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Laser therapy is most effective treatment for tinnitus, study finds
Medical Xpress / FAPESP / Journal of Personalized Medicine ^ | June 21, 2023 | Julia Moióli / Vitor Hugo Panhóca et al

Posted on 06/22/2023 7:05:55 PM PDT by ConservativeMind

Low-level laser therapy and associated photobiomodulation is the most effective of the known treatments for tinnitus, according to a study comparing the main therapies in current use.

Often described as ringing or hissing in the ears, it is considered a symptom rather than a disease, but is unpleasant and in some cases incapacitating. Its known causes can range from a buildup of earwax and insufficient peripheral irrigation in the inner ear to brain damage and bruxism.

Panhóca and his team tested alternative and complementary treatments for idiopathic (with no apparent cause) and refractory tinnitus on more than 100 men and women aged 18-65, divided randomly into ten groups. The treatments tested were laser acupuncture, flunarizine dihydrochloride, Ginkgo biloba (a medicinal plant), and low-level laser stimulation of the internal auditory canal or meatus (transmeatal stimulation), on its own and combined with vacuum therapy, ultrasound, G. biloba or flunarizine dihydrochloride.

The patients were submitted to eight twice-per-week treatment sessions. They were clinically assessed before treatment began, after the eighth session and two weeks later, using a "tinnitus handicap inventory questionnaire" with a total of 25 questions. A functional subscale comprised 11 questions on mental, social, occupational and physical limitations due to tinnitus.

The best outcomes were observed in patients treated with laser acupuncture alone and transmeatal low-power laser stimulation alone. In the latter case, they improved even more when irradiation time was increased from 6 minutes to 15 minutes. Combinations of laser therapy with vacuum therapy or G. biloba, laser acupuncture alone, and flunarizine dihydrochloride alone also had lasting therapeutic effects.

"The positive effects include anti-inflammatory action and relaxation. We believe laser therapy can increase peripheral irrigation, which may be the main cause of the problem in many cases, as well as stimulating inner ear cell proliferation and collagen production," Panhóca said.

(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: audio; ears; hearing; laser; therapy; tinnitus
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To: sauropod

I have identified four different crickets that sing in my head.
I made friends with three of them so its not that bad.


41 posted on 06/23/2023 4:01:29 AM PDT by GranTorino (Bloody Lips Save Ships.)
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To: mad_as_he$$

LOL, you remembered I was a fellow sufferer!

Well, it has to work better than banging two spoons together, right? (from the stupid Internet ads!)


42 posted on 06/23/2023 4:31:02 AM PDT by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: ConservativeMind

BKMK


43 posted on 06/23/2023 4:48:36 AM PDT by lizma2
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To: ConservativeMind; RandallFlagg; joe fonebone; SamiGirl; gitmogrunt; Freee-dame; ROCKLOBSTER; ...

TINNITUS RING!...........................

44 posted on 06/23/2023 5:40:35 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: ConservativeMind

This sounds interesting, as I am hearing impaired and have been to some degree for most of my life. I have almost zero hearing in my right ear, and the tinnitus does NOT help matters. I have hearing aids, but they are not a cure-all.
I’m willing to try something like this. It won’t fix my hearing, but toning down the tinnitus would definitely help.


45 posted on 06/23/2023 5:48:01 AM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: NWFree

I feel for you. My tinnitus is always there, sometimes it’s like a stuck car horn off in the distance. I often have 2 to 3 layers of sound going on at the same time.
Occasionally I will get a low frequency musical tone that is so intense that I can physically feel it. Thankfully, it doesn’t last long.


46 posted on 06/23/2023 5:54:23 AM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: DaxtonBrown

LOL


47 posted on 06/23/2023 5:54:47 AM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: minnesota_bound

If you shine a laser light in one ear, you will see the light come out the other ear....

I think AOC must have tinnitus. I believe she had that done…


48 posted on 06/23/2023 6:04:56 AM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: ConservativeMind

There are many causes of tinnitus. The Veterans Administration pays out the most in disability to tinnitus. If there was a cure for the nerve damage caused by loud noise and explosions they would be the ones find a “cure”.I think most of these treatments are snake oil or scheme to get research monies.


49 posted on 06/23/2023 6:20:00 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well those that did not make it back.)
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To: mountainlion

Tinnitus is a malady that can’t be directly proven. No one else hears your noises.

The US government also pays out humongous amounts for PTSD, which is also just in your head.

Because it’s just in your head, you can’t objectively prove anything does anything, except for what someone says themselves.

People experiencing such maladies are both the judge and the plaintive on the problem. The US government is on the other side, guilty, until proven innocent.

Now, you tell me what is likely to happen with anything that cures someone of something only in their head, when they also lose their disability.

I’m not saying most don’t have tinnitus, but saying US government payouts proves it, is crazy.


50 posted on 06/23/2023 6:48:32 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind
Not so. Tinnitus does have have physical symptoms as well as PTSD. They are not all just in your head. The article associates burxism also which is a physical problem. Adverse reactions to loud noise with flinching and other involuntary flenching is also a physical physical symptom to both PTSD and tinnitus. Depression and rage can also be related to tinnitus and PTSD. These researchers get off on a rabbit trail and miss much of the problems. They think I have no clue so it must be all in your head as an excuse to get out of solving the main problem.
51 posted on 06/23/2023 7:35:29 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well those that did not make it back.)
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To: Fai Mao
Mine was cured with hearing aides.

Aides?

Like Jared?


52 posted on 06/23/2023 7:39:44 AM PDT by newfreep ("There is no race problem...just a problem race")
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To: mountainlion

Actions from possible tinnitus or PTSD are not measuring tinnitus or PTSD.

Again, payouts are not proof of either.

They are all just in your head, period.


53 posted on 06/23/2023 7:42:17 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: newfreep

54 posted on 06/23/2023 7:42:37 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ETCM

Yet the article doesn’t mention chronic exposure to loud noises as a cause! It says “Its known causes can range from a buildup of earwax and insufficient peripheral irrigation in the inner ear to brain damage and bruxism.”

I exposed myself to lots of loud noise over several years when I was young and that triggered it for me. It wasn’t as constant as what you were exposed to, though.


55 posted on 06/23/2023 8:23:08 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (I don’t like to think before I say something...I want to be just as surprised as everyone else.)
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To: ConservativeMind

Pycnogenol? Hmmm. Thanks.


56 posted on 06/23/2023 9:14:25 AM PDT by KittyKares
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To: ConservativeMind
...sort of like the sound televisions used to emit

Think the component was called the 'flyback'. Really a HV transformer.
That's me too. Have learned to ignore it but would love to get rid of it .

57 posted on 06/23/2023 9:31:32 AM PDT by Vinnie ( L g Brandon)
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To: ConservativeMind

I’m using a program on my hearing aids that can eliminate tinnitus in a year for many people. We’ll see how it works.


58 posted on 06/23/2023 11:22:15 AM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn’t become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: Vinnie

My high pitched ringing segued to constant white noise over the decades.


59 posted on 06/23/2023 12:49:23 PM PDT by doorgunner69 (Let's go Brandon)
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To: aimhigh; Hodar

Pentoxyfilline 400mg 3x daily + Vitamin K1 as MK-7
has worked well for me. It may also have improved my hearing slightly. I’ll find out if it has this next week.


60 posted on 06/23/2023 1:28:13 PM PDT by oblomov
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