Tinnitus, vertigo, hearing loss, Meniere's: your doctors could help you, if they want!


Tinnitus (noise in the ear), hearing loss, recurrent dizziness (vertigo) or subjective loss of balance, ear pressure or blocked ear (fullness). All these disorders can be caused by a treatable and reversible dysfunction in the inner ear, created by the increase of inner ear fluids (hydrops), exerting excessive pressure or stimulation of cochlear cells and / or vestibular receptors. Therefore, the underlying cause is not always (or not only) a permanent damage that, anyway, can never be proved. Only when the patient is affected by each of these symptoms we can use the definition of Meniere's Disease or Syndrome. But hydrops and Meniere's Disease are not synonyms...


The main goal of the international version of my website is to spread knowledge about hydrops and its treatment, and to assist colleagues of other countries to help their patients. But I can even offer my direct assistance by means of video consultation via Skype or whatsapp. I speak fluently Italian, English, French, Spanish and Russian (and many other languages at lesser level) so I can easily offer consultations  in one of them, hoping it's enough :-). First consultation for foreigner patients, not living in Italy and not linked to Italy in any way  is free (costless). For more information please click on the button to access to booking info page.

Language is not a problem for me, but if you are reading this page instead of the Italian full web site, it could be a limit for you. In the Italian version there is a lot of information, including videos, while this page in English offers a more synthetic content. I will try to do my best to translate as much as I can in as many languages as possible, but probably I won't be able to offer the same level of information already available now in my native language web site. You can anyway access the full Italian version and get an automated translated version with Google Translate.

Su cellulare o tablet il caricamento potrebbe essere lento e i pulsanti meno sensibili. Attendere il caricamento completo delle pagine.

This site is about..
Inner ear hydrops
Vertigo and dizziness
Ear and hearing
Meniere's Disease

It's always the inner ear


From the anatomical point of view, the ear can be subdivided into three parts, the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. All three sectors are involved in the auditory function, but only the inner ear (cochlea) or the acoustic nerve connecting the ear to the brain can cause sensorineural hearing loss or tinnitus. And only in the inner ear (labyrinth) there are vestibular receptors able to cause vertigo, dizziness or subjective balance disorders.


Look my video (with audio in Italian but with subtitles also in English), to better understand the anatomy and the physiology of the ear.

Cells, nerves and fluids


Have you seen the video? Let's look inside the inner ear. What do we have in the inner ear? Only cells (hair cells in the cochlea and cells of the vestibular receptors in the vestibular part of the inner ear), nerve fibers (auditory nerve and vestibular nerve), and fluids (perilymph and endolymph). But knowing the biology of the inner ear cells (that are modified neurons) and nerves, we can be sure that a damage of cells or nerves would be always permanent and untreatable. Neurons and cochlear cells can not regenerate after a damage and they can not be repaired. 
Therefore, we can be sure that recurrent or fluctuating symptoms can NEVER arise from a cellular or neural damage, but only from a dysfunction created by the fluids (hydrops). This is the case of recurrent vertigo, fluctuating tinnitus or fluctuating hearing loss. But a persistent hydrops can be even the underlying cause of a non fluctuating tinnitus or cause a permanent (but reversible with the proper treatment) sensorineural hearing loss. 

inner ear and Hydrops


"Inner ear hydrops" means a condition of increased fluid volume in the inner ear. This is the well-known pathologic situation giving the Meniere's Disease and proven and studied for many years, although the primary causes leading the development of the hydrops remain unclear. 

This increased pressure can affect cochlear cells and vestibular receptors, thus creating different combinations of hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, balance disorders, subjective fullness. This condition is much more frequent than what is believed and it's underestimated, thinking about it only when every symptom is shown (in a typical Meniere's Syndrome). The increased inner ear fluid can lead to one single symptom (e.g. only tinnitus without hearing loss or vertigo, or only vertigo or dizziness without any cochlear symptom, etc..), different combinations of different symptoms, or even remain asymptomatic. Hydrops is the only treatable condition in the inner ear , considering that cellular or nerve damage could never be repaired.

