Артрит – Arthritis

Tinnitus is an internal noise in the ear, generally described as buzzing, whistling, ringing, roaring or hissing. It may be constant or intermittent and is often accompanied by deafness.

It is worthwhile allowing a chiropractor/osteopath to see if your cervical spine is in any way involved. We have had some successes with this condition, especially at the onset of the trouble.

Some years ago, I went through this distressing sensation myself. I was astounded when I discovered that on lying down, I had a most annoying noise inside my head that I couldn’t lose no matter what I did! Several neck treatments later, over a period of six weeks, the noises subsided.

Other causes have proved to be a malocclusion of the jaw and another is a need for cranial adjusting as the temporal suture is stressed. All of these causes are well worth exploring.

Employers are now supplying ear protectors for those people exposed to industrial noise, such as jack hammering, which can bring on the trouble, as can the sound of a close-range gunshot or the noise level of rock concerts .Young people, however, are rarely sensible about protection from the extremely loud popular music today. Nerve damage is permanent and has to be prevented. We must become responsible for looking after ourselves.

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If there is the added complication of brachial neuritis, this is best handled by an adjustment of the joint where the nerve irritation is located, together with localised therapy in the elbow.

Epicondylitis is an inflammation of a part of the elbow. It is not an easy pain to treat as the muscle inserts into the bone (called the humerus) at this point. The fibres are torn at the very part that should be strong to take the weight of lifting.

The injury is best supported by an elastic guard as you seem to bump it at every turn. Certainly I use acupuncture but the therapy takes quite a long time. It requires the co-operation of the patient so that the area does not become aggravated by overuse.

People are so impatient with this injury. Repetitive action can bring it on. The classic case is the tennis coach who says, ‘Right, let’s just work on your backhand.’ Twenty minutes later, pain is a reality. Another cause of this condition is when a player changes the tennis racquet weight without adequate prior strengthening of the forearm muscles. Car mechanics can also get into trouble, as can anyone who does intricate jobs using the forearm muscles in awkward movements. So you see, it is not only suffered by tennis players. Cortisone injection, commonly used, is such a cruel treatment for this condition. Initially, the cause of the pain should be diagnosed. There could be several problems, needing slightly different therapies.

Osteopathic adjustment of any rotated muscles in the forearm can be initiated straight away. Only after therapy is completed do we give strengthening exercises. If exercises are given first, it often prolongs the healing time.

Acupuncture is a gentle start to treatment, and often few visits are needed. Ultrasound is another soothing therapy, popular with my patients over the years. It is a deep heat that comforts and starts healing the torn muscle fibres. By all means use an elastic supporting elbow guard if you insist on using the elbow. But don’t allow this sort of help to delay the correct treatment.

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Such a long word for the jaw! But most joints are named after a combination of the two bones that articulate with each other.The mandible is the jaw bone and the temporal bone is above the ear. Put them together and what have you got? The TMJ.

When we chew, it should be an even action of both sides. Trouble starts when the teeth are out of alignment and don’t sit comfortably on top of each other. It can happen through a fist fight, or a hit on the side of the head in a car accident.

The result of this joint being out of alignment can be devastating. Headaches certainly, a spaced out sensation, memory loss, ‘clicking’ in the jaw, snoring, temporal neuralgia, tinnitus, earache, poor concentration, unexplained eye trouble. Tooth fillings can inexplicably fracture due to the exertion of uneven pressure.

The sight of people putting up with gaps in their teeth gives me the horrors as I imagine what is happening to their mouth and head. The suffering they will go through concerns me greatly as the teeth move and other symptoms develop which are difficult to diagnose.

My advice is to ask your chiropractor to assess your spine. If all is well there, then ask for a referral to a dentist who has done the extra study. Not all of them are skilled in this area. (Beware of the dentist who decides to drill the teeth down instead of building up the opposite side. It can jam the jaw into a worse state.) Sometimes a mouth plate at night is all that is needed. Your chiropractor will refer you to the dentist of his choice, as he needs to work in partnership with him.

