TMJ Disorders and Meniere's

There are claims going around claiming the effects of TMJ Disorders (the weird joint at the top if your jaw that pops in and out, right next to your ears) and that of Meniere's. I went to consult a holistic dentist recently to discuss the impact of my jaw alignment, and yes it is significantly out. I've also been very consciously trying to relax my jaw muscles - and I am very sure after weeks of training, I am beginning to get somewhere.

I don't sleep particularly well, so I am very conscious at night if I am clenching. Though I can tell there is a strong correlation between stress and late night work, or excitement against grinding and even clenching my teeth - it is a habit I'm starting to break.

One thing I wanted to discuss is statistics posted in pubmed. This pubmed article discusses the aspect of Meniere's against TMJ and Cervical Spine misalignment. If you look at the article, it states that a very large percentage, 24 out of 31 patients had improvements over a 3 year period against symptoms of Meniere's. 

Subsequently, Dr Gacek pubmed study shows a 90% control of Meniere's over 211 patients over 8 years. Let me put it this way. Either those 2 statistics show a cross correlation over the 2 components, or, the way I perceive this is many patients have reached burn-out phase during these 3-8 year periods and are into remission for MD.

I had quick correspondent with Dr Daniel Brown of Sydney University, who by the way, is really helpful with advice (thanks Dr Brown, I hope you do well). He pointed out the dangers of following pubmed articles, which I have been warned before by my R&D friends, especially with regards to Meniere's treatment. As he was intending to begin a double blind study on Anti-virals for Meniere's patients - which for whatever reason didn't fly - he did state that he estimates that 40% of MD sufferers would benefit from taking Anti-virals.

Without confirming the reasons for his conclusion, I can only speculate he must strongly agree with the findings of various prior Dr's on dissection cadavers of Meniere's patients - there is strong suggestion that various viral proteins, including those of HSV-1 is observed in the Vestibular ganglia of the patient. The question is, why does it flare up from time to time, creating this inflammatory mess we have to deal with whilst others are dormant?

Will you take Anti-Virals such as Valtrex for the rest of your life to control Meniere's flare up?