For four years I tried every recommended treatment for Meniere's symptoms, including allergy immunotherapy shots. Nothing helped the fullness and very loud tinnitus in my left ear. Finally, after doing much online research just out of desperation, I decided to find a good chiropractor that would adjust my upper neck. The first chiropractor I tried didn't seem very knowledgeable about upper neck adjustments or Meniere's. He adjusted my neck while I was sitting up in a chair. So, I decided not to give up on chiropractic and tried another chiropractor who I found out had successfully treated a few other Meniere's patients. He adjusted the vertebrae's in my upper neck (C1 & C2) while I was laying down. This helped me to relax more. Don't expect a quick fix. I have had 12 chiropractic treatments over two and half months and the fullness and ringing in my left ear has improved gradually over that time. I feel most days that I am cured. However, my chiropractor told me that he can't cure my Meniere's disease, but he can relieve me of its symptoms. For now I am going back every ten days and he thinks I will soon be able to have treatments even less often. It's not an inexpensive treatment for Meniere's, but then neither were all the appointments I had with my ear specialist...just so he could once again tell me I had to live with the ear fullness and ringing in my ear. When I told my ear specialist last month how much better I feel since starting chiropractic treatments, he actually said absolutely nothing. Maybe ear specialist don't want their Meniere's patients to try what might really work!
Could be. Could also be that he didn't want to get into a discouraging discussion about the unreliability of anecdotal self-diagnosis and quackery. Not saying either of you are wrong. I be just sayin
^^^^^^^why so negative? Chiropractic is NOT quackery if that's what you are saying. I'm so glad he has found relief which is EXACTLY what we are all looking for in this forum. MY doctor always tells me that if I'm feeling good then continue doing what you are doing.
Quackery may be a strong word, but out of idle curiosity I looked up the definition of, "chiropractic," in Merriam-Webster online. They quote( no, this isn't a direct quote ;D) someone as saying it's the most insured fringe treatment. I am a proponent of chiropractic treatment. Unfortunately, I've never experienced one iota of Meniere's relief. If anyone finds relief from Meniere's from chiropractic treatment, however, I'd encourage them to keep doing what works! We all have to be able to do what works for us, and there is no one right way.
Sometimes, you can get an idea of whether a healer is just throwing spaghetti at the wall or if they have something to offer by the questions you ask and the answers. There is a Chinese doctor in town who does accupuncture and who was my medical doctor whose opinion i respected. So, i called to arrange an appointment. I spoke to the assistant. I asked if the doctor would be able to help me. I told her i was deaf in one ear and had menieres in the other. Without letting me continue, she said that she could perhaps help the deaf ear ... of course, i knew and was trying to tell her that the nerve in that ear was severed, there was not going to be any help for that, that i was only asking about the menieres ear. But she was too busy encouraging me to come in. Now i like to think the doctor would not have acted that way. But i took the assistant as a representative of the doctor. If they are eager to treat but not eager to find out what is going on, if they think their treatment 'might' help 'anything', then they are not the healer for me. You can get a lot of information about someone offering services of any kind by asking questions you already know the answer to and seeing what they tell you, how they approach their fact finding etc.
Chiropractic has been very helpful in my healing. After I started chiro the vomiting stopped with my vertigo. I still had vertigo but much improved without the vomiting! I go about every three weeks now. At this point I have done so many things, and feel so much better, that I can't say how much the chiro helps versus other things. I am quite confident though that it stopped the vomiting. All chiropraters are not created equal. Neither are all doctors.
You are absolutely right on both counts! I thought I experienced relief(back pain)from the first chiro I visited, only to move to another state, find another chiro, and think, "wow, my back could have felt so much better years ago." The first two ENTs I saw were also bad, but again I didn't realize it until I had a new, phenomenal doctor as a comparison.
Chiropractic is not quackery, but some chiropractors are quacks. Same as any other medical profession. Or any profession, for that matter. Op, I'm glad you found relief!
A shot was taken at traditional doctors. A shot was given back. Yet only one person is seen as offensive. This is odd.
I don't think anyone is offended but maybe you got offended at being told that insulting Chiropractic using the word Quackery is wrong. I also see you getting offended thinking a shot was given at traditional doctors which I don't see at all here. Then, you admitted that you gave a shot back............ I find that unnecessary to the purpose of this awesome forum. It was my understanding that here people express their needs and others give answers if they are knowledgeable.
The reason chiropractic works for some Meniere's patients is simple. If you do have either C1 or C2 vertabraes (the top two in your neck) out of proper alignment, having a chiropractor align them makes your sinus passages drain properly. Once the fluid drains from your inner ear, the ringing and fullness calms down and makes the Meniere's symptoms much easier to control. It's not a quick fix, but my chiropractor had me feeling better after two treatments. Also, my vertigo has improved immensely to where I no longer take any medication... I had been on medication daily for four years. And yes, like I said, you have to find a chiropractor that truly knows how to adjust the upper neck. It works much easier if they adjust your neck while you are laying down and not sitting up in a chair. Yes, I agree there are chiropractors that have no clue what they are doing. The first chiropractor I tried was one of them and so I looked for another one. I got frustrated with having the top ear specialist in our state tell me at every visit there's no cure for Meniere's, you'll just have to learn to live with all the symptoms. I decided to be my own health advocate and find the root cause of my misery. So glad I did!
I have 2 friends that have been helped out of menieres symptoms through chiropractic care. There are so many reasons a person can feel the symptoms it only makes sense there are many approaches to feeling better. There are good chiropractors and there are bad ones, there are good conventional doctors and there are bad ones. So many people are quick to condemn a whole profession of alternative health care because of a bad example while they never judge in the same way about wasted unproductive appointments with their conventional doctors, and those happen ALL the time, while they flush useless conventional pharmaceuticals down the toilet. It's a prejudice perpetuated by conventional medicine that doesn't want to lose revenue to alternative options.
The bolded part is patently false and shows a pro-alternative / anti-traditional bias. If you don't think people (both in media and individually) aren't angry about trad med, and voice it all the time, then you aren't paying attention. Neither trad nor alt med gets a break, nor should they. Every institution is built for survival, and survival requires a whole hunk of BS. Your last sentence could easily be inverted and be just as legitimate, i.e. "It's a prejudice perpetuated by alternative medicine that doesn't want to lose revenue to traditional medicine." Whenever one is feeling boastful about any institution or ideology, it's good to remember that 40% of it all is built on deceit. Often well intentioned deceit. I always think back to the great line in that one movie. "They lie to everybody. They lie to the fish." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBy4X2rjF-k
I have a friend who had ONE treatment by a neuromuscular practitioner and her tinnitus was gone. She does not have Meniere's disease though. Just tinnitus.