Acupuncture relaxes all the muscles in this area, as do hot packs or towels. The joint can be gently adjusted by several techniques simply and speedily. But the expert chiropractor/osteopath needs to assess the TMJ first.

Recently a lady came in with a painful jaw. She had bent over to lift up her three-year-old. He had, in the joyful exuberance of youth, jumped up at the same time and ‘collected’ her on the jaw as perfectly as any boxer. She saw stars and had to sit down with tears in her eyes.

The treatment was simple: adjusting her neck back into alignment and applying dry heat to the jaw before freeing it up. A bit of acupuncture and a lot of sympathy – a similar incident had happened to me when my son was an energetic

two-year-old!

Headaches can occur if you chew on one side of your mouth only, or suffer from a clicky jaw.

Peter’s story-A few year’s ago I began to experience headaches at fairly regular intervals, usually at weekends, and occasionally on Mondays. At first I thought they were just random occurrences and any concern unwarranted. However after several weeks of this, I began to wonder. It was becoming increasingly uncomfortable and I noticed that the headaches were accompanied by neck pain, especially when I bent my head back. The overall feeling was as if someone had hit me on the head with a baseball bat.

Moreover I was also being disturbed by loss of appetite and a feeling of biliousness. On some occasions I was forced to He down and be as still as possible.

I had various tests for failing eyesight, strange lumps in my brain or was it just ingrown toenails? But I was generally pronounced fit with rarely even a cold to complain about, and 20/20 eyesight.

At the time a friend was visiting a chiropractor getting his neck straightened. It sounded like torture but seemed to give him relief from headaches. Stupidly, I just let the message go over my head. I began to get used to having this pain once a week and accepted it, by popping the odd headache tablet.

However, my wife got sick of my moans and groans, and after I started suffering a chronic build-up of stress, finally packed me off to her chiropractor.

Acupuncture immediately relieved my stress and I began telling about my

long-standing headaches. My neck was examined and it was found that the muscles were as stiff as old canvas. They began to loosen up as soon as my neck was adjusted. It made sense that my headaches were due to strained neck muscles as the pain had radiated from there and localised at the left eye.

I also remembered that a few years earlier I’d had several teeth removed from both jaws and these were replaced by plastic teeth. This confirmed that a loss of the ‘true bite’ was responsible initially and that the only permanent cure would be to have the bite corrected.

The chiropractor referred me to a dentist specialising in temporomandibular dysfunction and he gave me the full treatment. He traced the pain areas, and measured my lack of bite in relation to where my teeth were.

He concluded after lots of checks that my mouth was out of ‘whack’ and definitely contributing to the pain. He reset the plastic teeth on my denture and, after remoulding my plate to a more comfortable bite, I noticed that my headaches reduced immediately and soon disappeared altogether.

TEAR DUCT (BLOCKED)-The treatment for this condition doesn’t have to be surgery. Success has been achieved by seeing if there is a neck strain that needs an adjustment. Sometimes the problem can be solved with acupuncture. There is an ear point called ‘internal secretion’ that literally ‘turns off the tap’. It can also be reversed to turn on the tap. People generally wouldn’t think to consult a natural therapist for this condition but often it is the simplest solution.

One lady, treated with this problem, couldn’t believe how much better she felt generally, as well as having her tear duct unblocked in a couple of treatments.

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It should be remembered that sinusitis is only a symptom and that an overview must be obtained. In my experience, often all that’s needed is a neck adjustment, and the sinuses drain immediately. Cranial adjusting (internal mouth adjustments) is often used to free the sinuses and drain the antrums.

Acupuncture is effective for sinusitis using some needles in the ear and around the nose and neck. But eliminating any structural cause is important in the long run. Feel your neck for tenderness or soreness.