In A you can see a section of a normal cochlea, in B a cochlea with hydrops.

Hydrops and ADH


The exact mechanisms regulating the amount of liquid necessary for the performance of cochlear function (hearing) and vestibular function (balance) are not yet fully understood, but what we know is enough to be able to propose a treatment against the misregulation of the inner ear fluids (hydrops). We know that an important role is played by the interaction between the antidiuretic hormone (ADH, also known as vasopressin) and specific hormonal receptors and specific water channels (aquaporins) have been identified in the inner ear already 20 years ago. The release of the stimulating hormone, mainly activated by any kind of stress (not just psychological) and the lack of free water, and its interaction with the inner ear, are the main target of my treatment. 

The relationship between ADH, and the inner ear and the hydrops is reported by a lot of scientific papers for many years, and this is the main point of attack of the treatment I have conceived against the hydrops, but it seems to be totally ignored by otolaryngologists and audiologists worldwide and, as I know, nobody else has developed a treatment based on ADH - inner ear relationship. Here is a short list (scroll it) of scientific articles about ADH (vasopressin), Meniere's Disease Hydrops and Ear. But there are many more.

And what is really weird is that there is a drug, TOLVAPTAN (brand name SAMSCA, produced by Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Japan), that could be very useful  being a selective antagonist of the V2 ADH-receptors, but prcatically it's not available and can not be prescribed for these ear disorders.

I have even tried to contact Otsuka, to understand why nobody used it for Meniere's Disease or Endolymphatic Hydrops, despite a lot of studies. But they seem not even know anything about. So I've tried to contact at least 50 main University centers in Europe, USA and Japan, to do something together and "push" new researches, but it seems that nobody cares about this topic.

Tinnitus and Inner Ear Hydrops


In most cases, tinnitus comes from hydrops and can be treated, despite the absurd frequent diagnosis of permanent damage, given by many specialists, without any proof of this alleged damage.

"Real" tinnitus (which are not real sounds or noises, produced by an actual sound source, but only bioelectric signals arriving at the acoustic area of ​​the brain) originates from dysfunction of the inner ear and the auditory apparatus, often reversible and treatable, when the cause is the hydrops.

Every tinnitus, fluctuating or not, is potentially a consequence of inner ear hydrops that is a treatable condition of the inner ear (And that is ALWAYS true if tinnitus is fluctuating but VERY OFTEN true even in case of stationary, not fluctuating tinnitus), providing an adequate, real, anti-hydrops therapy. But certainly this outcome can not be achieved with the many "false therapies" offered today. Even the so called "pulsatile tinnitus" , that actually is not a "tinnitus" at all, but the perception of the own heartbeat, can be treated.

Recurrent Vertigo, Dizziness and Inner Ear Hydrops


The annoying feeling of subjective imbalance (dizziness) and all the recurrent attacks of vertigo are always due to hydrops and can always be treated, without exception.

All recurrent or chronic vertigo syndromes, including those traditionally attributed to other causes, or subjective dizziness, with a more or less constant perception of imbalance, which generally remain without any diagnosis and without real therapies, always com from alterations at the level of the labyrinth (inner ear) and always from the hydromechanical action of labyrinthine liquids (hydrops), and not from permanent irreversible damage that at most can generate a single major acute crisis (labyrinthitis) followed by a real  and persistent loss of balance which needs time to recover . Recurrent vertigo crises and dizziness are therefore always hydrops and can always be need without the need for destructive procedures. Although the theory of cupololithiasis and the wandering otoliths in the labyrinth is fascinating, even the so called "paroxysmal positional vertigo (VPPB)" actually is a disorders coming from hydrops.

Hearing Loss, Ear Fullness, and Hydrops

Sensorineural hearing loss is the term used for every hearing loss originated from an inner ear disfunction. Usually patients are told there's no other solution except to buy  expensive hearing aids and that a cure is not possible being impossible to recover permanent hair cells damage (and that is true!)., But many  cases if not the most part of inner ear hearing losses are actually due in part or in whole to hydrops and are therefore reversible and treatable.

