Hearing Problems
Dealing with hearing loss can mean much more than just resigning yourself to wearing a hearing aid or accepting hearing loss as a sign of aging. There are things that can be done to reverse or prevent hearing loss, which may not be related to anything wrong with your ears themselves.
The importance of being well-adjustedThe vertebra at the top of the spinal column, called C1 or the atlas, contains the cranial nerves that serve the ears. If your neck is misaligned, such as with whiplash, and that vertebra is out of place, your hearing may be affected. The remedy for this misalignment is chiropractic or osteopathic adjustment. In fact, the practice of chiropractic was born over 100 years ago when D. D. Palmer noticed that a janitor with hearing loss had a lump between his shoulders. He pushed the vertebra back into place and the janitor’s hearing was mostly restored. That approach still works.
If your head is too far forward, this can compress the ear canals, leading to loss of hearing. A head that is too far forward also usually means that C1 is out of place, which constricts blood flow and nervous system signals to the ears. Chiropractic and related exercises can help with this, and the correction of this forward thrust can have benefits to the body beyond just restoring hearing.
Poor lymphatic circulation leads to poor fluid drainage from the head and neck, and the buildup of stagnant fluid in the middle ear. This fluid is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Craniosacral manipulation can get the fluid moving as it should.
The ear itself can be adjusted by pulling on the lobe. This can open up the ear canal if it is blocked. Although you can try this yourself, it would be better to have it done by someone who knows how and where to pull.
Is the problem in your mouth?
Problems with your teeth can contribute to hearing loss, especially infection that can travel towards the ears, or voltage from metal in the teeth.
TMJ dysfunction (TMJD), in which the two halves of the jaw don’t come together properly, can affect the ears. The popping or clicking that commonly accompanies TMJD is an example of the connection between the jaw and the nearby ears. Other symptoms of TMJD related to the ears and hearing include pain in the ears, a grating sound when chewing, or pressure or blockage in the ears. Correction of the TMJD by a knowledgeable dentist can potentially help ear and hearing problems.
Toxins and medications
Toxins of various kinds can directly affect hearing. In addition, by causing contraction of the meningeal system around the brain and spinal cord, they can pull your neck out of alignment as discussed above.
Smoking and exposure to smoke can contribute to hearing loss. It was found that smokers were more than twice as likely as nonsmokers to have hearing loss. The mechanism of action may be smoke’s toxicity to inner ear cells, or a constriction of blood flow to the inner ear. If you smoke or live with someone who does, quitting or getting away from the smoke might help your ears to heal.
Some drugs, especially some antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, and diuretics, have hearing loss as a side effect. If your hearing problems began around the time a new drug was started, speak with your doctor about a possible correlation and adjustment of your medication.
Although certain very strong and specialized antibiotics can cause permanent hearing loss in themselves, almost any antibiotic can have a negative effect on hearing. When you take antibiotics, they kill the good bacteria in the digestive tract. Nerves in the intestine become stressed, which throws out the lower back, and the upper part of body becomes misaligned to compensate
Noise
Loud noise, whether from one sudden very loud exposure such as an explosion or decades of attending rock concerts or wearing high-volume headphones, is a common cause of hearing loss, which might show up decades later. Repeated or very loud noise damages the fine hairlike structures in the ear which convey sound signals to the brain.
Ear infection
Ear infections, especially if frequent or untreated, can lead to hearing loss. The most common cause of ear infections is dietary. Many parents of children who have frequent ear infections find that if they eliminate dairy products, the ear infections become much less frequent. The association with dairy might be both milk allergy and dairy-associated mucus production. Wheat allergy is also a common cause of frequent ear infections, and eliminating sugar as well as milk and wheat can help.
Although ear infections are usually attributed to bacteria, microorganisms such as roundworm and yeast can also contribute.
Antibiotics, which are the usual treatment of ear infections, can cause ongoing hearing problems, as discussed above. And while they kill the bacteria that are the immediate cause of the infection, they do nothing against roundworms and can worsen the yeast.
What you can do
Apart from avoiding the causes of hearing loss in the first place, there are things that you can do that could help.
Warm oil, especially infused with the herb mullein, can help with hearing loss, and can also soften impacted earwax which can itself cause hearing loss. Warm oil, with or without mullein, has long been a folk remedy for earache and ear infection, especially in the days before antibiotics.
Deficiency of some nutrients, especially vitamin A and the minerals magnesium, manganese, and zinc, can lead to some cases of reversible hearing loss. It is better, though, to have your nutrient status examined by a CAM practitioner rather than simply taking supplements. Vitamin A especially can be toxic in excess.
Above all, though, keep in mind that your hearing loss might well be reversible. Speak to a practitioner at CAM to see what your options are.
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