Tinnitus Treatments - What works & what to avoid

We often get asked "does this XXX treatment" work and we believe it is important to help in three ways:

• Helping you avoid wasting money, time & emotional energy on scams

• Encouraging you to be proactive and embrace treatments that do work

• Keeping you informed of emerging research & treatments (helping you stay positive)

This blog article will discuss all three points listed above.

Avoiding the scams

We understand that when you first get tinnitus you can be desperate to find a cure and searching the internet will bring up all sorts of "miracle cures." There is good & bad news on that front.

• The good news is if your tinitus is caused by an underlying physical injury, treating that injury can also remove your tinnitus. We will cover how in a separate blog post / article

• The bad news is apart from the above point there is no current cure that completely removes your tinnitus.

• The other good news is there are well respected forms of treatment that help reduce the impact of your tinnitus and in many cases push it into the background so you are hardly aware of it. We will discuss those treatments later in this article.

So what should you avoid?

The main types of "treatment" to avoid because there is little, or no proof they work and they may cause you harm include:

• Herbal supplements or pills (particularly those that claim a special combination of ingredients will cure your tinnitus)

• Cannabinoids of any type

• Any laser based forms of treatment

• Any devices apart from those listed later in this article

For further information on what to avoid I would recommend looking at the Tinnitus UK website as it has a section that lists all the different types of treatment (e.g. types of herbal supplement) with clear classifications. https://www.tinnitus.org.uk

Treatments that can have a positive impact on your tinnitus

Partial masking

Most of our members find partial masking sounds help their tinnitus (but it does not help everyone). Any form of external sound gives your brain (and you) something more interesting than your tinnitus to listen to. Examples include:

• The natural sounds all around you when you go for a walk

• Natural sound recordings (waves, waterfalls, rivers etc.)

• Broadband sound recordings (white, brown, pink noise)

• Masking sounds that come with your hearing aids

• An electric fan (also help keep you cool in hot weather)

• A radio playing in the background, could be music, sport, chat shows etc.

You should have the partial masking sound at a relatively low volume (just audible) and you can listen to it for hours without any damage.

There are many sources of good masking sounds including:

• https://tinnitustunes.podia.com

• Sound Therapy | American Tinnitus Association

• https://mynoise.net

• https://calmsound.com

• www.youtube.com

Relaxation sounds & exercise

There are strong links between stress and tinnitus and research shows that many people with tinnitus find it difficult to "switch-off" and relax. It is therefore important to use a range of techniques to help you relax & reduce stress as a precursor to improving your tinnitus. Relaxation exercises and an online course are included in the Tinnitus Tunes treatment plan (we provide a link later in the article). You can also find relaxing sounds using the sources given above under the Partial Masking section.

Many people also find these types of exercise help:

• Meditation

• Yoga

• Tai Chi

• Swimming, Cycling and Walking

Multimodal stimulation

There is fairly strong clinical trial evidence that the dual mode stimulus treatment approach (sound & tongue electrical pulse) used by Linere helps reduce the impact of tinnitus (pushes it into the background). The treatment is available through clinics in the UK, USA and several countries in Europe. The treatment has been approved by the US FDA.

You can learn more at Lenire ® - Tinnitus Treatment Using Bimodal Neuromodulation

Tinnitus Tunes treatment approach

Tinnitus Tunes is a spin-off formed over seven years ago from the Hearing & Tinnitus Clinic at the University of Auckland to help people all around the world with tinnitus. At the University we were only able to help people who could physically come to the clinic in Auckland. Through Tinnitus Tunes we were able use the treatment techniques successfully used for over 15 years in the physical clinic and tailor them for online delivery. The overall treatment plan includes the following core techniques all designed to push your tinnitus into the background:

• Partial masking

• Relaxation exercises (to reduce stress & anxiety)

• Sleep improvement

• How to get the best out of other clinical specialists

• Brain retraining exercises (using the natural plasticity of your brain)

• Recommendations on how to improve your overall lifestyle.

Tinnitus Tunes is approved (and funding for treatment sometimes provided) by the New Zealand government insurance agency (ACC). We are also selected by the New Zealand Defence Force for treatment of war veterans with tinnitus.

The treatment techiques have been successfuly used by people from the UK (we have a branch in the UK), Europe, USA, Canada. Australia and New Zealand. It helps people who have just recently experienced tinnitus, but also people who have had tinnitus for many years. A large proportion of our clients are referrals from audiologists.

General well being including diet

I like the way the American Tinnitus Association discuss the importance of taking a holistic approach and working on improving your overall lifestyle. They also take a balanced view on the impact of diet stating there is little research evidence that diet can cause or change your tinnitus, but still encouraging people to improve their overall diet.  

General Wellness | American Tinnitus Association

Our experience is many of our members agree that there is no quick and simple cure for tinnitus. However, they often tell us that following the Tinnitus Tunes treatment plan has not only helped their tinnitus, but also improved their overall well-being.

Emerging tinnitus treatment approaches.

In this last section we briefly want to introduce some of the promising research and treatment approaches. We acknowledge the content from the American Tinnitus Association and give a link to the section on their website that covers this topic. We plan to develop a separate blog post / article to cover the emerging research & treatment in more detail.

Some of examples described ion the American Tinnitus Association website include:

• Vagus nerve stimulation paired with sound therapy

• Cochlear implants, widely used to help people who are deaf, or have severe hearing loss. There is clinical evidence Cochlear Implants can also help some people with tinnitus.

• Notched sound therapy including the use of the Levo device. Some early encouraging results but more research & clinical trials are required.

• Different forms of transcranial stimulation

• TENS devices (already used for pain relief), may also help people with tinnitus. Particularly if they have jaw or neck injuries.

Experimental Therapies | American Tinnitus Association

Thank you

We thank you for taking the time to read our blog articles and we welcome feedback or questions. You can always contact me by email info@tinnitustunes.com

If you are ready to take control of your tinnitus then please join Tinnitus Tunes where you will be in great company with members from the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and of course New Zealand.