Cranial Osteopathy & Tinnitus

Cranial osteopaths have magical healing hands.

I’ve sworn by them for years. On two previous occasions they diagnosed things wrong with my body which didn’t show up on MRI scans and left doctors baffled.

How it works

Cranial osteopaths have a highly developed sense of touch. Apparently they can feel a single strand of hair through 17 sheets of paper. Phenomenal.

By placing their hands on your body they can feel how muscles, tissues and internal organs are working. They then use subtle movements of their hands to encourage your body to work correctly.

Don’t be confused by the name, cranial osteopathy can be used on any part of the body, not just the head. However, I needed someone to feel inside my head and tell me what on earth had happened to my ear.

Normally you have a couple of treatments in quick succession followed by monthly appointments to give Mother Nature time to do her job. However the inner ear is the most complex part of your body after the brain and it requires a lot more attention. I have weekly appointments for nine months before moving to fortnightly and then monthly appointments more than a year later.

Weird and wonderful treatments

Sarah, my osteopath, was horrified when I hobbled into her clinic two weeks after it happened. The vertigo and tinnitus made me too disorientated to tell her what had happened but thankfully I didn’t need to as she could feel inside my head and assess the full extent of my illness.

Apparently it felt like everything in my head had jumped to the right side of my skull to avoid my left ear. This then affected my whole body as my skeletal structure and energy flow lurched to the right making me disjointed and uneven.

For over the year Sarah has worked on every aspect my body. She’s improved the circulation and drainage in my left ear and the alignment of my neck. She’s also done obscure things like adjust the electromagnetic field around my head and manipulate a nerve near my top right molar which triggered excruciating tinnitus in my left ear whenever I brushed my teeth.

She’s also given me very strange exercises. I’ve had to hiss every day to stop my ears, nose and throat tubes from contracting and imagine a force field around the left side of my head to improve my body’s electromagnetic energy (you what?).

Friendship & optimism

Sarah became my lifeline and one of my closest confidants. She was often the only person I saw all week as the tinnitus was too crippling for me to leave my flat.

We have discussed everything from how I’m coping with the illness to Brexit, Trump, cashmere jumpers, moths and maple syrup.

And we have laughed. Laughing is good for the soul. When was the last time you got the giggles with a doctor? I never have.

In a desperate, high pitched and whiny voice I’ve frequently asked “will I ever get better?” and Sarah’s always given me hope by saying: “You keep improving so I see no reason why that won’t continue. I’m sure we’ll get the volume of the tinnitus down”.

This is opposite to the doctors’ response at the hospital but Sarah has too much faith in the body’s healing system to think otherwise and she’s been right – the volume has gone down.

Has it worked?

Yes! The cranial treatments may sound weird but it has made such a difference. The ear takes a long time to heal and progress has been painfully slow but there has been a direct correlation between my osteopathy appointments and improvements to my ear and overall well-being.

Weekly appointments have cost a fortune but it’s surprising how much you save by never leaving the house. What I would have spent on travelling into work, eating out and going to the cinema, I’ve spent on cranial osteopathy.

Besides there is no price to being able to sit upright, being able to leave the house and being able to cope with the sound of another person in the same room as you.

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