Sinusitis attacks can be caused by intolerance to dairy products and wheat breads. Then there is the sinusitis caused by allergic reactions:

There was a case where a man had severe sinusitis after being around glues in his factory. He didn’t have to sell up to solve the problem. We raised his immune response. His successful treatment involved high doses of vitamin A, calcium ascorbate, zinc and the herbs hydrastis, horseradish, fenugreek, and garlic. These were taken for three months and now the aroma of the glues hardly affects him. A low resistance has to be built up slowly.

Another allergenic reaction:

I was surprised once by the case of a lady almost drowning in her own phlegm at night. I tried all I knew. I was baffled. Then she rang and told me that as soon as the doctor changed her high blood pressure tablets, her sinuses dried up overnight!

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It is important to understand that the shoulder is the most mobile of all the joints in our body, but it pays the price by being the easiest to dislocate or sprain. It is really a girdle and it depends on many muscles working together for its stability.

When the shoulder is hurt, it is not a simple task to realign all the soft tissue involved. Chiropractors check for neck faults as the nerves from there supply important muscles and tissue through the shoulder and down the arm. A neck adjustment if needed shortens treatment time considerably.

Many a painful incident can make an amusing story.

I’m thinking of Judy who went up into the roof to haul down a trapped possum. Trying to handle the frightened, aggressive animal, she slipped through the girders of the roof. Her daughter was highly amused at the sight of her mother hanging by the shoulders, feet dangling into the living room below. She pulled her mum out by the arms while breaking up with laughter.

It took several treatments to reposition her painful shoulder muscles, Judy’s husband, although normally a loving man, was not amused by the hole in the ceiling, and had little sympathy for the suffering wife. This was an acute injury that responded well to immediate therapy.

The dangers of delayed treatment.

A sixty-year-old woman, living alone, presented with a painful shoulder that she suffered for nine months, during which time she had been given the best medical care.

First the doctor had given her an anti-inflammatory tablet which she took religiously for weeks even though her stomach had reacted to them. Then she had two months of heat-pack treatments from a physiotherapist. Finally she had visited an orthopaedic specialist who had (thankfully) said that the joint was too bad for an operation.

On assessing her shoulder joint, I was appalled to find that months of futile treatment had allowed her shoulder girdle to waste. The muscles at the front of the shoulder into the ribs were wasted as were those of the shoulder itself, together with the muscles at the back of the rib cage.

She was a dejected mess, physically and psychologically. She couldn’t fasten her bra at the back or lift her arm to comb her hair and it was near impossible to take her dress off over her head. She couldn’t do so many of the little things that make life acceptable. She was depressed and in constant pain.

I assured her that to continue to move the shoulder was important. We started osteopathic treatment which meant encouraging blood flow to all the muscle fibres between the ribs and down the arm.

All the neck muscles had to be worked and drained of acids accumulated in the tissue through lack of adequate movement. Strapping the shoulder for three days each week was a great comfort and stopped the grating sound that made her feel distressed and insecure. That aided greatly in her healing over her six weeks of therapy. Without pain, she was then able to keep moving the arm to develop the muscles again on her own.

With the kind of treatment described above, it is normal for the tissues to secrete lactic and uric acid residue resulting in a rash.

Invariably, the patient will say, ‘Am I allergic to your oils?’ The answer is no, as the non-itchy skin reaction indicates the muscles are eliminating waste products and the soreness is decreasing. Movement is then easier, and we are on our way.

Understand that muscles do more than just move joints and stimulate blood supply: they also drain away the waste products by muscle action. If not, accumulation occurs and calcium is deposited. Also the joint can dry out if it is not nourished. Using a hot pack only for months is soothing but not curative and an operation to scrape the bone is better prevented if possible.

A difficult case sees me using acupuncture and moxibustion. After acupuncture, the look on the patient’s face as they leave with a warm moveable joint makes the effort worthwhile. The needles are inserted in the hand, elbow and shoulder with great effect in relieving the pain. Heat helps in this instance.

Every therapy helps. Homoeopathies recommended are:

Bryonia for those who feel better for rest.

Hypericum for pain from injured nerves.

Rhus tox for joints that are better for movement.

There are many others depending on the patient’s personality and individuality.

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