Windheat turning to Ear infections (now dizziness)

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

I've been reading these interesting posts about ear infections (wind damp heat

toxin in the ears), and they reminded me of what I've been seeing in my part of

the world (Cottonwood, Arizona, close to Sedona). With all the excessive cold

rainy weather and local flooding this winter, lots of folks are developing

dizziness that lasts for weeks. No other symptoms, just dizziness. It doesn't

bother folks enough that they go see a professional for it (so I don't have

patient details such as tongue and pulse, etc.), but it is widespread and common

enough that folks are talking about it. I have it myself - originally it was so

bad that I would stumble when I got out of bed in the morning and the room would

spin whenever I would move my head. Definitely worst in the mornings, with no

symptoms in the afternoons and evenings, and returning with dizzy spells while

turning over during sleep. Being a deficient Spleen Damp sort of person, I have

attributed it to extreme wet weather

exacerbating my own internal dampness, to the point of having enough dampness

in my head as to impair my sensory organs (ears). It got better during the week

or so of dry warm weather earlier this month, and now it is back again with our

newest storms this week, though milder. I have a friend who works as a

respiratory therapist at the hospital in Flagstaff, and she told me of a

co-worker who was rushed to emergency for this condition, and the doctors

couldn't find any " obvious cause " . I hadn't realized this was a widespread

phenomenon until I spoke to a local waitress and she mentioned that she has it,

and many of her patrons do as well. Here's a tip: listen to the waitresses in

your town. They know everything that's going on long, before anyone else does,

especially in small, far-flung towns where the locals are fiercely independent!

 

Oddly, there are no sinus or nasal congestion symptoms. No headache. No sore

throat. No fever, no chills. Not a textbook wind cold damp invasion. Anyway,

I haven't tried herbs for this, and this discussion about ear infections has

piqued my curiosity. Any ideas on herb formulae for this condition? If I were

representative of the whole population of people who have this (and I'm sure I

am not), I have a pale-dusky, puffy, wet tongue with a thin, greasy white coat

and a weak, small, rapid pulse that used to be soft but is now more slippery. I

am 48 years old.

 

I appreciate your comments, and it is interesting to me to hear what other

practitioners are seeing locally in their practices.

 

 

 

 

<zrosenbe wrote:

Laura,

Can you share some pulses and tongues with us? It would help a lot.

 

A few questions, seeing as this pattern would probably be in the realm

of warm disease:

 

1) What part of the country/world are you? What was the weather like

when people contracted this evil? What time of year?

 

2) Type of fever/heat effusion, worse at what time of day?

 

3) Urination: dark, clear, scanty, copious?

 

4) Changes in digestion, appetite?

 

5) Fatigue?

 

Unless there is a red tongue, greasy coating, and wiry pulse, I

wouldn't use long dan xie gan tang. Also, for toxic heat, there

should be signs of discharge or swelling, such as glandular swelling.

Also, while a few of the medicinals you listed (zi hua di ding, ban

lan gen or others) may be useful, be careful of using too many bitter

cold medicinals as they could 'freeze' the evil qi. Some wind-heat

dispersing medicinals that are acrid may be useful, and depending on

damage to yin, yin supplementing medicinals as well such as xuan shen.

 

We need to narrow down a number of variables here in order to prescribe

accurately.

 

Take care,

 

 

On Mar 18, 2005, at 8:44 AM, heylaurag wrote:

 

>

>

> Hi Par,

>

> I really appreciate your response. The only reason I'm ruling out

> bacteria is that one of my patients has been on two different

> antibiotics for an extended period of time and they didn't help (or

> maybe they helped a little, but its hard to know because presumably he

> would have gotten a little better over time anyway).

>

> I think the netty pot is a really good call. I have this idea that

> internal herbs are going to be stronger, but that may not be

> true---I've heard an awful lot of people get results with netty pots.

> About how many time a day would you recommend?

>

> Laura

>

>

>

>

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

,

<> wrote:

>

> Hi All,

>

> I've been reading these interesting posts about ear infections

(wind damp heat toxin in the ears), and they reminded me of what

I've been seeing in my part of the world (Cottonwood, Arizona, close

to Sedona). With all the excessive cold rainy weather and local

flooding this winter, lots of folks are developing dizziness that

lasts for weeks. No other symptoms, just dizziness. It doesn't

bother folks enough that they go see a professional for it (so I

don't have patient details such as tongue and pulse, etc.), but it

is widespread and common enough that folks are talking about it. I

have it myself - originally it was so bad that I would stumble when

I got out of bed in the morning and the room would spin whenever I

would move my head. Definitely worst in the mornings, with no

symptoms in the afternoons and evenings, and returning with dizzy

spells while turning over during sleep. Being a deficient Spleen

Damp sort of person, I have attributed it to extreme wet weather

> exacerbating my own internal dampness, to the point of having

enough dampness in my head as to impair my sensory organs (ears).

It got better during the week or so of dry warm weather earlier this

month, and now it is back again with our newest storms this week,

though milder. I have a friend who works as a respiratory therapist

at the hospital in Flagstaff, and she told me of a co-worker who was

rushed to emergency for this condition, and the doctors couldn't

find any " obvious cause " . I hadn't realized this was a widespread

phenomenon until I spoke to a local waitress and she mentioned that

she has it, and many of her patrons do as well. Here's a tip:

listen to the waitresses in your town. They know everything that's

going on long, before anyone else does, especially in small, far-

flung towns where the locals are fiercely independent!

>

> Oddly, there are no sinus or nasal congestion symptoms. No

headache. No sore throat. No fever, no chills. Not a textbook

wind cold damp invasion. Anyway, I haven't tried herbs for this,

and this discussion about ear infections has piqued my curiosity.

Any ideas on herb formulae for this condition?

If I were representative of the whole population of people who have

this (and I'm sure I am not), I have a pale-dusky, puffy, wet tongue

with a thin, greasy white coat and a weak, small, rapid pulse that

used to be soft but is now more slippery. I am 48 years old.

>

> I appreciate your comments, and it is interesting to me to hear

what other practitioners are seeing locally in their practices.

>

>

 

Andrea,

Ban xia bai zhu tian ma tang to the rescue!! Of course the usual

disclaimer about pattern differentiation applies. Living in a

normally wet damp environment(Pacific NW) this can come in quite

handy here for dizziness and vertigo caused by phlegm-damp.

However this spring has been unusually dry here since California and

Arizona got the benefit of the jet-stream. My skis stand almost

unused this season(sigh) and I haven't had one patient in for skiing

injuries either. I expect more heat and dryness cases this summer.

 

Jill Likkel