Question: A friend asked me to post an inquiry into tinnitus. He did have his hearing tested and was found to have some minor hearing loss, mostly nerve deafness. He also seems to be experiencing a rather incessant ringing and may be suffering from tinnitus. If you can provide any information, like a more detailed symptomology, where to get more information, etc., that would be appreciated.

Answer: My tinnitus gets loud from noise and driving also. I just write an APL program to test my hearing so I have a baseline (control) measurement of my hearing. Now I'm sifting through the various treatments for tinnitus/hearing. I hope to start a treartment soon, and test for results. The various treatments I'm considering are:

Ginko (sp?), an herb, shown to be effective in double blind studies. See book by Christopher Hobbes

Chelation, see "Bypassing Bypass" by Cranton

Hydergine, "Physician's guide to life extending drugs", Life Extension Foundation

Vinpocetine, "Physician's guide to life extending drugs", Life Extension Foundation

K.H.3 "Physician's guide to life extending drugs", Life Extension Foundation

Gerovital H3 / Procaine Hydrochloride, Nutritional Engineering Ltd. (improves hearing)

Rhizoma Ligustici Wallichii (improves hearing)

Chung Yao tonic (Jade Medicine)

Lui Wei Di Hung Wan (Jade Medicine)

Avoiding Aspirin! Linus Pauling

Lidocaine (Medline)

Tocainide? (Medline)

Ultrasound (Medline)

Avoiding electromagnetic pollution (Dr. Robert Becker)

Acupuncture (Yellow pages!)

trimetazidine

nimodipin