HOUSTON -- Houston Rockets doctors trying to determine why guard Steve Francis keeps having migraine headaches are focusing on his ears, trainer Keith Jones said Tuesday.

	Francis

Francis has missed five games this year and has played with the headaches in other games.

Jones told Houston television station KRIV that they had found Meniere's Disease, which is connected to the inner ear.

He said an examination Monday showed Francis had suffered 60 percent hearing loss in his right ear, a symptom consistent with Meniere's Disease. Jones said examinations Tuesday showed Francis' hearing was almost back to normal.

"This Miniere's Disease that he has, if we can take that away, maybe it will help the headaches or lessen them," Jones said. "If he doesn't get the dizziness, the ticking in his ears, the imbalance, things like that, maybe we are on to something."

"It's just one more thing we've uncovered trying to get where the headaches are coming from," Jones said.