Xylitol and Meniere's

Discussion in 'Your Living Room' started by Donamo, Jul 7, 2013.

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  1. Donamo

    Donamo Guest

    I have been trying to control my Meniere's for the past year by following the recommendations in the Heal Your Headache book, with pretty good but not perfect success. Usually if my Meniere's goes south it is due to stress. However, for the past month I have been having problems and it is not a particularly stressful time for me.

    I have been using xylitol sweetener for a while as it seemed to me that it would be good for both Meniere's and health in general as it is natural, and has a very low glycemic index of 7.

    Anyway, that led me to do a Google search for "xylitol and Meniere's disease". This brought up a very interesting patent application for a Meniere's treatment. http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20100120712 It's very long but there is quite a bit of information in there for those who have the patience to wade through it.

    Also, its funny how you can pick up other bits of info, like pieces of a puzzle. One of the things in Heal Your Headache is to avoid foods containing Arginine. It was explained either in that book, or somewhere I read, that the herpes virus likes arginine, i.e. it promotes the virus growth. I do avoid such foods and as I said, the diet works for me, however, the antivirals I tried did not do anything for me. I always have found this a bit confusing. However, in that patent article, the word "vasopressin" is used so I typed "define vasopressin" into Google and these came up:

    Vasopressin: A pituitary hormone that acts to promote the retention of water by the kidneys and increase blood pressure.

    Argipressin: Arginine vasopressin, also known as vasopressin, argipressin or antidiuretic hormone, is a neurohypophysial hormone found in most mammals. Its two primary functions are to retain water in the body and to constrict blood vessels

    Well! retain water in the body and to constrict blood vessels is NOT what MDers want to do! So, eating a lot of foods heavy in arginine like nuts and aged meats etc may have the same blood vessel constricting action as caffeine and this explanation to me seems much more likely than the promoting the herpes virus health. Also, as reducing arginine intake is a recommendation for people suffering migraines and now that makes sense too.

    Anyway, just some more interesting info.
     
  2. Intrepid

    Intrepid New Member

    Good post.

    There are so many foods with arginine that are healthy foods: spinach, nuts, some types of fish, egg whites, and many others. If I cut them out, I'd be left with very little to eat and I'd end up malnourished.

    As HYH says, it's a threshold thing. Once the big factors that trigger migraines are under control, it becomes a subjective experience. I know I can't, and don't want to, eliminate all arginine rich foods, so I'm selective.

    Sounds like you may have found yet another trigger for you with xylitol. I think it's a sugar alcohol used in sugar free chewing gum. If I eat more than a stick of gum with xylitol, I get sick.
     
  3. Donamo

    Donamo Guest

    Yes, xylitol actually used to help prevent tooth decay. Some foods have more arginine than others, I just try to avoid the biggies. Boy, I'll be happy if I have found the recent cause of my worsening symptoms! It'll be easy to avoid Xylitol, at least the stuff that comes in a package.

    Here is a copy and paste of a couple of interesting paragraphs from that patent application. Ties in with stress too:

    [0006]Since the 1990s, the presence of water channels was successively confirmed in several organs. In the inner ear having a relatively similar tissue structure to the kidney, the study was developed for elucidation of the mechanisms of water homeostasis, the production and absorption of fluid in inner ear, and the presence of aquaporin (water channel protein) in the inner ear was confirmed (cf. Non-patent Reference 6). Recently, the arginine vasopressin-aquaporin 2 system has widely noticed as the one associated with the water metabolism in the inner ear (cf. Non-patent Reference 7).

    [0007]However, the systemic administration of OPC 31260 as the vasopressin type II receptor antagonist did not reveal the decompression effect on endolymphatic hydrops as originally expected and rather resulted in formation of endolymphatic hydrops in the normal ear (cf. Non-patent Reference 8). This was found to be due to the dehydration caused by the potent diuretic effect, i.e. the increase of arginine vasopressin (AVP) as the antidiuretic hormone (ADH) in plasma. As understood from the above, many trial-and-error investigations have been made up to this time, but none of them led to the successful outcome applicable to the clinical use.

    [0008]It was reported that the AVP level is clinically enhanced at an acute phase in patients with Meniere's disease (cf. Non-patent Reference 9). This result is coincident with an epidemiological fact that Meniere's disease is prevalent under stress. Also, the continuous administration of AVP at 1 mU/kg/minute by the aid of a mini-pump subcutaneously to guinea pigs of normal Prayer's reflex apparently produced endolymphatic hydrops (cf. Non-patent Reference 10). As shown in Table 1 below, the plasma AVP level is elevated in proportion to the administration amount of AVP, whereby the area of scala media is increased histologically (formation of endolymphatic hydrops). When AVP is successively administered at 1 mu/kg the serum AVP level is elevated to several times higher than that of normal human plasma AVP level (nearly equal to the serum AVP level at an acute phase in a patient with Meniere's disease), which is at serious risk (cf. Non-patent Reference 10). For treatment of Meniere's disease, special care is needed not to cause the elevation of the AVP level by stress, dehydration or the like.


    Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20100120712#ixzz2YOQHOwkU
     
  4. james

    james ''Everywhere I go there I am'' GS

    Hey Donamo.
    There are several threads here if you search for Vasopressin. It's one of the many clues in the puzzle that we try to figure out.
     
  5. Intrepid

    Intrepid New Member

    I should cut out nut butters, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. That would be a start. I don't want to ;D

    Are you still dairy, wheat and corn-free?
     
  6. Donamo

    Donamo Guest

    I am wheat, corn, nuts and dried fruit free but not dairy. Why do you think dairy could be a problem?
     
  7. Donamo

    Donamo Guest

    Yes, I see that now, thank you, I was not aware. Of course many of the threads have gaping holes in them where SS was ghosted. :)
     
  8. Intrepid

    Intrepid New Member

    I haven't eaten any dairy product in over a year. I didn't have overt reactions to it but when I got off it, I felt so much better. It is a MAV trigger for me as is soy.
     

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