Some interesting material from Stephen Spring
Backup from here
http://archive.is/m4yUq
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Thanks to Angelea for bringing this to my attention.
Many of you have probably read this, but I wanted to post it for newbies or people with questions about Spring's treatment. It's from a long thread on the MDUK (Meniere's Disease United Kingdom) forum about a year ago. There's a lot of dissension from certain forum members, as there is on our forum--people calling him a charlatan, etc. But keep an open mind and forget that.
I extracted Stephen's comments, which are pretty detailed, and put them into a bulleted list below.
If you want to read the whole thread, I included the link:
Stephen Spring, Meniere’s researcher, Sydney Australia
Comments from thread on the Meniere’s Disease United Kingdom web forum
The entire thread can be accessed at
http://www.mduk.org/index.php?topic=4341.0
• I was once the VP of the Meniere’s Research Fund at Sydney Uni and former sufferer.
I spent 7 years researching the medical literature. In essence, I connected the dots of thousands of research studies to conclude what I have written to you above. MD is an infection with particular characteristics including immune dysfunction. This causes cytokine controlled inflammation cascades that will render the endolymphatic sac inoperable and thus causes the hydrops causing MD symptoms. This mechanism has been, in part, proven recently at Sydney Uni.
My protocol simply addresses the immune dysfunction and the infection and restores normal function. If you are in Sydney, you can get tested at the Sydney Cochlea Implant Centre.
• Md is an infection of the malt, the mucosa associated lymphatic system. The malt is a bit like an immune system within an overall, serum or blood immune system. Malt covers the throat, sinuses, gut, nose, tonsils, vagina etc with a continual mucus blanket, reacting to and washing away, sweeping away, sneezing away, snotting away etc nasty viruses and bugs. One aspect of a very complex chain is that the malt presents fragments of bugs to the serum immune that does a whole bunch of stuff to use that information so specialised immune cells called T cells learn about that particular bug out of millions we live with. This is the basis of vaccination or delayed immune response. If the bug strikes again, the immune system memory kicks in and cells for that bug rapidly multiply and outpace the infection.
The endolymphatic sac controls fluid pressure and volume of one inner ear compartment that connects the cochlea for hearing and semi circular canals for balance and the utricle for acceleration and deacceleartion. The endolymphatic sac is also the immune defence organ of the ear. It is the interface between blood immune system and the malt. To keep it very simple here, the sac stuffs up in md, it can no longer process infection, the fluid swells the compartment. This is hydrops. Unknown reasons for Hydrops is md but pagets, aied, cholesteoma, syphilis, trauma, otitis etc can all cause hydrops, transient or permanent.
Thus, you need to correct the serum immune system which corrects the malt which corrects the hydrops and remove the infection. Up to a point, the sac will repair itself and so symptoms go away. My tinnitus is not complete silence, but close to it for example.
This is all confirmed with tests as everyone has a slightly differing immune profile. A vaccine and antinfectives are used. Chronic infections take a long time to resolve, at least 36-48 weeks.
• The idea of pathogens exploiting weakness in one part of the human immune system is hardly new, AIDS victims don’t die of AIDS. They die because they cannot fight multiple infections. Cystic fibrosis gene defect won’t kill you if you don’t get infections. MD is mainly an acquired immune defect.
• MD is idiopathic hydrops. This is really when, the treating doctor does not know or cannot work out what it is that caused the Hydrops. It does not mean that no one knows or never will. That’s the start point.
Hydrops is a dynamic concept. The endolymphatic sac is a dynamic organ. The entire inner ear is a stable organ with parameters governing fluid control such as volume but it is also dynamic enough so that when under stress conditions, the endolymphatic sac can work and the hearing and balance still functions. Hydrops can be measured and when the hydrops is present and there are symptoms, there are different signals to when there it is not.
Many things can “cause” hydrops, it can be transient or it can eventually become so severe that the inner ear will no longer function. Hydrops for some people is a minor nuisance, for others it’s a permanent and chronic misery.
If the doctor does not go through the known things that can cause hydrops, or does not test for hydrops, or is lazy or other reasons, the patient is left wondering. In other words there are many variables that can contribute to a diagnoses of MD (“You have hydrops I think, but I don’t know what causes it or how to treat it madam and because its idiopathic in my eyes, you have Meniere’s Disease.") This includes the doctor’s attitude, experience and many other factors. It also implies a correct diagnose because the person might have what is termed autoimmune inner ear disease, cholesteoma, sac tumor and others which can cause hydrops too and are treated differently depending on the doctor’s point of view.
