Feeling Better: More Sleep?

Because of my home-based job, in the UK I had to get up at 06:30 every morning and start work. Despite this, I'd usually be up after midnight and the net effect of this was that I got about six hours sleep every night. It seemed like enough.

After arriving in Korea the jet-lag hit and although I went out every day, there was a lot of sleeping at odd hours of the day for a few days until my body adjusted. I still work to UK hours, which means I stay up now until 2am, but since there's no pressing reason to wake up early, until recently I've been getting out of bed around 10 o'clock. So in Korea, the amount of sleep I've got has increased, probably by at least an hour and maybe by as much as two.

I don't know if this has contributed to the improvement in my Meniere's symptoms, or whether it's any of the other reasons I've cited, or a combination thereof. But in the two years I've suffered from the illness, I've never gone from such a bad period to such a good one so distinctly, and it makes me feel like something changed, and there must be a cause.

Of course, it's possible it was just coincidence, and that even if I'd stayed in the UK I was destined to go through this good period anyway, though it seems unlikely.

Feeling Better: A Change of Diet?

In the latter stages of my time in the UK I started trying to monitor my sodium intake quiet closely, but I don't think it was terribly successful because it was such an admin overhead. I guess you could say that my diet was typically Western, with too much junk food and not enough fruit and vegetables - I averaged about three portions a day instead of the recommended five.

I've found that Koreans like putting a lot of salt in many of their dishes, but I quickly taught my host family not to do this when they cooked for me. It's possible then, that my sodium intake has reduced considerably, but I have no practical way of effectively measuring this. Inevitably, my diet has switched to a more rice and noodle based one, which perhaps was more healthy anyway. I still don't think I'm eating enough fruit and vegetables though.

Feeling Better: More Exercise/Activity?

Since arriving in Korea, there haven't been many days I've been stuck at home in my apartment. In fact, most days I've been out for at least a few hours, if not longer, rushing around from district to district in the large city of Busan. I've hiked up one mountain, but aside from this there hasn't been much physical exertion, but there has been an awful lot of walking around. This is much more exercise than I got in the UK, especially considering that since developing Meniere's, I've spent a lot of days housebound because I felt too ill to risk going out.

And therein lies another possible Catch-22 situation. Since arriving in Korea, I was determined to go out as much as possible, and not spend my time in the country stuck inside. Did I end up feeling better because I pushed myself, and took the risk of having an attack in public, which I worked so hard to avoid back home? If that's the case it suggests that I shouldn't surrender to the days when I wake up feeling rough, but just go out anyway and take my chances. I suppose that's what I've been doing anyway, but whether it's coincidence or not I just don't know.

Feeling Better: Reduced Stress?

I thought it worth going into a little detail on the possible reasons I have been feeling better in the last three months.

While being in a foreign country where you don't speak the language carries its own stresses, it's nothing like being somewhere where you are ill but still the primary breadwinner of the family, dealing with all of the household's administration and dealings with the authorities as I was. And although I still try and do some work and earn some money, it's nothing like the way it was back home, so I feel like my stress levels have reduced considerably.

In the past I've found stress and Meniere's, for which I think there is some medical evidence to demonstrate a causal relationship, is actually symbiotic. In other words, Meniere's symptoms cause stress, and stress contributes to the symptoms of Meniere's. So, it's a Catch-22 situation where it's easy to end up in a downwards spiral of health - and I certainly feel like I've been there.

I don't think the solution is as simple as taking a holiday though. I know many of the reasons for my stress over the last few years in the UK were the kind of things that would still have plagued my mind even when taking a break. I suppose that's part of my character - other people may be able to better compartmentalise their problems and benefit from time away from them.

Shutting down my company, my house and to a large extent my life in the UK greatly reduced my stress levels, but it was only by making substantive changes in my life that I was able to accomplish this.

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

It's been some time since I updated this blog, and in large part it's been down to a remarkable turnaround in my health since arriving in Korea. Prior to my move, I'd spent three quite poor months with Meniere's, suffering from a near-constant feeling of imbalance and dizziness, although I managed to avoid outright vertigo attacks on the whole. Even so, faced with a choice of vertigo attacks interspersed with good health, versus no attacks but constantly feeling like I was mildly drunk, I'm not sure which is worse.

Just before coming to Korea, and increasingly worried about the thirty-hour journey I would be making to get here, I went back to my doctor and got a four-month supply of 16mg Betahistine tablets, which I started taking immediately. I didn't notice any immediate difference, but with the considerable stress of emptying my house in the UK followed by my long trip and jet-lag, I probably wasn't going to feel very healthy even if I didn't have Meniere's. But within a few days of landing, I started to feel much better.

I've now been in Korea for three months, and aside from two minor vertigo attacks I've had a lot of 'perfect' days where I didn't feel any effects of Meniere's at all. I went through a couple of similar good patches in the UK which probably lasted two or three months each, but it has been several months since the last one.

But is it the Betahistine? I think I've read that in the US, where it's commonly known as Serc, they believe it ineffective for Meniere's and won't prescribe it. I don't think the doctors in the UK are that convinced either, although they do at least let patients take it. It's possible that the sudden turnaround in my health could be one of a number of other factors including reduced stress, more actvity/exercise, a change of diet, and more sleep, which I seem to have had since arriving here.