The sensation of closed ear or pressure in the ear (so called "ear fullness") is instead a purely mechanical phenomenon, which could be associated associated with hearing loss or with normal hearing. It is usually the direct expression of the pressure exerted by the excess of fluids, although it is too often misdiagnosed as an inexistent middle ear effusion.

The treatment against hydrops. How it works and what it can do?

The multi-staged treatment I have created against hydrops comes from the synergistic association, in multiple stages, of various pharmacological and non-pharmacological components. It is effective in reducing the excess of fluid in the inner ear, mainly (but not only) by creating a specific antagonism against the action of antidiuretic hormone (ADH), their primary regulator. 

ADH is not, apparently, the direct cause of the problem. I mean, hormonal levels at least out of an acute attack of vertigo, seem to be in the range. The development and the maintenance of Hydrops is probably related to a hypersensitivity of the ear to the hormonal stimulus and its fluctuations or a defect in resorption of the excess of fluids produced under the effect of ADH, but not knowing the cause of this presumed hypersensitivity, the only target we have is the production of the hormone and its interaction with the ear.

The non pharmacological components in my treatment are represented by a considerable water load (i.e. plenty of water to drink every day), because water is the main natural inhibitor of antidiuretic hormone; short cycles (10 days) of strict special diet following the provided rules; a pressure treatment to create a back pressure in the inner ear, and, only in selected cases and with the same purpose, sessions of hyperbaric therapy.

Drugs used for the treatment are only medications well known and used at doses practically without side effects. They are drugs active on the neurotransmitters , often but not always needed, and practically without side effects, with the aim of creating a protective umbrella between stress and the production of the hormone ADH; corticosteroids I.M. and orally (short cycles), and an osmotic diuretic, the mannitole, administered I.V. with a particular method. Every component of my treatments acts in a specific key point of the mechanism leading and preserving the hydrops in the inner ear (see the image). But not every component of the treatment is needed for every patient.


As you can see there is nothing really new or strange in my treatment. What works against the hydrops is the combination of many different treatments with different points of action. A therapy with steroids or a diet are ineffective without increasing the water intake. Drugs active on neurotrasmitters and stress regulation are almost never combined by others with other treatments, like water intake, and so on. If a therapy doesn't protect from EVERY possible stimulus on the ADH release and action on the ear, it doesn't work! 

The therapy, effective against the hydrops, can not do anything against any permanent damage already present in the inner ear. This hypothesis (just hypothesis because a permanent damage can never be confirmed for nobody!) must be taken into account, however, only when proposing the treatment for a stationary hearing loss and / or steady, constant, non fluctuating tinnitus or for the constant part of them, if the symptoms, albeit never disappearing, can change their degree. But recurrent or fluctuating tinnitus and / or hearing loss, as well as any type of subjective or objective vertigo or dizziness, and the fullness or pressure in the ear, are always due to the hydrops and can always improve with this treatment, if properly performed, as I have seen in many thousands of patients I have treated. In the italian version of the site there is even a page with a lot of testimonials, also in videos, i.e. patients which wanted to share their positive experience with me and my treatment. But unfortunately they are currently, all only in Italian.


The therapy can "cure", i.e. help the patient recover  partially or totally from his or her disorders, but it can not, however, permanently "heal" the ear, because recurrence after a certain unpredictable period, are still possible. But often the patient is free of symptoms for a long time and any recurrence can be managed easily and quickly knowing how the treatment has to be performed. And the disability coming from the symptoms is totally different when the patient knows already that there is, despite of what everybody told him before, a proper treatment. The first goal of this therapy is anyway to improve the current situation of the patient. And there is no medical (non-surgical) disease that can be cured permanently like for surgical treatments, with the exception of infective childhood diseases leaving a permanent immune defense. This is not, anyway, a life-lasting treatment. Out of the acute phases the patient can stay without any treatment at all, because sometime the benefit of the proper treatment lasts years and there's no need for any restriction therapy just for sporadic and mild symptoms if they even occur.