Some hydrops is so mild and transient that the patient thinks they can control it with diet. Some doctors and even support groups say salt retains fluid in the inner ear but in reality there is very little evidence for this, but if that gives the person some degree of control (even though it is unlikely to long term, there is nothing wrong thinking it will) it does no harm and gets the patient out the office.
Some people take larger and larger amounts of antihistamines to help themselves and some people simply walk up the treatment ladder to get worse and worse and have surgery.
My work has investigated the immunological basis for hydrops that can arise after a number of common events that lead to it. This is simply another way of looking at hydrops initiation and is something that many doctors do not know how to do. I provide the tools so that doctors and patient can work on the problem together. As is understandable, some doctors will not help and one or two can be hostile, others will help and others are keen to learn more and for some doctors it is waaay above them because its not the specialty. As is also understandable, some people with MD react the same way.
My protocol will not, for instance remove hydrops that is being "fed" with an undetected neuroma. It will not reverse destructive surgery. It will not resurrect hearing when a congenital (unformed sac or valve of Bast for example) or genetic problem (IPEX syndrome or immunoglobulin or complement fixation defect) but it does explain in many cases why someone can be normal one week and chronically ill the next. It is simply another reason to define more finely the nature of hydrops so that its not idiopathic and can be treated correctly and the person not left wondering. MD is idiopathic hydrops. This is really when, the treating doctor does not know or cannot work out what it is that caused the Hydrops. It does not mean that no one knows or never will. That’s the start point.
• As explained above, many foreign-to-the-body proteins (mycoplasama, bacteria, viruses, L-Form cysts etc called antigens) can create hydrops. Hydrops creates the symptoms doctors called MD.
As explained above, the infection is in the MALT. The MALT is a connected to, but distinct part of the immune system. It relies on its antigenic information from the blood and lymphatic system.
Hydrops is a problem of the endolymphatic sac. That organ is defender of the inner ear. When antigens get into the inner ear, it reacts to communicate with the MALT and lymph (that’s why its endoLYMPHATIC) so release antibodies and summons T cells etc and produce inflammation so that the infection can be cleared (see above). It does this with cell to cell communication of messenger proteins and some are called cytokines.
Hydrops is caused by antigens, but which ones? There are thousands of types and thousands of antiifectives. Identification has proved impossible in the living. The difficulty is that the inner ear is TOTALLY INACCESSIBLE AND VERY, VERY SENSITIVE.
Let’s say a female goes to the MALT doctor and says I have a dull ache in my pelvis and my vagina itches and is discharging. The doctor can order imagery of the sore region to detect inflammation, can swab the vaginal wall to send the swab off to culture (to incubate any infection in a broth at a lab and thus identify the infection if there is one) and isolate the part of the MALT that is the problem. The doctor could, after narrowing down the region, use a speculum and knife on a probe to cut a tiny piece of tissue, say at the entrance of the fallopian tube. Then too send if off to be cultured. Out of the hundreds of antibiotics on the market, one can be chosen if it is say, for example, a bacterial infection. No point taking a blood sample because the infection is not in the blood clinically and may be in levels undetectable.
Contrast that to inner ear inflammation/hydrops. If the doctor opens the inner ear in any way, it loses its fluid and goes deaf. No doctor will do that. So they look at the eardrum. If they see no signs of infection, they say you don’t have one. They will not take a swab of anything as you cannot get close to it easily, even via the Eustachian tube, nor do they see any reason to. No point in taking a blood sample, there is no blood borne infection. “Sorry, its idiopathic.”
However, MD (because the endolyphatic sac is the INTERFACE ORGAN FROM THE MALT TO THE BLOOD/LYMPH) leaves a particular basic immunological footprint in blood draw (also in mucus, but that's another story altogether). The blood tests identify that footprint. From the same way an archeologist can tell from a footprint roughly, and sometimes very accurately what species gave rise to it, the same can be said with some types of antigens that can manifest in a cytokine profile from blood tests. In combination with a viral panel and full blood count, it is possible to identify certain infectious elements that can be addressed.
As noted above, none of that means that finding viral particles in inner ears of dead MD'rs prove MD is caused by a virus and antivirals will fix it. As everyone who tries antivirals eventually finds out.