diving would do to someone with Meniere's -- the mainstay of therapy is diuretics, but how quickly the centralization of blood volume would lead to increased fluid in the inner ear is something I don't know, and you might want to PM doctormike here on SB and ask him -- he's an ENT doc.

I will address the issue of vertigo underwater, and that is because I have suffered from it myself. It is EXTREMELY disorienting and can lead to loss of buoyancy control. If you dive where you always have a very good visual reference, you can suppress it to a degree, but in low viz, it's debilitating. If I were you, assuming you get medical clearance to dive, I'd make at least my first few dives in good viz, and preferably shore dives where no direct ascent is required, or at worst, where you are going up a line you can grab if you start to spin.
 

Back
Top Bottom