Medication
The two antihistamine medications I was prescribed were generic brands of Antivert or Meclizine and Promethazine. Promethazine made me much less tired than Antivert, but it still made me so tired that I tried to take only half a pill and only when I had attacks. I was prescribed Xanax for panic attacks, which is also an antihistamine. It also seemed to help alleviate my dizziness somewhat as well as my panic attack symptoms.
I also found Sudafed (a non-drowsy decongestant) able to help alleviate some symptoms. I'm pretty sure that the reason I got some relief was because it helped clear my sinuses and eliminate some of the pressure changes to my middle ear. Unfortunately, Sudafed can also cause rapid heart beat in some people including myself. After a rapid heart beat episode that ended in a trip to the emergency room, I stopped using it. Taking regular decongestants can also makes you very tired and over the long term can also cause rapid heart beat, so I don't take them at all any more.
One other medication that was effective for me on occasion was a diuretic. It's used to remove salt (sodium) from the body by causing you to urinate embarrassingly more frequently. Too much salt causes the body to retain fluids, supposedly elevating the fluid level in the middle ear and increasing Meniere's symptoms. Reducing the sodium level in your body is best done by a strict low salt diet (around 1000 mg a day, distributed as evenly as possible over the course of the day), but can often be helped along with a diuretic. I used to take them only when I felt that I had eaten too much salt on a particular day. I believe that while this probably helped to compensate for my poor eating habits, this tactic occasionally caused my fluid level to be too low, causing my Meniere's symptoms to increase as well as constipation. Keeping your fluid level as constant as possible with a low sodium diet goes a long way to helping to relieve the nausea and dizziness of Meniere's disease. Taking diuretics causes some complications because it does cause a few minor problems that you have compensate for. For one, you need to drink plenty of fluids (64 oz of water per day) because you can become dehydrated if you don't. All that water passing through your body also removes potassium that has to be replaced by eating a banana or two a day or by drinking lots of orange juice. Bananas and orange juice are not permitted if you are on a low histamine diet (discussed later on), so I stopped taking diuretics. Diuretics also tend to put more strain on your kidneys than nature intended, so its probably not a good idea to use them as a permanent part of your routine.
Gingko is alleged to have many wonderful affects including giving you increased energy, improving memory and making you feel less dizzy. Gingko essentially increases the adrenaline level in your body for a period of time, which makes you feel temporarily more energetic. You tend to remember events that took place better when your adrenaline level is high, so Gingko can probably improve your ability to form memories. I don't know if you call recall memories faster or more clearly when using Gingko however. Ginkgo did absolutely nothing to help my balance disorder, but did increase the severity and frequency of my panic attacks. I stopped using it immediately.
Garlic isn't really a drug, but I thought I would mention it here anyway. Garlic is alleged to improve your balance if taken regularly. I could never really decide if it worked for me, but it didn't hurt.
