Tinnitus

The types and frequencies of nonmusculoskeletal symptoms reported after chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy. Leboeuf-Yde C, Axen I, Ahlefeldt G, et al. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, Nov/Dec 1999:22(9) 559-64.

Twenty consecutive patients from 87 Swedish chiropractors answered questionnaires on return visits. A total of 1,504 questionnaires were completed and returned. Twenty-three per cent of patients reported improvement in nonmusculoskeletal symptoms, including:

  • Easier to breathe (98 patients)
  • Improved digestive function (92)
  • Clearer/better/sharper vision (49)
  • Improved circulation (34)
  • Less tachycardia (13)
  • Easier to urinate (11)
  • Less ringing in the ears (10)
  • Less frequent urination (9)
  • Acne/eczema better (8)
  • Dysmenorrhoea better (7)
  • Asthma/allergies better (6)
  • Less feeling of pressure in chest (5)
  • Less double heart beats (3)
  • More even pulse (3)
  • Sense of smell heightened (3)
  • Increased libido (2)
  • Less testicular pain (2)
  • More frequent urination (2)
  • Reduced blood pressure (2)
  • Less pain during sex (2)
  • Numbness in tongue gone (1)
  • Hiccups gone (1)
  • Menses function returned (1)
  • Cough disappeared (1)
  • Double vision disappeared (1)
  • Tunnel vision disappeared (1)
  • Less nausea (1)

Spinal/cranial manipulative therapy and tinnitus: a case history. Blum CL Chiropractic Technique, 1998; 10:163-168.

This is the case of a woman who had been exposed to a high-decibel noise at the loading dock at work and was unable to hear anything for about 30 minutes. She later developed “ringing, hissing, buzzing and warbling” sounds.

The medical doctor told her that the sounds would spontaneously resolve in a month’s time but they did not. She then went to an ear-nose-throat specialist who prescribed medications, which did not help. The patient was sleeping no more than two hours per night and experiencing “crying spells” for six hours per day along with unremitting tinnitus along with neck and jaw tension.

Chiropractic care involved SOT protocols for category 2, focusing on a sacroiliac subluxation that correlates with TMJ, cranial and cervical dysfunction.

After approximately 4 months care, she reported a 50% decrease in tinnitus intensity. Sleep and neck/jaw tension has improved. Co-management has now been undertaken with an ENT specialist, a dentist and a psychotherapist.

The influence of atlas therapy on tinnitus. Kaute Bernd B., International Tinnitus Journal Vol, 4, No. 2, 165-167 (1998).

This was a study of 11 patients with whiplash injuries. Seven patients received normalization of vestibular disturbances, three improved and one was unchanged.

From the abstract:

We present questions and thoughts of an outsider on the proprioceptive input of the posterior small cervical muscles to the brainstem as a source of tinnitus. After treatment of whiplash injuries and other muscular conditions with Arlen’s atlas therapy, some patients reported that their tinnitus had abated with the muscular tensions. Atlas therapy has been proven to slacken the muscles and seems to quiet to normal levels of afferent impulses to the brainstem. This has been proven to apply to nystagmus.

Arlen’s atlas therapy involves a high amplitude, low velocity “impulse” to the “wing” of the atlas. “No repositioning of the atlas is involved, as is attempted by chiropractors, even though the impulse has to travel in the direction of the reposition.”

“The therapy influences the brainstem and normalizes a pathological electronystagmogram.”

Copyright 2004 Koren Publications, Inc. & Tedd Koren, D.C.