Deafness
Shortly after this relief from deafness,
I had a case of heart trouble which was not improving. I
examined the spine and found a displaced vertebrae pressing
against the nerves which innervate the heart. I adjusted
the vertebra and gave immediate relief -- nothing ‘accidental’ or ‘crude’ about
this. Then I began to reason that if two diseases, so dissimilar
as deafness and heart trouble, came from impingement, a pressure
on nerves, were not other diseases due to a similar cause?
D.D.
Palmer, The Chiropractors Adjuster. Portland Printing House,
Portland, Oregon, 1910
There is no doubt in the mind of at least
one of the authors that dysfunction in the joints in the upper
thoracic spine can affect the function of the inner ear, presumably
by way of its sympathetic innervation.
Bourdillon JF, Day EA,
Bookhout MR. Spinal Manipulation. Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd.,
Oxford, 1992.
Horsturz und kraniozervikaler ubergang (Sudden
deafness and craniocervical junction) Hormann K, Weh L, Fritz
W, Borner U Laryngo-Rhino-Otol 68 (1989) 4546-461.
From the
abstract:
Morphological alterations of the craniocervical junction
as a basilar impression, a ponticulus posterior, an atlas
assimilation, an intervertebral narrowing, and spondylosis
deformans were found radiologically…
There was a statistically
significant reduced mobility in the upper cervical spine in
patients suffering from sudden deafness. Especially very high
standard deviations in the atlanto-occipital and the atlanto-dental
joint are interpreted as hypermobile as well as hypomobile
atlas joints. These results indicate a correlation between
sudden deafness and functional pathology of the craniocervical
junction.
Migraine as a cause of sudden hearing loss. Headache,
1996;36:24-28. Virre ES, Baloh RW.
This review by Drs. Masarsky
and Weber in Neurological Fitness, Vol. VI No.1 discusses that
about one person in a thousand each year are victims of permanent
sudden hearing loss (SHL):
If Drs. Virre and Baloh are correct
in their conclusion that SHL can be associated with migraine,
the two conditions should share a common neurophypathophysiology.
From a chiropractic point of view, VSC involving the cervicothoracic
junction could be expected to disturb [the stellate ganglion
- associated with migraine] directly, while VSC involving the
upper thoracic spine could disturb it indirectly. Recent chiropractic
studies have indicated that cervicothoracic adjustments can
benefit both pediatric and adult migraine sufferers, lending
further support to the migraine-stellate relationship.
Copyright
2004 Koren Publications, Inc. & Tedd Koren,
D.C.