Tinnitus

Tinnitus

My sister-in-law, Barb, who lives in Hawaii, has tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. She asked me if there are any herbs that can be used to treat it. Yes, indeed, I replied--ginkgo. She tried this marvelous herb, and the ringing went away.

But Barb no longer takes ginkgo. When I last spoke with her, she was back on prescription drugs to treat this condition. Why? It seems that Barb gets her synthetic drugs free from her HMO and Medicare, but she can't get ginkgo free. And ginkgo tends to be pretty expensive.

Of course, Barb's drugs are not really free. She pays for them through her HMO membership and her taxes that support Medicare.

Barb's drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) without having been tested against ginkgo. The FDA really should have tested ginkgo, too. It's cheaper than the drug--if you have to pay for the drug out of your own pocket, that is. It's also more natural, at least as effective and perhaps safer.

Green Pharmacy for Tinnitus

Tinnitus is chronic ringing in the ears, although sometimes the sound is more like a roaring or whooshing. Doctors don't really know what causes tinnitus and often have very little success in alleviating it. Fortunately, natural approaches can help.

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba). Hundreds of European studies have confirmed the use of standardized ginkgo extract for a wide variety of conditions associated with aging, including tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss and poor circulation. Ginkgo does not work in every case of tinnitus, but it is the herb I'd try first.

The active constituents in ginkgo leaf, ginkgolides, occur in concentrations too dilute to allow the use of teas or tinctures. The way to take ginkgo is as a 50:1 standardized extract, meaning that 50 pounds of ginkgo leaves are processed into 1 pound of extract. You'll have to buy this extract in a pharmacy or health food store; look for 50:1 on the label. Most experts recommend taking 40 milligrams of ginkgo extract three times a day to treat tinnitus.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum). Chinese herbalists recommend sesame seeds for the treatment of tinnitus, blurred vision and dizziness. If you'd like to give sesame seeds a try, there's probably no harm in adding it to foods. Or try tahini, the peanut-butter-like spread made from sesame seeds, or halvah, which is sesame candy.

Black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa). In her interesting feminist herbal, The Roots of Healing, Deb Soule, distinguished Maine herbalist and founder of Avena Botanicals, spins the tale of a professional flutist neighbor of hers who had been troubled for years by tinnitus. This neighbor took black cohosh tincture for a few weeks, and his tinnitus almost disappeared. He became a disciple of herbalism. Deb adds that black cohosh and ginkgo are a good combination.

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis). British herbalist David Hoffmann, author of The Herbal Handbook and one of my favorite practitioners, suggests that goldenseal may help some cases of tinnitus. It seems as if it might be worth a try.

Lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor). This evergreen groundcover adorns some of my sunny and sandy slopes, but I'd never heard of using it medicinally until I checked a reference from Rudolph Fritz Weiss, M.D., Germany's leading herbal doctor and author of Herbal Medicine. Dr. Weiss reports that lesser periwinkle contains vincamine, a chemical compound that reportedly gives good results with tinnitus and Ménière's syndrome. He suggests taking 20 milligrams of dried herb three times a day. Since there are some safety issues with this herb, however, you should follow a physician's advice if you want to try it.

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and other foods containing zinc. Noting that zinc deficiency seems to be associated with tinnitus and certain kinds of hearing loss (sensorineural), Melvyn Werbach, M.D., assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine and author of the Nutritional Influences on Illness, suggests taking 60 to 120 milligrams of zinc a day. This is a lot of zinc (the Daily Value is 15 milligrams), so you should not try this therapy without discussing it with your doctor.

My preference would be to simply increase the amount of zinc you get from food. According to my database, good sources of zinc include spinach (the best), papaya, collards, brussels sprouts, cucumbers, string beans, endive, cowpeas, prunes and asparagus.I doubt that anyone could get 60 milligrams of zinc a day from diet alone, but you could certainly make a point of taking in more zinc from your food while trying other herbal treatments for tinnitus. I can also recommend whipping up a tasty Zincophile Soup. Toss any or all of the vegetables listed (except the prunes) into a good vegetable soup.

Herbs to avoid. If tinnitus bothers you, don't take aspirin or aspirin-like herbs--willow bark, meadowsweet and wintergreen. High doses of aspirin may cause ringing in the ears. I've also seen reports that a few other herbs may aggravate tinnitus, among them cinchona, black haw and uva ursi.