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#146 OTITIS MEDIA

9/15/2015

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Besides the common cold, the #1 ailment among preschool children is the ear infection, technically called Otitis Media.  Quick anatomy lesson - Otitis media means an infection of the middle ear.  In the diagram above the middle ear is a mostly empty chamber on the other side of the ear drum whose purpose is to house the three tiny bones, called the hammer, anvil, and stirrup.  They are part of the hearing mechanism.  Very importantly, connecting this chamber to the back of the throat is a small drain line, called the Eustachian Tube.  Two more important points - First, the lining of the middle ear chamber is mucus membrane, and it continually makes a liquid called mucus.  Second, bacteria are everywhere in and on the human body, including the middle ear.  I know it’s gross that we are a walking bacteria factory, but that’s the way it is.

            So what exactly is an ear infection?  Here’s the sequence of events:

1)     The Eustachian tube gets blocked or shut off sealing up the middle ear chamber.  Now it’s closed up and nothing is getting in or out.    

2)     The mucus membranes continue to make the liquid mucus which builds up in the chamber.  This sounds painful.

3)     The bacteria love the warm wet environment and replicate like crazy.  This sounds very painful!

The logical question is what is the original cause of the ear infection?  Is it the bacteria?  Or is it the mucus?  Or is it the closed off Eustachian tube?  Quite obviously it’s the closed off Eustachian tube.

  

            And how does medicine treat the ear infection?  Do they treat the cause, the closed off Eustachian tube, or do they treat the effect, the bacterial growth?  We all know they treat the effect, the bacteria, with a poison called antibiotics.  And this leads to a couple of fun facts.

            The University of Pittsburgh published a study that showed that the use of antibiotics for the treatment of otitis media is no better than placebo.  And more to the point, the use of antibiotics can increase the chance of re-infection by 2.9 times.  What this means is that statistically, when you give a child an antibiotic for an ear infection, not only would he have gotten better at the same rate as if you had never given him the drug, he is now nearly 3 times more likely to develop a second ear infection.  Why, because we never let his body cure itself of the cause of the infection.  But, you say, my baby is crying and in pain right now.  What do I do if I don’t treat the symptom?  

            A retrospective study by Dr. Joan Fallon reviewing 116 otitis media case-files showed that chiropractic adjustments resolved 112 of them within 5 days, 2 took 7 days, and only 2 needed medical attention.  As it turns out the proper adjustment by a trained/experienced chiropractor can resolve the cause, the blocked Eustachian tube, 98% of the time.  No drugs.  No side effects.  No kidding.  And sometimes, literally overnight.  
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    Dr. Rick

    After writing an article per week for a year, I just kept going.  These are most of my collection.  They are written with my existing patients in mind, so some stuff may seem odd or unusual, but would make perfect sense to those who know chiropractic and who know me.  Enjoy and share!  For my personal blog visit: 

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Yolanda wrote:
     
     I used to suffer severe headaches and migraines on a daily basis, usually all day.  I managed to work in an office because I had to.  When I went home at the end of the day I would often close the shades and go to bed.  I could not plan weekend events because I simply never knew how I was going to feel tomorrow.  If there were a special event such as a birthday or wedding, I would begin to medicate myself two weeks in advance to give myself the best chance of making the event.
     Friends and fellow church-goers had been trying to get me to see Dr. Rick for some time before I finally gave in.  Looking back, I don’t know why I waited.  Within a month, I was headache free.  I couldn’t remember what it was like to not feel pain.  I could do whatever I wanted and not live in fear of the headache.  This was a miracle for me, but the story does not end here.
     An opportunity came up for us to adopt a newborn baby girl not long after I began chiropractic care.  This baby was particularly important to me and my husband because her mother is a relative.  Tragically, her mother was also a drug user and did drugs during her pregnancy.  If we could not adopt the baby she would have been put into the foster system since the biological mother was incapable of raising her.
     To keep a long story short, we did adopt her and she is doing fantastically.  There is no sign of any effect of the drugs on her as of yet, and with God’s help, there never will be.  We think that is because of the vast amounts of love and attention she gets from us, her real mommy and daddy.
     What does this have to do with chiropractic?  The reality is that without chiropractic, I would still be nearly an invalid with headaches.  I COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN CARE OF AN INFANT OR RAISED A YOUNG CHILD.  THEREFORE, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE ANY OF THE OPPORTUNITIES IN LIFE THAT MY HUSBAND AND I WILL BE ABLE TO PROVIDE FOR HER.  MY DAUGHTER’S LIFE IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE SOMEBODY MADE ME GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR. 
     You need to tell everyone you know what you know about chiropractic.  Who knows who’s life you will change too.
Andrew's mother, Barbara, wrote:

     Hello, My name is Andrew and I am a happy, healthy one year old.  But I wasn’t so happy or healthy when I first met Dr. Rick a few months ago.  I had been having problems with my ears for four months, I couldn’t sleep at night and I was miserable.  We’d been to the doctor lots of times but nothing was helping.  In fact, all the medicines the doctor had tried seemed to make me worse instead of better!  Both the regular doctor and the Ear-Nose and Throat doctor said that if the antibiotics didn’t work, then they’d just have to put tubes in.  Now my Mom and dad weren’t about to let them do surgery on me, especially since they had been reading and learned that tubes can cause more problems than they solve.  My mom and dad did a lot of praying.  Then my mom heard that sometimes babies who have a traumatic birth like mine have ear trouble.  You see when I was born they used a vacuum extractor and forceps to pull me out.  I guess all that yanking on my head, hurt my neck.  She also heard that chiropractic care can be the answer.  Now she was skeptical because she couldn’t imagine a chiropractor helping ear infections!?!  But at that point she was willing to try anything!!  Happily, a few weeks of adjustments and my ears were all cleared up.  In addition, I no longer had a stiff neck or shoulders and my whole personality was happier.  I have to tell all babies who have ear troubles, don’t let them give you tubes until you at least try chiropractic care first.  After all, it can’t hurt and if you’re like me, you could be perfectly well with no drugs and no surgery.  In my family, we thank God for Dr. Rick, because I feel better, my mom and dad are happier and sometimes, I even sleep through the night.