Welcome!
June 1, 2009 by Dr. Mike
Filed under Uncategorized
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Michael T. Burcon, DC started researching Meniere’s disease (MD) ten years ago after having three MD patients quickly recover from their vertigo under upper cervical specific chiropractic care. His papers have been published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research and the textbook, Upper Cervical Subluxation Complex, a Review of the Chiropractic and Medical Literature, by Kirk Ericksen in 2004.
Burcon has established a link between both Meniere’s disease and Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) with whiplash injuries that misalign the base of the skull with the top of the neck creating a lesion affecting the Eustachian tube and/or the Trigeminal ganglion. About half of these traumas are caused by vehicular traumas and the other half from injuries involving head trauma. Burcon believes that the correlation was not made because it takes an average of fifteen years from the time the patient was injured until the onset of symptoms.
Patients typically get diagnosed with MD or TN in middle age. Their injuries most often happened during high school or college years from a car accident, sports injury or fall on their heads. Few patients list these old injuries on their doctor’s admission paper work. In fact, they have often forgotten about them, believing they were not hurt if they were not admitted to the hospital.
Welcome to the Meniere’s Research web site. Chronic illnesses can have a devastating impact not only on the patient, but also on the patients family. In today’s new world of medicine, many consumers have come to realize that they are primarily responsible for their own health care as well as for the health care of their loved ones. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with Meniere’s disease.
Many patients go years before getting diagnosed. Then they often are not given a clear choice of treatment plans. It can be particularly aggravating to try to explain to a friend or loved one, or employer, about Meniere’s. They see you when you are not experiencing an episode and think, “You don’t look sick to me.” Vertigo is to dizziness what migraine is to headache. If you have not experienced vertigo, it is hard to understand how devastating it can be.
We hope that our website will provide you with helpful answers about your choices in treatments once you have been properly diagnosed with Meniere’s disease. These options are based upon the last fifteen years of peer reviewed literature, both in traditional allopathic medicine and in complementary and alternative medicine.
Interesting how this site lists both tradtional and alternative medicine with references to help us decide about a treatment plan. Looks pretty new. Hope more stuff is added soon.
I must admit this has given me an avenue to travel. What would be nice is to have some information as to what percentage of individuals actually have all the the symptoms. For instance, I have everything except the nausea, involuntary jumping of eyes. The feeling of imbalance while driving is a bit scary however. Thank goodness that has subsided.
Ever since being diagnosed with a form of Meniere’s (secondary endolymphatic hydrops) in April, I have been looking for a comprehensive source of information. Thank you for this webpage! My symptoms are typical of Meniere’s Disease but without the vertigo. I only get dizzy if I spin quickly, usually with my eyes closed. My tinnitus is pretty much unchanging, although some nights it is louder than usual. My hearing loss is in the low and mid-frequencies at about -50 decibels (I think). I also hope that many more resources are made available here. I ask that those with good and bad experiences will post comments so that those of us looking for possible solutions can learn from these experiences.
I have had 2 very bad episodes of vertigo/vomiting, along with A-FiB and ambulance to the hospital for 3 days. This last episode was 2 days ago, with vertigo,vomiting but no A-Fib.
Ambulance to hospital but only there for 3 hrs because the vertigo had lessened and no A-Fib to deal with. I am going to look into the Atlas Bone – with my local chiropractor first, and then with Dr. James in Denver, CO (I live in Basalt CO). I would welcome any comments on this. I am female, 74, active, retired.
I had been diagnosed now about 5 years and no doctor has been able to help. I have seen numerous doctors and informed them that when I get a stiff neck my vertigo becomes extreme. No one listened to me. Then I went to my elbow doctor for tennis elbow and informed him that my middle finger is numb. He sent me to a spine specialist, low and behold he touched the side of my neck, I saw stars. He took an xray and found that the spine area between my head and my shoulders have no cartalidge. I knew what was always causing my vertigo, but no one would listen.
Love the info on this site and I need more help. You see, I am one of those people with everything associated with Menieres and severly. I have been searching almost daily for one of those studies that take on actual participants either for tests, experimental meds, or both. Can anyone help me find one? Im really tired of being sick 4 times a month!!!
Go to http://www.clinicaltrials.gov and enter the word meniere (without the s) you get a long list so you need to then select the option to not show completed trials.
There are 4 trials currently recruiting volunteers and 1 that hasn’t started yet. Good luck!
