viral panel / immunological approach

Pretty good, Max! I will use that to my extreme advantage.

 

The reason he spent several years living in the US was probably because he was afraid of a fellow Irishman blowing him up in Ireland. Got to love it when someone from any other country with massive problems of its own lectures Americans on how they should be living. BTW, I grew up in the Midwest, and you wouldn't catch me listening to Willie Nelson - LOL!

That's all I'm going to say about that because in my experience trying to have a rational. reasonable discussion with anyone who reads the Democratic Underground is even more pointless than talking to a "tea bagger".

 

What's the democratic underground? It sounds like a radical movement. I don't like anything radical, one side or the other.

 

It's a discussion forum for the left. From my point of view, it tends to be pretty hard left, although there are a few reasonable posters there from what little I have been able to read it. A lot of those people are just seething with hatred, though.

 

I'd have a hot cup O Irish tea with Mr Higgins any day of the week.

 

My experience has been that when one is so radical (be it left or right or in any other way), it's hatred and bias speaking. You can't be an extremist of any sort and be rational.

 

That's interesting - thanks, I didn't know what the forum was - I was just sent it via email as a 'portal' to the Youtube clip of the Irish Prez.

 

I don't know enough about the Irish Prez or his politics to comment beyond the Youtube clip but I didn't get a sene of hatred or bias. Those emotions usually spring from fear or being 'against' something. From what I heard the Irish Prez saying about health care his emotions are passion - passion FOR universal health care and he's coming from a place of deep affection and admiration for the US and the US people.

 

Me too. Australian politicians are generally bland and populist (other than a few exceptions) that it's so refreshing to hear a pollie so genuinely passionate about something as positive as health care for everyone.

 

I meant in general.

 

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea.[1]

Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants, and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898,[2] about 5,000 viruses have been described in detail,[3] although there are millions of different types.[4] Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most abundant type of biological entity.[5][6] The study of viruses is known as virology, a sub-speciality of microbiology.

5,000 viruses!!! I know this isn't just in the human body, but, do I get tested for all of them? Which ONE or TWO or even THREE will tell me about the AIED/MM/MD virus? I'm just another female, I guess, that questions someone who is asking me to do something bordering on the ridiculous - ok, something that is ridiculous without PMing him to ask a little more about where he's coming from or to get a little specific help. I know I'm kinda off topic here but with 45 pages to read (how many there were to read in this topic alone when I came back on line), I still don't know what the next step is. I know of one T-cell virus that I have. There is little information about how that ONE virus affects my whole body - only that there are at least three health issues that may have come from it.

Why are you, Stephen, so reluctant to help us as a unit of people who suffer from the same disorder? I just can't believe it's all about the money...

 

Well, Holly, it is obvious you "don't understand the science," hence your many questions.

Stephen,
How about you provide at least one case study of a Meniere's sufferer following your approach (can be fictitious if you prefer). Let's say he goes to a virologist/immunologist. What specific tests does he get? What are the results (again, make them fictitious)? Then, based on the results, what specific medications does he take?

This is the type of information that will actually help people understand the approach you are taking. Again, I understand it is different for each person. That's why three (or more) case studies would be even more valuable. Why not help people understand what they can actually expect by visiting these specialists, especially considering the fact that the patient will need to be the one explaining what it is he/she wants/expects.

 

I learn something new everyday. Neuroimmunology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroimmunology

 

Thanks, James--nice to see it explained so well.

 

Perhaps looking at this topic of discussion from another angle would put things into perspective.

Our doctors have all told us the same thing: Meniere's disease is an idiopathic condition. There is no cure. The symptoms can be treated with one of any number of treatments which may or may not work. Some people will get better with no treatment at all. Most doctors treat a wide variety of disorders and few are true specialists in Meniere's disease, therefore they probably aren't as well-versed in the current literature as we'd expect them to be. Those that are well-versed and actively involved in Meniere's treatment and research generally run very busy clinics with little time to sit and carry on theorhetical conversations with their patients about the causes and future treatments for the condition.

Some people are satisfied with that or else go on their own search for answers outside mainstream medicine, like many people who frequent this site. Most still end up finding incomplete relief.

Some, like myself, are still interested in what is currently happening in the field of Meniere's study. What are the current working theories out there? Do these support or discredit current treatment protocols? Since it often takes years for theories and experimental treatments to be proven and gain widespread acceptance, I think it's exciting to consider what might be coming down the pipeline.

We'd all like a recipe from Stephen, or anyone else for that matter, to take to our doctors to try, but I think Stephen has said many times and in many different ways that that isn't going to happen because it is not practical. I can see how initially that seemed like an option, but Stephen has since acknowledged that it's not that easy. Nevertheless, the information is still fascinating and worthy of discussion IMHO.

 

Is that the perspective you want to emphasize?

I'm sorry, but for quite a few of us on this forum, the doctors--even the neurotologists specializing in Meniere's--are WRONG.

 

I agree with you. My point is that what our doctors, for the most part, have offered us as an explanation and treatment are inadequate.

The paradigm shift I am talking about for this thread, or conversations like it, is to look at them as an opportunity to learn. What we learn may not always be applicable now, but at the very least it might help us understand what current treatments are probably worthless and why, give us hope for future treatments, and/or help us decide what things that are available to us that might actually help us and why.

 

More accurately then, at least in my own experience, the explanations I have been given by doctors, very good doctors at that, came nowhere close to satisfying my curiosity. NO fault of the doctor necessarily and I could be a better communicator/patient. In my experience, they are inadequate due to time constraints. In order to accomplish all that I have learned in the discourse here and on my own, it would have taken several hours of back and forth communication, questions, clarification, etc. etc.

The first line of treatment for Meniere's seems to still be diuretics and a low salt diet, yet the evidence available to justify this is paltry and it doesn't make sense based on what the current literature seems to be pointing to, does it? ??? What does this practice say about everything to follow? I guess the more I learned, the more suspicious I became about "standard" treatment which prompted me to have more questions...

 

Exactly.

Exciting stuff they are doing, but in your view, will this be another Band Aid or will it end up playing a significant role in controlling vertigo and other symptoms?

 

The doctors who diagnosed me--including a neurotologists who specializes in Meniere's--were wrong. I was told that my only hopes were low-sodium diet, diuretic, prednisone, and intratympanic steroid injections.

They. Were. Wrong.