One thing we haven't covered yet in the thread is the sheer
variety of exercises that can be performed to open the ETs.
I have never felt comfortable with the Valsalva btw. The list below is copied from a Scuba Diving website:
One problem with the Valsalva manoeuvre is that it doesn't activate muscles that open the eustachian tubes, so it may not work if the tubes are already locked by a pressure differential (see illustrations). It's also easy to blow hard enough to damage something. Instead of using the Valsalva next time, try one of these:
* The Toynbee Manoeuvre. With your nostrils pinched, swallow. Swallowing pulls open your eustachian tubes while the movement of your tongue, with your nose closed, compresses air against them.
* The Lowry Technique. A combination of Valsalva and Toynbee: While closing your nostrils, blow and swallow at the same time.
* The Edmonds Technique. While tensing the soft palate (the soft tissue at the back of the roof of your mouth) and throat muscles and pushing the jaw forward and down, do a Valsalva manoeuvre.
* The Frenzel Manoeuvre. Close your nostrils, and close the back of your throat as if straining to lift a weight. Then make the sound of the letter "K." This forces the back of your tongue upward, compressing air against the openings of your eustachian tubes.
* Voluntary Tubal Opening. Tense the muscles of the soft palate and the throat while pushing your jaw forward and down as if starting to yawn. These muscles pull the eustachian tubes open. This requires a lot of practice, but some divers can learn to control those muscles and hold their tubes open for continuous equalization.
If someone practiced the above techniques regularly over a period of months, is there a chance that the ETs will improve, in the same way that muscles improve with physiotherapy? Why shouldn't this be the case?
What I have learnt so far:
Cut out mucus-forming foods / drinks - the less mucus in your system, the less there is to get into your ETs.
Cut out foods / drinks that can cause excess acidity - excess acid is a known irritant to the ETs in people with an acid reflux tendency.
Get into the routine of performing ET exercises several times daily.