Meniere’s

Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Healing Meniere’s Disease

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People usually don’t mind being disturbed by dizziness slightly or considerably. Only when it attacks frequently and prevents them from work, will they see a doctor but never ask the reason, merely taking some relievers instead. Some persons visited a family doctor or specialist for dizziness and knew that they were suffering from Meniere’s disease. However, some of them were told that this disease would accompany them lifelong. Meniere’s disease is called auditory vertigo by a doctor of TCM (traditional Chinese medicine). In fact, China has several-thousand years of history in using Chinese medicine to cure auditory vertigo; their healing records were traced back to the beginning of recorded history. With Chinese medicine and acupuncture, Meniere’s disease will be away from the sufferers 5 or even 10 years, that is really a good new for the patients.

Meniere’s disease, or Ménière’s symptoms, endolymphatic hydrops, is an abnormality within the inner ear because an increase in volume and pressure of the endolymph of the inner ear. Endolymph is a fluid moving in the membranous labyrinth or semicircular canals within the bony labyrinth inside the inner ear. Changes in the volume of the endolymph fluid, or swelling or rupture of the membranous labyrinth, may cause Ménière’s symptoms. Meniere’s disease is characterized by severe dizziness or vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and the sensation of pain or pressure in the affected ear. The symptoms of Ménière’s are varying; not all sufferers have the same symptoms.

Possible causes of Ménière’s disease are:
  1. Internal cochlea microcirculation dysfunction induced by predisposing causes tissue anoxia of membranous labyrinth, metabolic disorder, and high osmotic pressure of endolymph, which lead to hydrops of membranous labyrinth
  2. Endolymphatic fluid bursts from its normal channels in the ear and flows into other areas causing damage related to swelling of the endolymphatic sac or other issues in the vestibular system of the inner ear.
  3. A significant increase in the number of CD4 cells in the blood of patients having an acute attack of Ménière’s disease. CD4 cells, a subtype of T cells, are produced in the thymus gland and regulate the immune system’s response to infected or malignant cells.
  4. Excessive levels of potassium in the body, a consequence of the consumption of potassium rich foods, may also worsen Ménière’s symptoms.
  5. Some researchers believe that Ménière’s disease is related to viral infection, endocrine dysfunction, vegetative nerve dysfunction, etc.

Ménière’s disease usually starts between the ages of 30 and 60 years, affecting men and women in equal numbers. Symptoms appear suddenly, last up to several hours, and can happen daily or once a year. Typical attacks include vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss, but some individuals with Ménière’s may show a single symptom, like an occasional bout of insignificant dizziness or periodic, strong ringing in the ear. An attack of severe vertigo can force the patients to have to sit or lie down, which is accompanied by headache, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Hearing tends to recover between attacks, but gets worse gradually over time. Standard treatments for Meniere’s disease are dehydrant, antihistamine, sedative, etc., even surgery when the syndromes get worse.

Traditional Chinese medicine attributes Meniere’s disease to these five causes: retention of turbid phlegm, cold phlegm invading head, hyper-yang of liver, insufficiency of spinal marrow, and insufficiency of splenogastric qi.

I have over 25 years of experience in healing Meniere’s disease. My distinctive and effective way is based on the therapy with syndrome differentiation of traditional Chinese medicine. The advantage of that is that after Meniere’s sufferers receive my Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture treatment, their syndromes won’t reoccur often as before — they will be away from the sufferers in 5 or even 10 years, that is highly praised by my patients. My patient, Mr. Bled, 40, was a music composer, who had suffered from a hearing loss in his right ear at age of 7–8 due to ear inflammation.

About 10 years ago, he started dizziness and vertigo frequently, sometimes better sometimes worse. In recent years, those syndromes exacerbated making him unable to stand when he was teaching. As his left ear underwent swelling and ringing, he was scared of a hearing loss in his left ear, which would ruin his career. He tried every means although his physician told him no cure to his problems. Introduced by one of my patients, whose acne was healed by my treatment, Mr. Bled came to me for help. After more than 10 times of treatments, his over 10 years of dizziness and vertigo disappeared. He was pleased to tell everyone he met that he only believed Chinese medicine and acupuncture and Dr. Lu. Thereafter, he delightedly showed me his music concert photo in newspaper.