Ménière’s disease:
A practical alternative approach

Percussive Chi Kung exercise

By Dr Stewart McFarlane

The following simple exercise was taught to me by a T’ai chi ch’uan and chi kung master in Penang, shortly after I was diagnosed with Ménière’s disease. It is based on percussive massage techniques often employed in Chi Kung for the neck, head and shoulders. It serves to alleviate the dizziness, loss of balance and nausea or vertigo attacks that make Ménière’s disease so unpleasant.

It should be employed whenever you start to feel dizzy, nauseous or off balance. It is completely harmless and is preferable to using the powerful anti-nausea tablet Buccastem, which is normally placed under the gum and can only be used 3 times a day because of its strength.

The tapping exercise can be used as often as necessary. The benefits should be immediately apparent, and the dizziness, balance loss and nausea should ease at least temporarily.

Sit comfortably on an upright chair. Relax the shoulders and neck and slightly lower the chin, so as to relax the rear neck muscles.

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With the hands half cupped and relaxed, begin tapping the temples with the ends of the fingers. In order to get a fast tapping action, keep the hands and fingers relaxed.
After about 10 or 15 taps of the temples work down to just in front of the ear below the temples, again with a rapid tapping action, about 10-15 times.
Then work down repeating the tapping action lower towards the base of the ears.
Then carry on behind the ears and work up behind the ears right up to the top of the ears and down again to the temples.
Repeat as necessary circling the ears with the rapid tapping action.

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This repeated percussive exercise seems to loosen the flow or blockage of fluid in the three semi circular canals of the inner ear. The movement of this fluid within the narrow canals is what controls our balance. In Ménière’s sufferers there is too much fluid, or it becomes sluggish or blocked. The hearing loss of Ménière’s sufferers is due to the action of excess inner ear fluid on the hair cells in the cochlea, which damages them and reduces their effectiveness.

Since it is these that vibrate to relay sound messages to the brain, then the hearing impairment follows, usually attended by tinnitus. Unfortunately, nothing can be done to the repair the hearing loss, and hearing aids have to be used to compensate. However, the simple tapping exercise does reduce the dizziness, balance loss, nausea and vertigo, and can be repeated whenever these symptoms return.

In my experience, reductions in air pressure and drops in temperature seem to cause inner ear fluid in the semi circular canals to generate problems. So on flights or in sudden changes in the weather, I use the tapping exercise frequently. If you are taking SERC (betahistine dihydrochloride or betahistine hydrochloride) tablets, you should continue with your recommended dosage, even if you using the tapping exercise. These tablets are drying agents that are reducing the amount of inner ear fluid.

As you will notice the, tapping and the SERC tablets cannot reduce and regulate this fluid permanently, but they do serve to reduce the problems it causes, hence the need for the regular recommended dose of SERC and the tapping exercise whenever you start to feel dizzy or off balance. With practice, the tapping exercise can be performed in any position. Remove spectacles if worn, but any non-bulky hearing aids can be kept in if preferred.