I’ve had tinnitus for (?)years but just started experiencing balance / dizziness issues in June 2011. My initial research led me to believe (still suspecting) that I dislodged otoconia by purposely sleeping with a thin pillow with a foam cylinder under my neck. I had done this to alleviate neck stiffness. I’ve been doing the Brandt-Daroff exercises for a month now, but the symptoms just won’t completely go away. Yesterday I felt so good I took a bike ride for the first time since the onset of the dizziness. I felt great, but I’m digging here again today because the dizziness returned this afternoon even worse than at first! When I found this site I was surprised to learn about Dr. Burcon’s success treating this condition through cervical adjustments. I was especially interested because I had a fairly severe whiplash injury 20+ years ago, the result of being rear-ended in a car accident. I was hit so hard from behind that my bucket seat was ripped from the floor depositing me in the back seat! My injury never manifested in any severe way, just a nagging stiffness and reduced range of motion that I’ve managed to live with. It might also be noteworthy (now that I think about it) that over these 20+ years I’ve lost 2 inches in height!
Another variable that I suspect but can’t be sure of is the fact that I switch between regular bi-focal glasses and short distance computer monitor bifocals often. And they are a new, stronger prescription, 2 months old.
Now I must decide how to navigate my health insurance to get them to pay for a chiropractic assessment of my problem. Any suggestions in this regard would be appreciated.
Also, if Dr. Burcon is reading here, I would appreciate recommendations for appropriate practitioners in my area. I’ll provide my zip-code through email.
Thanks,
–James
James,
It is interesting that you know that you have a neck problem. Most of my patients deny it. Their whiplash injuries happened so long ago that they have forgotten them. I have a similar injury, am shorter due to disc problems and also get BPPV. I treat it the same as Meniere’s. The most common cause of both is either from auto accidents or falling on your head.
The relationship between the ears and the eyes is complicated. It is discussed in Health Talk III. The DVD is free if you pay $5 for shipping.
I will need to see cervical x-rays to properly direct you to the best doctor. Our manager, Nicole, may be able to help with your insurance. Her number is 616.575.9990. She is in Mon, Wed & Fri.
Good health,
Dr Burcon
I am so glad a friend of mine found an article on Dr. Burcon and gave it to me, which led me to this web site. I was officially diagnosed in June 2011 with Meniere’s (although it was suspected for the past two) and it has affected both ears equally. I have all of symptoms given with the exception of the migraines.
It was a relief to know that that the aural fullness, brain fog, sweating, anxiety and depression were all part of the disease, along with the tinnitus and hearing loss. In my case it appears to be genetic as well as years of allergy suffering. But I am being told that stress played a major part in how fast I deteriorated in a very short time span. Within a couple of weeks I went from 10% hearing loss to 50% hearing loss. I had all of the tests to rule out something else and also had the tests for balance, etc.
I had tubes put in my ears to help with the fluid in the middle ears which has helped the vertigo. The tinnitus is sometimes unbearable which of course increases with my stress level. I am on a no sodium diet, a diuretic, a anthistamine/decongestant, and a steroid nasal spray. If I miss any one of these, I can see a change in my symptoms, but the biggest offender seems to be the stress.
Which is my purpose for writing. I am curious what you have found out about how stress affects the disease. There are some days where it is hard to cope and concentrate with all of the noise going on.
I currently see a Dr. in West Michigan who practices the NUCCA technique which also focuses on the Atlas bone but it doesn’t seem to be doing much help.
Thanks so much for the research you have done. I will continue to watch for updates.
Penny,
Stress is a relatively new word and originally was not meant to be negative. The important thing is how you respond to stress. Your over all plan sounds good, but I am willing to guess that you have an additional subluxation in your neck besides your atlas misalignment. Tinnitus tends to be more of an axis (C2) problem, and problems dealing with stress tend to go with a C5 misalignment.
We are having a Christmas party at Frederik Meijer Gardens on Tuesday evening, December 6 at 6 pm. If you would like to attend call 575-9990. Tickets are only $10 and include admission to the Park and a book signing by Dr Tomasi. We will be filming Health Talk IV and it will be on UStream starting at 7 pm.
Good health, Dr Mike
I am so unsure what to do about my meniers.My ear doc. is now checking to see if I may have a anti immunne ear deafness. one year ago my hearing in my left ear died completely. now my left ear goes up and down . when ;it geos down, I am put on prednesone, and it goes back up for about amonth , then back down again. I am dizzy almost every day. I did have a whip lash about 18 years ago, from being hit from behind. I get head aches every day. I have had two MRI’s and they were both clear. I am 72 Any help would be great.
Pat Klassen
New Hope, Minnesota
Please go to http://www.upCSpine.com to find a good chiropractor near you.