What, you ask? How can air in the ear have anything to do with a Migraine treatment?
As odd as it sounds, recently retired Australian chiropractor Adam Meredith has been placing air in the ear of his migraine patients, over the last 5 years, to turn off their migraines.
It turns out, that in the ear canal there are 2 nerves, both of which are scientifically known to help with migraine.
These nerves are called the trigeminal and vagus nerves, and there is a lot of good research showing that calming down these nerves can calm down migraines both as an abortive treatment (1,3) and preventative therapy (2,4)
Neuromodulation the Future of Migraine Therapy.
Researchers and migraine experts have been using a technique called “neuromodulation” on these two nerves for years now, studying their effects on migraines. Neuromodulation simply means affecting a nerve for a positive patient outcome.
Neuromodulation is usually done with electrical stimulation, much like a TENS machine you might get at a physiotherapist, which runs a small electrical current through your muscles for muscle relief.
Well, Adam Meredith uses neuromodulation but instead of an electrical device, he uses air.
It just so happens that the ear canal is supplied by both the trigeminal nerve and vagus nerve. Prior to using air as a neuromodulator, science had typically studied the effect of the trigeminal and nerve the vagus nerve separately.
This is mainly because of the way scientific trials are run. In science they like to have a control and one single variable to measure, so they can see the effects of this variable. This underlies the scientific method.
But by using air in the ear canal it is possible to stimulate both these migraine helping nerves at the same time. We believe using air in this way was one of the first techniques that allowed for both nerves to be used at the same time.
When air is gently moved in and out of the ear, the ear canal wall and the ear drum move slightly. This slight movement stimulates the trigeminal and vagus nerves, sending impulses to the brain. These impulses go to parts of the brain where migraines start and calms down the brain.
“I remember clearly the first time I put air into a migraine patient’s ear.
I asked the patient after the procedure “how do you feel? “ She sat up on the examination table, looked me directly in the eye, and said “I think you just turned off my Migraine“
That was in 2015, and from that moment I have been perfecting air in the ear and making a device that the patients can carry with them to treat their migraine anytime, anywhere ! We called the device the Migraine Stopper.
How does the Migraine Stopper Work?
When a migraine occurs parts of the brain and brain stem become overly excited (it’s like a brewing electrical storm that turns into a massive storm with thunder and lightning.) This leads to a whole host of bad symptoms like, severe head pain, nausea, vomiting, light and sound phobia and an overwhelming desire to be in a quiet room feeling totally miserable.
The area in the Brain Stem that becomes overly excited is called the Trigeminal Nucleus. This area can be thought of as an electrical relay centre. It has the ability to increase or decrease nerve signals i.e. make them stronger or weaker. During a migraine this relay centre is switch to high volume.
The trick to the Migraine Stoppers effectiveness is that when you gently pump air into your ear (which the patient does themselves) you create signals from the trigeminal and vagus nerve to the Trigeminal Nucleus. This calms down the trigeminal nucleus and thus calms down the Migraine.
This can reduce and even stop the migraine in its tracks. Also, and just as exciting is that after 5 years of testing with the Migraine Stopper Adam found that it had an effect of reducing future attacks in a number of migraine patients.
In Adam Meredith’s own words.
“This was a really exciting observation. We knew from how the Migraine Stopper worked, that it potentially could be used as a preventative therapy, and it was just so pleasing when some patients started to report fewer attacks after using the Migraine Stopper.
Try it for yourself
So there you have it, the latest and greatest in natural migraine therapy is air in your ear!
The Migraine Stopper is now available to the public to use and can be bought online from Adam Meredith’s website www.themigrainestopper.com.
They ship to all major countries and even have 90 day money back guarantee so that if it doesn’t work for you, you will get your money back.
For further information or to purchase go to www.themigrainestopper.com and use the code wellbeing2020 for a 5% discount.
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