Flavinoids

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

PaulL57972 - 02 Jul 2004 00:55 GMT

Can anyone advise me about the effectiveness of flavinoids to help reduce
buzzing in the ears? I have been following this newsgroup but have never seen
them mentioned. The box they are packaged in states that it may take six months
to make a difference. I hate to invest six months in a treatment, only to
discover I've wasted six months, not to mention the cost of the pills!

My doctor says live with it, but its getting harder and harder.

Thanks for any advice.

Reply to this Message

Ball 33 - 02 Jul 2004 02:25 GMT

> Can anyone advise me about the effectiveness of flavinoids to help reduce
> buzzing in the ears? I have been following this newsgroup but have never seen
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Thanks for any advice.

Paul, since most people, left untreated, habituate their tinnitus over a
period of one to two years, any treatment would, for these people, seem to
work after a period of months.

Bill

Reply to this Message

Zuzu - 02 Jul 2004 02:36 GMT

> Paul, since most people, left untreated, habituate their tinnitus over a
> period of one to two years, any treatment would, for these people, seem
> to work after a period of months.

I understand your point... but I disagree. I have had tinnitus for over
5 years and have habituated, but that does not mean that I'm aware of
what level it is at and it certainly would not affect my ability to
judge if a treatment made my tinnitus better or not. Also, Paul never
said in his post how long he's had tinnitus.

Reply to this Message

Ball 33 - 02 Jul 2004 03:13 GMT

> > Paul, since most people, left untreated, habituate their tinnitus over a
> > period of one to two years, any treatment would, for these people, seem
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> judge if a treatment made my tinnitus better or not. Also, Paul never
> said in his post how long he's had tinnitus.

I referred to "most people" because I don't know how long Paul has
experiencing tinnitus. My tinnitus varies considerably. Sometimes when I
pause to listen for it I hear crickets. Sometimes I hear venting steam.
Sometimes it sounds very loud, sometimes I can barely hear it. It would be
impossible for me to attribute the variations to anything in my diet. Last
night I took my very first Simvastatin to deal with high cholesterol. At
this moment my tinnitus sounds like venting steam and is very, very loud. I
certainly couldn't attribute this to the Simvastatin, however, since I've
heard it like this many times before.

Zuzu, if your tinnitus is always the same, then I suppose you could
associate a change with a treatment, but that isn't my experience.

Bill

Reply to this Message

ENTconsult - 03 Jul 2004 17:38 GMT

Bill raised a very good point, after 6 months of believing the pills will work,
habituation takes place and "faith" takes over. Not only in tinnitus, studies
have shown improvement with placebo, etc. Patients have insisted that the
operation helped them when all studies showed no improvement.
This is why any T study without audiometirc and tinnitus measuements are not
"valid".
On the other hand there is faily good evidence that certain products can "help"
the physiology of the ear. For example, antioxidants have been shown to reduce
presbycusis in rats. So if you have an aged rat and you want to help prevent
hearing loss, consider that.
My idea is to use the stuff that shows evidence that it helps the physiology of
the ear. But it is a shotgun approach since we can't get into the ear and
measure the fluids. And I must strain not to get improvement due to "patient
wants to please" effect.
Even worse: any patient getting a hearing test Feb 1 may show a better test
March 1,with or without treatment. so how to prove that the pills did it?
To do a true study of effects of meds on T requires huge numbers, placebo, and
care to avoid placebo effects. And takes a great deal of time.
Murray Grossan, M.D.
http://www.ent-consult.com

Reply to this Message