42 cases (76 ears) were treated by the qigong therapy in our hospital from 1985-1986. They had been treated by Western medicine or traditional Chinese medicine with failure. Among them 34 cases were bilateral deafness, 8 were unilateral deafness. 30 cases were men, 12 were women. The average age was 43.5 years old (from 20-70) and the average course of deafness was 7.2 years (from 3 months—15 years).
Pattern: Wudang qigong was practised. It included three parts the quiescent, dynamic , accessory qigong exercises. The first one consisted of two forms the Wuji form and Taiji form; the second consisted of twelve movements; the third consisted of five movements. The patients did the exercises collectively for one hour from 6-7 o'clock in the morning. The practice lasted for 2 months and in this period no medication was given to improve hearing.
Criteria of effect: We used the average value of the air conduction of the speech frequency (500, 1000, 2000 Hz) as the criterion of hearing. For elusion of errors we adopted the same audiometry (DZ-IB type electric audiometer), technician, time (8-9 A.M.) and method of examination. Examination was done before and after the course of treatment. For those who decided to do the exercise for 3 months, another audiometry was conducted in the middle when the term ended. At least 10dB hearing increase was considered effective.
Therapeutic effect: Among 76 ears effectiveness was found in 18 ears (the effective rate was 23.7%), among which, the hearing of 6 ears increased more than 15dB (7.9%) . Among the 42 patients, 28 (54 ears) had tinnitus, which decreased subjectively in different degrees to 29 ears (53.7%).
Types of deafness and therapeutic effect: There are six types of deafness Sudden deafness, drug toxic deafness, senile deafness, noise deafness, deafness due to multiple causes and others. The last one includes hereditary deafness (2 cases, 4 ears), deafness after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (I case, 2 ears), deafness after brain concussion (1 case, 2 ears) . According to the treatment qigong therapy was ineffective to the hereditary deafness, poor effect to the drug toxic deafness and noise deafness, but it had better effect on the senile deafness, 2 cases of which (4 ears) after doing qigong exercises for one and a half month, had a decrease of speech frequency of air conduction for 7-10dB in the first one and a half months for qigong practice, but in another one and a half months, the hearing didn't continue to decrease. We assume that the qigong therapy may prevent the development of senile deafness.
Types of deafness and therapeutic effect
. Hearing Increased Hearing Increased
Type of Deafness Cases Ears at least 10dB
Ears % .
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sudden deafness 12 18 4 22.2
drug toxic deafnesss 11 21 4 14.3
senile deafness 9 18 6 33.3
noise deafness 3 6 1 16.7
multiples cause 3 5 1 20.0
others 4 8 2 25.0
total 42 76 18 23.7
Duration of the qigong exercise and the therapeutic effect
The duration of the qigong exercise varies from one month (13 cases) to 2 months (9 cases) and 3 months (20 cases) . The therapeutic effect was nearly the same for different duration. We don't know if prolonged practice can increase hearing.
Among the 20 cases (38 ears) which did the qigong exercise for 3 months, the average value of the speech frequency of air conduction increased less than 5 dB in 5 ears (13.2%), but at the low frequency (25 Hz), the hearing increased 10-15dB (13dB on an average), at the high frequency (4000 Hz), the hearing increase over 5dB was never seen (hearing decrease 1 dB on an average) . The increase of hearing at low frequency was an accidental phenomenon. The cause remains to be explored. No side-effect was found in the exercise.
