New To This Condition..help..!!

[sybie3]

Im trying different tablets at the moment but none of them seem to actually take away the dizzy/off balance feeling..does this ever go away with medication,ive been signed off work by my gp for 2 weeks while we sort out which tablets work best...im waiting for my head scan and a referal to ENT...im also struggling with low salt because i always try to eat healthy but low fat foods seem to have more salt content...so ive either got to be unbalanced and fat or skinny and upright....so if anyone has any advice it would be gratefully received...

[Barbara]

Hi Sybie3,
Welcome to the group but sorry you needed to find us.

Low salt diets can be beneficial and I would say for the time being, until you know whether it helps, it would be better to be low salt than low fat. If it doesn't help than you can bin the idea and go back to low fat. Many people reduce caffeine as well but maybe try one at a time to see if there is any effect.

Many of the tablets you may be given to try are more for reducing the nausea related to attacks, stemetil also known in a buccal form called Buccastem is a drug called prochlorperazine and this helps some people. Another common one, and the one I found worked best for me, is called Stugeron and is a drug called cinnazarine.

The tablet usually given for longer term use is Serc, betahistine hydrochloride and this often takes a while to build up in your system before it starts to reduce the attacks.

It is obviously early days and you may have more idea once you have seen a consultant and had a few tests done to see what is going on.

Barbara x

[sybie3]

thanks for replying,ive cut out caffeine im on decaf tea bags and dont drink coffee anyway,although im finding chocolate hard to say no to,the tablets ive been given are the 3 that you mentioned,i had the betahistine Hydrochloride given first but now you've mentioned building up in the system i dont think that i gave them long enough,although i had shortness of breath,heartburn,buzzing in the ear,hearing loss and got very emotional on these tablets so went on to Prochlorperazine then was given Stugeron on friday,thy just knocked me out,im finding working very difficult trialling these tablets,my gp has signed me off for 2 weeks... im not a very patient person,but im hoping that the next 2 weeks will sort out which tablets work best...

[Kath]

Hi Sybie, welcome to the group.

Cinnarizine (stugeron) is one of the most commonly prescribed. Yes, it makes me feel sleepy when I first start taking it but I get used to it and then it doesn't.

Betahistine is also very very effective for some people and not in others. Also some people find that Betahistine dihydrochloride (SERC) works for them but the generic Betahistine hydrochloride does not and then vice versa.[ Folks, correct me if I've got these two the wrong way round] As Barbara says you have to allow for build up of this one.

I just had to use trial and error to work out what helped for me with the diet. I settled for cutting out processed food, crisps, putting salt in vegetable cooking etc. As for chocolate, I just depresed myself by cutting it out. Trying cutting things out one at a time to find out what might be a trigger.

all the best
Kath

[sharon]

Hi Sybie
I didn't find that making changes to my diet made any difference to my MD.
I drink decaff coffee because of migraines and I know I shouldn't eat chocolate because of them too, but I will admit to being rubbish at sticking to that....a bar of galaxy or dairy milk and any good intentions are straight out of the window!!

I agree with Kath, try cutting out one thing at a time and see what happens.